Set sail for a fusion of melodies
Electric quartet covers a lot of ground in exploration of styles
Jazz has always been an inclusive musical genre, welcoming musicians with varied performance backgrounds and tastes.
For Paul Richey, it’s really the foundation for a fusion of sounds — including rock, folk, funk, Afro-Latin and other ethnic elements — that he taps into when he’s not busy with his full-time post as pianist for the Royal Canadian Artillery Band based out of the Canadian Forces Base here.
When his four-year-old electric quartet known as Fusionauts plays this weekend at the Yardbird, you can expect their mostly original repertoire to traverse a lot of territory, with everything from Brazilian to bluegrass for good measure. Guitarist Mo Lefever, bassist Josh McHan and drummer Thom Bennett fill out the group.
“It’s a little project I started at the end of my university years in Toronto to do more jazz-rock stuff,” says Richey, who also leads his own more conventional jazz piano trio.
“I came up with the Fusionauts name because we are fusing the harmonies of jazz, the energy of rock and the singable melodic qualities of folk music. The nautical part reflects that we’re really exploring all that music.”
Both of his parents played music at home and Richey supplemented his stint at Victoria High School for the Arts as a member of the Littlebirds Big Band. Subsequent studies at Grant MacEwan University and the University Of Toronto furthered his vision, but you have to figure there’s been a spillover effect from his three years with the RCA Band too. You can hear an orchestral approach in some of the sounds he pulls out of his synthesizer, something Joe Zawinul pioneered with Weather Report in the 1970s.
When he does cover other composers, Richey, 29, enjoys taking on Latin rhythms in the tunes of Chick Corea, Michel Camilo and Egberto Gismonti, but he’s got real gifts as both a writer and improviser. The keyboard man plans to record his Fusionauts next spring for their first release later next year.
In the meantime, Richey’s Fusionauts play the Yardbird Suite (102nd Street at 86th Avenue) Friday and Saturday, 9 p.m. Tickets are $14 for members, $18 for guests, in advance from Ticketmaster or at the door.
Medicinal muse
By day, Jeff Harris is one of the city’s top cancer surgeons (chief of the head and neck cancer team at the University of Alberta Hospital). But when he finds time to relax, he picks up a trumpet to play classic jazz in a new quintet project called 200200Cut.
“I’m absolutely convinced that music and the discipline needed to do music well was the reason I’ve been successful in other areas of my life,” Harris offers.
“Playing jazz is still something I take very seriously, but it’s also a great way to deal with the stress of my day job.”
Don’t get the idea that this is just some sort of idle hobby. The former U of A music major played for many years both here and in Vancouver before he turned down a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College, switching to medicine.
And while the band is only a year old, they bring together players with considerable collective experience in music. Former University of Saskatchewan prof Paul Newton plays trumpet too, with Mel Rodrigues on keyboards, Halifax bassist Chris Grapel and veteran drummer Larry Schrum, better known as director of the River City Big Band.
While their inspiration takes off from the popular bop and ballads repertoire of greats like Miles Davis and Chet Baker, they manage to avoid sounding too predictable.
If you’re wondering about that band name, Harris explains a “200200 cut” is a common surgical procedure wherein a surgeon cuts a vein or an artery between two small surgical clips known as 200s. That’s one way to put a band on the cutting edge.
Using two trumpets upfront is not unprecedented, but it is atypical for the standard jazz quintet lineup. Harris says the band has been careful to use arrangements that don’t lead to brass fatigue for their audience.
“You can never have too many trumpet players,” he jokes, “but arriving at our lineup was a mixture of intention and opportunity. It started as a quartet, but that changed when we found Paul. We arrange things to ensure a real distinction between what the two horns are playing, sometimes using trumpet and flugelhorn, often featuring one trumpeter with the other playing backup.”
When they do choose to use both horns together, the harmonies can be glorious, as on a version of My Funny Valentine, which starts in a pleasingly unexpected samba groove. The band has already been recording some of their shows with an ear to putting out a live album in the new year.
Two other acts, Tangle and A Love Supreme will play warm-up sets from 8 p.m. when 200200Cut headlines at the new downtown club Brittany’s Lounge (10225 97th St., across the street from the Winspear Centre rear entrance) on Saturday.
If you can’t make that show they’re scheduled to play Blue Chair Café on Jan. 4.