Review Summary: Can this modern jazz supergroup (three way oxymoron, leading to a pun on a pun) count?
I’m rapidly becoming a huge supporter of the modern jazz-funk scene: Medeski, Martin, and Wood; Galactic; Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet; Marcus Miller etc. Admittedly, I only truly started listening to most of the stuff a precious few months ago. Yet I have found my modern jazz super group, and by that I mean I found a band where I know all three members. Garage a Trois consists of guitarist/bassist Charlie Hunter, saxophonist Skerik, and drummer Stanton Moore. And Outre Mer, the soundtrack to a French movie I haven’t seen, is a very good CD.
I must say, part of what drew me to the band was the clever name. A side project trio playing on “manage-a-trois?” Sweet. But what disappointed me at the beginning of this CD is that it is not just the three of them-there's a vibraphonist. The impurity of it all. But as I listened to that first track, the only one I knew by name during the start of this review, I conceded that while the three of them alone would have been ideal, the addition of a vibraphonist (Mike Dillon), and I guess the ephemeral horn section in that song, is welcome. As I listened to the CD more, I came to the conclusion that Mike Dillon’s vibraphone work is a large part of what makes many of the songs so enjoyable. It even steals the spotlight in “The Dream” with it’s ethereal little...riff? Dillon adds an aquatic feel (along with Charlie Hunter’s unique guitar noodling) that makes the album, if not the band, live up to its name.
I will start with the band member I learned about last, Charlie Hunter; he is something of an oddity. He plays a eight string guitar, playing both bass and guitar at the same time. This has immense effects on the guitar’s function on the CD. As I said before, it helps add a rather aquatic feel, his guitar sounds different than normal jazz guitar, more echo and it goes up a little higher I think. However, his guitar playing definitely goes into the back seat, adding to the rhythm section. His bass lines are phenomenal, they lock in perfectly with Stanton Moore’s involved drumming. A key example is “The Machine” where his rapid, fun bass and Stanton Moore’s drums make sweet sweet love. His bass and guitar also have this strange chemistry, first displayed on “Outre Mer” which starts with only him, playing both bass and guitar. They sound really, really good together, two separate rhythmic lines working together. However, as Charlie’s always juggling, I am left wondering how he would be on each instrument separately. Certainly his guitar style would alter without the limits, but at least he’d be able to solo. I’m fine with how he plays bass on the CD, but without playing guitar as well, who knows what he could have done.
Skerik is saxophonist for Les Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade, and here he leads band, doing all of the soloing. He’s good, and someone has to lead this fantastic, varied rhythm section, but I find him a lot more exciting on his solo work. Sometimes the little noises he makes with his sax are plain annoying, such as on “Circus.” Experimental? Not really, but he seems to have made a stab at it. I was surprised to find that he was my least favorite part of the band. Yes, even lower than the vibraphonist.
But then we get to Stanton Moore of Galactic. He is by far my favorite drummer right now. His drumming has this way of submerging into the song, in nirvana like fashion (not Dave Grohl). He is both completely one with song and separated. He’s banging away on the drums with amazing time, fills, rhythm, hitting every single drum just as it should be. He doesn’t always vary his tempo or what he’s doing in a song, but hell, he doesn’t have to, I'm fine listening to him play the same thing over and over for 3-5 minutes. Granted he does switch things up each song, and of course he changes what he's doing mid-song in many songs.
I don’t really think I’d like to see the movie, it’s about dwarves and stuff. But the music that accompanies this French movie is top class, rhythm-wise. Skerik could’ve done more I feel. There is always the chance, however, that I was just so amazed by Charlie and Stanton (and Mike) that Skerik was just overshadowed. Like James LaBrie. Poor James LaBrie.
Recommended Tracks: Outre Mer, The Machine, The Dream
