INTO THE FUTURE, EDGE,
Rhythm Future Quartet roams the sonic universe
Few modern jazz musicians had the chance to see the old masters play live. John Coltrane passed away before Branford Marsalis graduated from kindergarten. Billie Holiday succumbed to cirrhosis before Cassandra Wilson even learned to sing. But local violin wizard Jason Anick had a chance to see gypsy jazz legend Stephane Grappelli. “At the time, I was 12 and he was in his late 80s and it was wonderful,” Anick said. “I went with my dad and I actually got to meet him. After that, I really started to explore the music of Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.” Anick and his group, Rhythm Future Quartet, featuring guitarists Olli Soikkeli and Greg Loughman and bassist Max O’Rourke, celebrate their gypsy jazz journey on Thursday at Scullers Jazz Club with the release of their new album, “RFQ and Friends.” While the album spends a lot of time channeling Grappelli and Reinhardt, it also explores melodies and rhythms the band’s members have picked up over decades of sonic wandering. Anick grew up around music in Marlboro. His father plays in the style the younger Anick calls “the great New England fiddle tradition” — a hybrid of Celtic, Canadian and Appalachian folk. When dad noticed his son’s interest in the instrument, he began teaching him and signed him up for classical lessons before grade school. Later, after the allimportant Grappelli concert, Anick nicked a Charlie Parker CD from his brother, who was studying jazz saxophone, and listened to it obsessively. “It was Charlie Parker’s greatest hits, and that was just about all I listened to for a year,” he said. “I wanted to learn how to improvise. I wanted to learn how to play like Charlie Parker on the violin.” As a musician, Anick continued to evolve. While swing and bebop remain the base, he has added on layers of bluegrass, progressive folk, Brazilian and Latin jazz. “RFQ and Friends,” the quartet’s third album since forming in 2013, explores Anick’s expanding range alongside the other players’ dynamic influences. “I always like a mixture of styles, of originals and standards, on an album,” he said. “The first track (‘Jaytude No. 1 in Em’) I wrote after thinking about Paganini writing his ‘24 Caprices for Solo Violin’ to push the boundaries of the violin. … Later you hear Olli with the Brazilian choro influence he has picked up playing with these great choro players in New York City.” The friends pop in on both originals and standards. Gypsy guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg guests on Anick’s “Sleepless.” Brazilian bandolinist Hamilton de Holanda helps the crew reinvent Joshua Redman’s “Jazz Crimes.” French singer Cyrille Aimee leads the ensemble through Duke Ellington’s “Solitude.” “I want to do standards when I feel there is a reason to reinterpret them,” Anick said. “Like when I heard Cyrille Aimee’s voice, I knew that character, this Billie Holiday character, would do the song so well.” “RFQ and Friends” finds Rhythm Future Quartet in a comfortable spot. Which means if you dig the record you should see them now; they will surely be somewhere quite different by the next one.
Rhythm Future Quartet, at Scullers Jazz Club, Thursday. Tickets: $25; scullersjazz.com.