The Wee Trio Blog

The Bird And The Bee

2009-05-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

“The Bird and the Bee is an indie/pop/alternative musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of musicians Greg Kurstin ("bee") and Inara George ("bird"). Kurstin, a producer and keyboardist who has worked with Lily Allen, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Kylie Minogue and Red Hot Chili Peppers, is also a member of the band Geggy Tah. Inara George and Kurstin met while the two were working on her debut album and they decided to collaborate on a jazz-influenced electro pop project. Their debut EP, Again and Again and Again and Again, was released on October 2006 and their debut album was released on January 23, 2007 on Blue Note Records.” - Wikipedia 2009

Let me clear the floor about Wikipedia because I know what some of you academics are thinking. Research has actually substantiated that Wikipedia has shown less errors than Britannica. I think for the case of a general bio outline of who this band is, we are safe.

In a world that has a market flooded with horrible cds how do artists stand out? Having a Blue Note deal definitely doesn’t hurt for the Bird And The Bee. Most artists will throw around certain harmonic jazz progressions that have been around for over half a century to label a pop song as fresh or jazzy. I am not one that falls for this kind of gimmick, until now with this band.

Off the bat you can hear the influence of a jazz musician who studied at New School and has played with many jazz greats but yet still has his other foot in the waters of Los Angeles performing with just as equal greats in the Pop Scene. This record starts with M7 chords moving in wide intervals...is how a New School/Berklee graduate would say after hearing the opening track “Again and Again”. No, this song is the shit. Inara Georges’ voice sounds like an angel from heaven. When television shows like Grey’s Anatomy have used their music, it gives me hope for the future.

Unfortunately, “Again and Again” has to come to an end and the rest of the album is waiting. “Birds and the Bees” follows the opening track...it’s all good. The 3rd track “F-cking Boyfriend” is fun. The lyrics are funny yet casually poignant. The synth sounds and the rest of the production of the song continues to be incredible. With 70’s retro sounding songs like “I’m a Broken Heart” hit the soft spot in my broken heart that I have for artists like Burt Bacharach. “La La La” could have easily been heard on any Beck record. “My Fair Lady” takes me into the circus world with it’s subtle bossa undertones and its harpsichord ostinatos.

We have 4 songs left on the record and it is starting to sound like it. “I Hate Camera” is great. But thats all can really say. The songs are getting less catchy but it still hold that high quality of music we opened up with. “Because” is definitely the low point of the record. I’m now counting down until the record is done. Hey, we all need filler tracks for our records and “Because“ was just that. It took me few listens to really appreciate “Preparedness”. It is actually one of the better songs due to its simplicity. I’m always fascinated by the last track on records because I know most artists make big decisions about their “bang” and what note they want to leave the listener with. The Bird and the Bee took the thoughtful route as opposed to the testosterone driven hard hitting route. It’s basically a song that you’d find on a Bjork record. But it has their own Bird and the Bee spin on it. Bottom line, it’s cool.

More than the high level of musicianship and great song writing that this debut cd carries, the production is amazing. Production is one element that jazz musicians always shy away from due their ignorance. The cd is kept under an hour, which I have always been a big fan of. While Blue Note has a reputation on having a roster of amazing artists with a handful of super average players, The Bird and the Bee lets me know that their A&R department still has some artistic integrity to sign a real musical endeavor that will leave a print on the Jazz and Pop scene for years to come. If you want a simple cd that has catchy pop melodies for your listener who has good ears, this is THE cd. If you want a cd that will take you to Nirvana or the next plane of existence, I’d recommend something else.

If I have to use the cheesy star rating that we connect with so well, I give it 4.87 out of 5 Stars.

