Thousands of fans of in your face, honest to goodness, rockin' jazz fusion better get ready for an explosive earful now that The George Lesiw Band is exploding from its East Coast cocoon and hitting the national circuit.
Over the past five years, the progressive trio --electric guitarist/composer Lesiw, acoustic bassist Preston Murphy and drummer Gil Hawkins, Jr.-- have forged a wild, off the beaten path sound Hawkins likes to say is "slightly out of the mainstream, but burns like crazy." Based alternately in Connecticut and Boston, they've developed a loyal following with hundreds of gigs throughout the Northeast at a unique array of hotspots, ranging from famed clubs like Toad's Place in New Haven to Café 9 (also in New Haven), The Middle East in Cambridge, Mass., and Acme Underground In New York.
Ask any of their legion of fans--there's nothing like hearing The George Lesiw Band live. But the group's dynamic debut CD Anuta Was Here --named for Lesiw's ex-wife, who plays electric guitar on the nine-track collection and composed four of the tunes-- is a perfect snapshot of a multi-faceted, adventurous unit that's constantly evolving and charting new territory.
The artistically expansive project combines the true improvisational essence of jazz, the daring electricity of classic guitar-based fusion and the gritty fire of rockin' blues. The title of "Blue Skeleton" refers to its hybrid sound, a 12 bar blues form featuring more complex jazz changes; "Gone By The Woodbine," whose name comes from an expression Lesiw's grandfather always used, incorporates a fascinating eight tone row (pitches that don't relate to any one scale) as the foundational bassline.
"The pieces here are designed as frameworks for improvisation, just as the old jazz masters would do on standards, only we're working with originals," says Lesiw, who leaped into the jazz fusion world after some life changing years at Berklee College of Music, where he received a degree in performance and songwriting.
"They were created over different periods of time through an interesting creative process which involves clearing your mind, being receptive to new ideas and, most importantly, forgetting everything you've learned so that you're always thinking ahead," he adds. "Of course, that covers an incredible amount of territory. I started out as a teenager playing rock, then blues before I got into jazz. I think hearing Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady' when I was 14 was the breakthrough. I started playing a beat up acoustic before switching to electric, then played rock in high school before I began studying the blues masters and later, the whole Blue Note jazz generation."
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Lesiw wasn't just listening to and emulating T Bone Walker, BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughn; he was transcribing solos religiously, responding to what he calls "something soulful, that touched me deeper than any rock music ever did." Then he got crazy with Blue Note legends Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green before opening his ears to modern electric fusion greats like guitarists John Scofield and Scott Henderson.
"When I was living in Boston , I played in Top 40 and wedding bands, but creatively, that took me only so far," he adds. "My goal was to devote my life to learning how to improvise, getting deep into the languages of jazz, blues, and jazz fusion. Each genre has its own language. In improvisational music, you can play what you want, and with odd signatures. There's so much more freedom, and I can't imagine following any other path."
Before forming The George Lesiw Band with Murphy (who he met at Berklee in Boston) and Hawkins (whom he first played with in a New Haven blues band in the mid-90s), the guitarist led bands that shared the stage with a proverbial list of who's who in the blues world: The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Debbie Davis, Roomful of Blues and Luther "Guitar" Junior Johnson (Muddy Waters' former guitarist).
Murphy's numerous associations include stints with numerous quintets, quartets and trios led by Jason Palmer, Cecil Brooks III, Dave Tronzo, Kevin Harris, et al. A mainstay within the jazz/blues circles of New England , Hawkins' background includes opening for Dizzy Gillespie as part of the band Suite, performing with Vincent Lyn's jazz quartet, and playing with guitarist Eran Troy Danner of the blues trio Hot Dallas Nite and the Cobalt Rhythm Kings.
"When we started playing as The George Lesiw Band five years ago, the chemistry just worked, and it was easy, like we'd been playing together our whole lives," says Hawkins, whose influences include fusion greats Billy Cobham, Bill Stewart, and Max Roach. "Like most musicians, I have been playing drums all my life in many different genres, but jazz is my home base. Over the years, I've found that fusion is the format that best allows me to express myself. With this group, we enjoy using the basic format of jazz and throwing in a ton of fresh, electrifying energy. My job in the back is to keep that energy constant, keeping the soup stirred and adding cool seasoning where it counts."
Currently in the studio working on a follow-up collection, Lesiw promises some exciting departures from what we hear on Anuta Was Here --including a lot of odd multiple signatures, multiple tonalities and more complex rhythmic foundations. "It's great to commit this music to a recording, but the real art of what we do is the passion we convey in live performances," he says. "The music we play isn't like a sculpture you can look at, it's really about the ongoing movement that's taking place onstage. There's nothing quite like the moment when fans come up after a show and says that our music makes them feel good and healthy and alive. Making that connection with the audience makes everything worth it."
GEORGE LESIW BAND Ventures Deep Into Blues-Based Jazz Fusion Territory On Explosive Debut 'Anuta was Here'
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Progressive New England Based Trio, Primed To Take Their Exciting Improvisations Nationwide, Has Electrified Thousands Of Fans Via Hundreds Of High Profile East}Coast Dates At Such Hotspots As Toad's Place In New Haven and Acme Underground in NYC
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Electric Guitarist George Lesiw, Acoustic Bassist Preston Murphy and Drummer Gil Hawkins, Jr. Forge a Sound That's "Slightly Outside the Mainstream, But Burns Like Crazy" Show less
