A jazz combo is a traditional unit of jazz performance featuring drums, guitar and … a Hammond B-3 organ?
The Brent Canter Trio, comprising three fourth-year ethnomusicology students who met at UCLA freshman orientation, is one jazz band that subscribes to this unique definition. Brent Canter (guitar), Eli Sundelson (organ) and Mark Banner (drums) hope to bring their unusual configuration and blend of genres to a wider audience with the release of their debut album, “Soundscape,” this Sunday.
The group’s sound can most broadly be categorized as jazz, but more specifically as jazz fusion, which is the blending of jazz with other musical genres. Although this may violate the doctrine of some jazz purists, the band members have their reasons for mixing rock, jazz and others styles.
“I’ve always felt that rock has a lot of qualities that jazz lacks, that could really make jazz more interesting, and vice versa,” Sundelson said. “I guess the other thing that attracts me to rock music is that it’s catchy and sometimes I think that you can make jazz more interesting. I feel like sometimes jazz can get bogged down in kind of an intellectual approach.”
In addition to having the conscious aim of mixing genres, the three members all have musical backgrounds that stretch beyond traditional jazz that subtly influence their styles of playing and writing music, allowing for the further collision of styles.
Both Banner and Canter started out with rock ambitions, Banner learning basic rock drumming at the ripe old age of 4, and Canter specializing in dinosaur rock riff-age before being turned on to jazz through a high school combo.
“I went in there as like a rock guitarist playing Clapton, Hendrix, Zeppelin, stuff like that. And the bandleader essentially told me to turn down the volume a little bit, you know, maybe refine your tone a little bit,” Canter said.
Although Sundelson’s primary focus and training lies with jazz, he acknowledged his penchant for rock and pop. Banner is expanding as well, incorporating R&B and Latin styles into his playing.
This strange brew of musical styles can be heard throughout every track on “Soundscape.” The disc clocks in at 41 minutes, despite only having five tracks.
The album includes the dreamy title track opener, featuring bandleader Canter’s reverberant runs up his guitar’s fretboard over a mid-tempo groove. “Sketches” finds the group shifting into slightly more traditional jazz territory, with Banner approximating a fast swing beat and Sundelson cranking out a racing bass line on his organ.
Throughout the album it becomes apparent that Sundelson’s unique instrument of choice, the Hammond B-3 organ, a relic from the ’50s and ’60s, is the group’s secret weapon. It allows the organist to play both bass lines and chords at the same time, but in a different manner from a piano.
“It’s an expressive instrument. Piano’s expressive as well, but the organ is expressive in the sense that you have much more control over volume in terms of dynamics and sound,” Sundelson said.
The entire CD was recorded in a scant 12 hours at Mad Dog studios in Burbank, and then mastered at Universal Music Group.
The CD release party this Sunday at 8 p.m. will be at the Jazz Bakery, a well-known local haven for established and up-and-coming jazz acts.
After that, “Soundscape” will be released and distributed by the group, and can be found in local California stores like Amoeba, as well as on online stores like iTunes and Yahoo Music. The Brent Canter Trio is also scheduled to play at UCLA next quarter, both at Fowler and in Bruin Plaza.
As the release and performances approach, the trio seems to be nothing short of elated.
“I feel really excited about the album coming out, I’m really happy with the recording quality,” Sundelson said.