A little preview of "Again and Again"

Wee Trio 2008 Recap (In Pictures)

2009-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Fly Trio's 'Sky and Country

2009-04-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

The Fly Trio has at long last released the follow up to their great-sounding debut – Fly. Now it may be because this is my first stab at record reviewership – but this record has got me really stumped. I just can’t decide what side to come down on. For starters.... this really SHOULD be a great record ... on the basis of the personnel, that is. It hit me one night listening to this trio at the Belrussian church in Brooklyn. The turnout at the concert was relatively humble that night ..... and it suddenly struck me how bizarre (at what a treat it was for me, really) to see this group in an intimate setting. I mean, these guys are currently, THE heavyweights of jazz. Here were Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard, the bass/drums unit for the Brad Mehldau trio, undoubtedly the most artistically-influential AND popular (a tough mix to pull off!) jazz trio of the last 10 years. To top that, the trio had recently been playing with Pat Metheny, probably the most influential jazz artist of the 10 years preceding and still probably the biggest seller in the jazz market. (Popular as he is, Brad Mehldau can still occasionally do gigs at ‘small’ clubs like the Village Vanguard. Pat Metheny is a lot closer to Madison Square Garden audience). It seems from objective measurements that these two are at the top of the jazz game. And Mark Turner... although one can’t quite assign the same level of fame to him ... is certainly recognized as one of the leading saxophonists of his generations (this is sounding too much like a jazz review already!). So with these three making a record.... one already expects that the result is going to be pretty impressive. Maybe bringing that attitude to it is my problem....... but I can’t quite convince myself that this is a great album (and it makes me feel a little guilty to be quite honest!). I’m torn....let’s break it down.

Some things I really like:

Larry Grenadier absolutely sets the standard for modern acoustic bass sound and feel. He has done so for the last ten years (with hot competition from Ben Street and Eric Revis and Reginald Veal in my opinion). No one combines woody, clear, punch, relax, drive and fat into one note quite as well as he does. His pitch and rhythmic placement are literally unparalleled (and I mean literal in the literal sense here). So as a bass player, it’s tough not to enjoy listening to this album.... it’s just such good bass playing.

Larry and Jeff are absolutely unwavering in their ensemble. They go beyond being a ‘tight’ rhythm section. They are tight (they ought to be, they’ve played together plenty!). But they can also phrase perfectly together.... pull one part of the measure back and resolve the time in the same way at the end the phrase. They sound tight, but they are by no means mechanical.

The Sound of this record is wonderfully refreshing and represents a departure for both the group and for label (Fly is now on ECM – good work!). The recording sounds like you are sitting in the room with group – it sounds like a chamber recording. Gone is the signature ECM reverb – the group sounds like they are sitting right in front of you.

Some things that trouble me:

First, I’ve thought a lot about what Mark Turner is going for in his playing. Lots of people love him ...... and saxophone players in particular never fail to have a deep respect for him. But I have never been able to get excited by him. It sounds to me like he has taken regular jazz saxophone playing and removed all humanistic inflections and emotive gestures. Or, to put it another way, he has reduced his playing to pure content and removed all style – all affectation. Now.... this isn’t necessarily as bad as it sounds...... everyone does this to some degree. Focusing on content and pruning away any clichéd gestures that may cloud that content or dress up shoddy content is certainly a noble pursuit. No one wants to sound like Kenny G (whose saxophone style is all affectation and no content!), and most modern musicians tend to steer clear of a sound as stylistic even as Johnny Griffin or Ben Webster (or even Charlie Parker – for all the deep content in his lines – he was a bluesy player!). But in my opinion with Mark’s playing.... it’s just too much! .....at least it’s too much for me. I crave to hear some of the emotive, romantic intent behind his impressive content. And there’s just almost none of it. He’s even done it to his time feel. Listening to his lines... it sounds as if he calculated what the ratio of eighth note lengths would be for modern swing feel (say 58:42 – just slightly straightened out from the 66:33 triplet subdivision of classic swing eighth notes) and extrapolated it (perfectly) to all eighth notes at all tempos. Now... one caveat ... his playing definitely doesn’t sound ‘like a computer’. The careful, sensitive listener can detect a musical soul motivating his phrases. Just for my tastes....I would like to hear the human element of the music taking at least a little more priority.

