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Artist Profiles
Kneebody Arrives
Rex Butters
After years of writing music related articles, Rex still wonders who has time to listen to all these cds?“ Were just trying to make music that is an amalgamation of whats around us now, just like everybodys done. ”
The next major quake to hit LA may have less to do with shifting tectonic plates than with a crackling quintet thundering up the jazz charts with a powerhouse collection, at once challenging and accessible. Kneebody's eponymous album floats like an iron butterfly and stings like a diesel. "It's got a lot of testosterone. It's a very energetic sonic experience, says resident reedist Ben Wendel. And while their unique soul-jazz-on- steroids sound captures a growing cadre of Knee-heads, their beautifully crafted melodic ballads, and moody impressionistic sketches are the guilty secret.
Formed by Wendel, drummer Nate Wood, bassist Kaveh Rastegar, trumpeter Shane Endsley, and keyboardist Adam Benjamin, Kneebody runs jazz through a broad collective musical background to create a remarkably potent blend whose primary flavor remains jazz.
"I've been describing our music as hybrid music, Wendel explains. "We're musicians that have have absorbed a lot of different styles of music. We're just trying to make music that is an amalgamation of what's around us now, just like everybody's done from whatever era they're coming up from. So, this music is a hybrid of all the tastes we like.
"The cool thing about this band is, everyone in the band writes and everyone has a distinct voice, enthuses Wendel. "Not everyone in this band is coming primarily from a jazz background. Everybody's coming from different places. We've all studied jazz, we all understand the language and are able to express the complexity of jazz. But then, as much as we love jazz, everybody also has equal interests in other genres of music. In my own background, my mom was an opera singer for 25 years. She sang with LA Opera. Different sounds, different sections, it's like the process of five different musical viewpoints coming together. This band is a leaderless band. This is an equal parts ownership kind of group.
Keyboard player Adam Benjamin agrees. "It's such a fundamental part of our music that any of us can control the direction of it at anytime, which is why I think our live show is pretty consistent. On any given night there's going to be one or two of us that really feel strong enough and confident enough and creative enough to do a lot of the leading. You never really know who it's going to be in a particular song. It's really exciting.
"It's a very energetic thing, especially live. The last few tours we've been really having fun. I think that Nate, Kaveh, and I as a rhythm section, especially with Kaveh and I playing a lot of electronics and effected sounds, really try to think of it as though we're one unit of sound. Often it's difficult even for us to tell with particular tones, who in the band it's coming from. That's really what we aim for, something where we could really get outside of our established personalities as jazz musicians and form a real identity as a band which we fit into in a very particular way.
A listen to Kneebody, only the second release on Dave Douglas' new label, Greenleaf, gives clear context to the musicians' infectious enthusiasm. In the course of 12 original songs, Kneebody makes a strong case for their ear-loving take on 21st century jazz. They don't talk much about the tone color improvisations on "Clime, pt 1., and its easygoing apotheosis on the sweetly nuanced "Clime, pt 2. The restraint and discipline of "Perfect Compromise flows serenely. the ironically titled "Victory Lap could be an introspective interlude of Jason Moran's.
But when someone says, "Alright bitches, and Rastegar's fuzztone bass growls at Wood's busy rhythm party on "Coat Rack, you hear the power. Soon enough Endsley pours hot brass and Wendel gets humid on tenor. A dizzying electronic whirlwind blow around the hard blowing players being beaten silly by Wood's polyrhythmic nail gun. The tight time changing arrangement on "Break Me veers between giddy tropical and runaway train, with concise solos spicing the thrill ride charts. "Never Remember openly bids on Summertime Hit status with a bright rollicking horn arrangement and a face busting bass line right out of the Move's "Feel Too Good. Somewhere in between Endsley contributes a classically beautiful 3 am floor pacer called "Halfway to Scranton. Despite the hype, what electricity was burned only further illuminated the undeniably appealing arrangements.
"You can't escape the instrumentation, says Wendel, "it's a jazz quintet. But we're not playing the traditional music you would associate with a jazz quintet. It's funny how things change over time. I'm playing an instrument from the 1960's. He's playing something else, those same instruments were playing completely different music 50 years ago than they are now. It's kind of fun that way. I like how music inevitably evolves to fit the sounds around it.
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