Second, this album has got me thinking a lot about synthesis. Usually it is referred to as group interaction. But it goes deeper than that..... or at least, it is more elusive than that. The great jazz ‘ensembles’ of history (I’m thinking about John Coltrane’s Quartet, Bill Evan’s classic trio, Miles Davis’s Quintets, Keith Jarret’s American Quartet) have an ensemble presence that goes deeper than something you can directly point to. One is tempted to define interaction as something as simple as.... ‘Well, the drummer played figure A which cued the pianist and bassist to play response B a bar later’. Certainly that kind of call/response is a necessary component of a great ensemble. Any group that works well together will share a common rhythmic, harmonic and textural language that they can all draw on and reference (even better .... they not only share one, but develop their very own ..... as is the case with all the groups I cited above). A group that has done this can execute this kind of call/response at all musical levels (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, textural, ect....). At this point the call/response exercise goes far beyond the purely mechanical knee-jerk response and becomes the elements of an extended musical dialogue that the group weaves in each performance. But the synthesis that happens when an ensemble becomes more than the sum of its parts (the synergetic experience) goes even deeper than this. It is exceedingly difficult to define, but it is not hidden..... you can definitely hear this kind of synthesis. It has to do with a group moving from the same collective motivations – moving towards the same unstated musical goals – breathing in the same pace – pushing/allowing the music with the same urgency/patience – and the audible evidence of the ensemble’s common purpose to transcend the musical building blocks within each song. To my ears, this album doesn’t quite get to this kind of synthesis. It starts out with some pretty impressive parts (as I mentioned at the top of the article, these are some of the best young players on the jazz scene today), but I don’t hear it getting beyond the sum of these parts. Another way to put it: If three masters get together to make a trio record... will they produce a masterful record?

9/10/08 - Wee meet LA

2008-09-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

One word best describes this tour thus far.

Ping Pong

This somehow enhances our playing. We have had very high energetic performances and we owe that gratitude to the great game of Extreme Table Tennis (Ping Pong). We would like to thank everybody who came out to the Jazz Bakery and the Musicians Institute. You guys have been a very responsive audience. Wee have also had the distinct pleasure of featuring the beautiful Katie Campbell on these gigs.

Note: Due to bad business ethics we will not be performing at Tangeirs tomorrow. We might have one more LA performance before we hit Northern California.

Wee + JShow Jr. had the rare opportunity today to pull away from the ping pong table and play some ball against some LA Thugs. Needless to say Westfall's "Shane Battier" blocking was stellar, as was JShow and Loomis' WNBA performance.

Watch out Northern California, The Wee Trio Train is pumpin hard and you can't stop us now...who's gonna die with us?

Be sure to wish James Westfall a Happy Birfday on Sept. 11th.

James Westfall announces new Website & Blog

2008-08-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

If you havn't heard the word out on the street yet, James Westfall (vibraphonist for the Wee Trio 1/3 shareholder) has finally updated his website.

www.jameswestfall.com

The site has a few extra features including free sheet music, a downloadable live mp3 series, video footage, and a blog. Check out the blog and participate in the political debates of James and Dan as they currently discuss Free Market Capitalism.

www.jameswestfallmusic.blogspot.com

2008-07-27T11:02:00.001-07:00

We of the Wee Trio have recently elected the Spoke/Teeth double bill as one of the top ten reasons that Mondays are the new Thursdays,

Spike Hill

Monday, July 28th

10 PM

Teeth

Josh Rutner: reeds; Dan Loomis: bass; Jared Schonig, drums

11 PM

Spoke

Justin Wood: reeds; Andy Hunter: bones; Dan Loomis: bass; Jared Schonig: drums

4/22/08 Midwest Tour Day 6

2008-04-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

Day 6

8:30 am: After a night of restless sleep, due to the allergic reactions of a cat in the house, The Wee Trio started their day with a couple cups of coffee and a eight hour recording session. Needless to say the 2am Jack in Box dinner mixed with the rare moments of James drinking coffee did not sit right with his stomach. Quote of the day “If you don’t drink coffee you shouldn’t drink coffee.” – Jared S. Unfortunately that bit of weesdom came too little too late.

Later pm: 4 songs were laid down at the session. Many tournaments of Extreme Table Tennis (aka Ping Pong) took up much of our studio time, as did 10 pushups before each take at Peter Stevens Studio. (Thank you so much for your engineering Peter-Stevens-Miller-Karl-Allen-Hampton-Hawes)

5:30 pm: Downtown St. Louis – BBQ at the Loomis Household

7:30 pm – Big Gig at the C Sci Church. No gig would be complete without a series of unfortunate events. We can start by forgetting the drums at the recording studio. Thanks to Joomis for bringing us his drums at the last minute. First song, Jared chokes the ride cymbal slicing his finger open, blood pours out and the bleeding never stops. Even though stitches were required Jared plays through it like the Starship Trooper he is.

9pm – Many Cd’s are sold, many souls were filled, and enough cookies were baked to feed Steve Turre.

10pm – After Party at K-Mack’s house featuring special guest appearances by the Unconquerable Joomis and Hairy Carey. An array a Pale Ale’s, Rogues, and Chinese Herbal Beer helped liven up a hard hittin hang. As we leave, the police don’t scare James to restrain his New Orleans Open Container Law Conditioning. Fortunately, their doughnuts blind them from upholding the great laws of St. Louis.

12am – Jared takes a monster Dump that has a similar shape to the head of Jay Leno.

4/21/08 Midwest Tour Day 5

2008-04-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

4/21
10:00 AM: Joe Locke blasting on the computer, dry cereal, and thank you notes. This is how we started our morning. Our trip to Mundane (Mundelein High School) was eventful. Below are pictures of our fan club (est. today). Matt Farmer also pictured.

5:30 PM: Goodbye, Mundelein. Let’s go and meet Ramon Banda. Let’s eat tasty food. Let’s take pictures with the wait staff. They are cute and fun. Even the creepy owner.

10:00 PM: Halfway to St. Louis, the boys are restless. “Lets hit a rest stop,” Dan says. The pictures below are the results of an interesting stop, including a second stop at the Jack-In-The-Box drivethru.

4/20/08 Midwest Tour Day 4

2008-04-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

Day-off

What can one say about a day-off in the suburbs. We know you Wee fans have become accustomed to glorious accounts of fascinating misadventures and captivitating concerts. Unfortunately, we of the Wee trio regret to report that it is difficult to find either of these things in the northern Chicago Suburbs. We did however, manage to stir up a modicum of trouble and sample a some serious local delicacies. And the charm of Midwestern hospitality is something (we’ve discovered) is not something to be trifled with.

10:00 Awake

10:05 Discover Tom and Joyce (our Midwestern hosts) digging a large hole in their backyard to do their own repair on their septic system

10:30 Short-order breakfast provided by Tom Noller – featuring homemade cranapple jam made by Tom from the cranapples in his own backyard – now that’s home-cookin’!

2:00 Dan gets cabin fever and agitates the trio out of their domestic bliss (featuring sunny porches, 30’ televisions, friendly moms and endless cups of coffee)

2:45 Trusty old GPS (Gangsta Positioning System) leads us to Mickeys, an excellent suburban micro-brewery (go figure). We persuade the bartender to put on the Lakers game (interest is limited to the three of us at the bar). Lakers have a strong game (no surprise – looking at their defensive record this season) with Pau delivering strong rebounds.
The ‘english half-yard’ glass catches Dan’s eye and he samples the bar’s local Doppelbock in the Chicago’s biggest beer glass. The rest of the trio cannot be without a sip.

5:30 Find a great ‘beach’ (sand by a large body of water that one cannot see the other side of --- even though in this case it is not the ocean, but Lake Michigan). Also find some college students celebrating 4/20 on the beach in plaid shorts.

7:30 Ritual visit to Giordanos for Chicago deep-dish pizza. Finishing a large deep-dish (complete with its 8 beeeig slices) pizza is a gauntlet for all both the most seasoned eaters. In the end we barely made it.
Here are the final scores:

Jared – 3 (and bonus points for going out first)
Dan – 3 (trailing heavily)
James – 2 (by a nose)

4/19/08 Midwest Tour Day 3

2008-04-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Day 3:

9:30 am: After waking up from a night at the Square One Brewery, Dan eases his hangover doing his Downward Doggy Dog Style at the Marbles Yoga center while James and Jared enjoy their Bacon and Eggs with The Loomis Family at “Fountain Soda Restaurant”.

12pm: A car ride full of Jazz Name Games and ipod blindfold tests eases the 5 hour drive from St. Louis to Chicago. Out of this a new game was spawned...”Who am I?” Example: I don’t know why I’m famous. I am a great jazz guitarist with long hair. I have lots of gigs and look white trash...answer: Mike Stern”

5:20 pm: Arrive at Casa de Noller. The license plate was very inviting.

5:30 pm: Finally arriving in Chicago wee were ready to play at the infamous Peter Miller’s. Wee are off to a rocky start with a miscommunication about what time the gig was going to hit. Jared soon morphed into “DOJS” (Dark old Jared Schonig) and the fall of the 1st set began. After a few beers and watching a New Orleans Hornets victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the round of half shell oysters kicked in as The Wee Trio rallied for an enthusiastic 2nd set with a captivated audience. The 3rd set was brought back down to a mediocre performance as we mourned for the defeated Houston Rockets. The power of basketball .... what a sad and marvelous thing. On the plus side we were able to run through some music for the first time before our Recording Session on Tuesday. In order to follow the Wiitinerary (see below) as accurately as possible, James then took it upon himself to strike up awkward questions with locals...”Club or restaurant...raise your hand” as Jared compulsively checked his iphone.

1 am: Many hours were spent figuring how to reload a vehicle with a vibraphone, bass, and drums. The packing was finally accomplished and we were ready to get back “home” for a night of corona and potato chips. Nothing satisfies the Wee Trio more after a gig than closing the night out with a nice brief discussion about our friend Good Old Ron Paul (GORP).

4/18/08 Midwest Tour Day 2

2008-04-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

5:30 PM: After a mostly smooth ride and a wee bit of traffic through the downtown St. Louis area, we finally made it to the Upper School. Greeted by an enthusiastic James, Martha Stitzel and Keith Evans, we were promptly ushered into the theatre to rehearse a burning rendition of “All of Me.” First great quote of the day: After seeing the car filled to the absolute fullest with drums, bass, luggage, and trash, Keith Evans politely says “I only thought the brothers rolled like that!”

6:15 PM: The mess hall was waiting. Caffeine-free soda and a plethora of high school kids surrounded the tasty “frito pie” James wanted to concoct. While eating our final meal before “James Brown explosion time” we learned that James had explained the differences between New Orleans and New York City shortly before Dan and Jared had arrived. We also learned that explaining the difference in “beer pricing” was a no-no.

6:45 PM: The shortest “wee-hearsal” ever. Ready to drop.

7:00 PM: Jared wears a policeman hat to sound-check. James irons his clothes. I mean jeans. Dan practices. He almost has memorized the head to “Milton’s Blues.”

8:00 PM: The concert has started. Big band. James is featured on a number of big band compositions on piano, and did a superb job. Following student renditions of “All of Me” and “But Beautiful,” the Wee Trio gets on stage to start their 30-minute power set.

9:15 PM: Jared receives standing ovation for a crazy drum solo (and jingling his keys). The Wee Trio receives a group standing ovation and the stage is set for “Diggin on James Brown.” Dancing, singing, and an excellent “Allen Toussaint” impersonation from James ended this amazing concert. Probably one of the best audiences we ever had, the concert followed with an autograph session of CD’s lasting close to an hour.

10:30 PM: Pack up those vibes and drums now! Where we going next? Do I hear a Steak ‘n’ Shake???

11:00 PM: Walk to into Steak ‘n’ Shake. Receive standing ovation. Go high school kids. All right now. Eat some burgers. Drink some shakes. Night is complete.
<---James and Jared at Steak n Shake. Post shakes.

4/17/08 Midwest Tour Day 1

2008-04-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Day 1 –

9am – Delicious poached eggs provided by chef Elizabeth Loomis, who prefers to be called Lizzie Loomis

9:30am – Realize it’s time to leave, but the hollandaise sauce hasn’t coagulated yet – Jared runs out for butter, Dan slices cantaloupe

10:30am – Finally get on the road, bound for St. Louis

7:30pm – (30 minutes into Dan’s first stint driving), Jared notices an all-to-familiar foul smell and looks up to see steam pouring our of both sides of the hood

10:15pm – Jared and Dan finally stumble upon a bit of luck (in an evening that hadn’t been going so well lately) in the person of Richard the tow-truck driver. ‘Yup, Zanesville Ohio, don’t blink you’ll miss it.’ Their spirits are raised substantially when Richard (whose uniform had the name ‘Roger’ stenciled on it) when Richard delivers the quote of the evening:

Dan: So, how much are beers around here?

Richard: Well, I guess they’d be about a dollar and quarter.

(raucous, jubilant laughter from Jared and Dan)

Richard: Well, I haven’t been to a bar in a while, I guess they could be a dollar fifty now.

* * * * *

From there our luck got better then worse then better again. Better, because we seemed to have broken down in one of the most friendly and charmingly rural towns in America. Richard drove us (in his tow truck) to the best bar in town and even made a stop for Jared to buy contact solution at Rite Aid (which used to the Army Navy Store until they moved to smaller storefront down on 6^th street, just down the street from Christ’s Table). We drove to ‘The Barn’ by way of the famous Y-bridge (every town has to have a claim to fame, apparently the Y-bridge is Zanesville’s). The Y-bridge is the only bridge in the US to fork mid-river(!!!) which means that has to point of entry on one side of the river and two on the other. We weren’t able to discern why such a bridge was built, but it certainly looked cool trying over it.

The Barn didn’t have $1.50 beers but they did serve us over-size pints of Killians for $3. So we still basically felt like we were getting a free beer every round. The Barn was also packed full of bar games. Our time there reached its peak hilarity when we met Samantha, who thought we were scam artists when we told her we didn’t know how to play ‘cornhole’. Cornhole (we came to discover) is an outdoor game in which sacks are tossed at wooden platforms with a hole cut in them; 1 point for on the platform, 3 points for in the hole – hangers don’t count, gotta go down the hole. Apparently it is so ubiquitous in southern Ohio that the idea that one would be in Zanesville without knowing how to play it raises serious suspicion in even the friendliest young women.

Our morning in Zanesville couldn’t have been more charmingly Midwestern Actually, our luck initially turned south (again!!) when what we were told would be a cheap fix turned out to be a broken radiator and two hours of labor. But aside from that unfortunate the picturesque Ohioan morning was filled with -- first the garage that was fully staffed and caffeinated 15 minutes before their 8am opening time (ordering parts by 8:10 – nice work); then the semi-toothed waiter at Dixie’s Diner who asked if we wanted our eggs ‘dippy’ (which seems to mean ‘over-medium’); and the man who walked up to us while we were getting cash out of the ATM – he asked for help using it and actually wanted help using it – he wasn’t scamming us (it took a minute to suppress the new-york impulse to run)!

11am – back on the road!