Zubatto Syndicate and More!

The Zubatto Syndicate gig on November 5th was a success!

As a musician playing Andrew Boscardin's music (the composer, and leader of the Zubatto Syndicate) I wanted to write a little something from an insider perspective for all you bloggers and musicians out there.

We have all played gigs before where musicians and composers are trying to bring many different types of music together, and in my experience many of these instances are exaggerated incredibly. Normally when you get a classical group that says they are combining the two(jazz and classical), you have a chamber ensemble of some sort playing some major nine chords, or playing some modal sounding piece. When you get the jazz guys mixing classical into their playing, they are not really mixing in solid classical influences, but are improvising in a way that resembles how they interpret classical music. The music that Andrew wrote for the Zubatto Syndicate is definitely from more of a jazz background, but I felt that it had an honest mixing of classical influences.

Part of this could be attributed to a third of the band being typical 'classical' instruments. This made for some very unique arrangements, with oboe, bassoon and clarinets often playing the top of the voicings, and trumpet, alto and some of the jazz side of the band that normally play the top of the "balance pyramid" playing some inner voicings. I have not heard the recordings yet, but it sounded good from the band stand. My only concern is that the woodwind instruments can not be as loud as the brass, so I hope the balance was good the night of the performance and the melodies when they were in the oboe and clarinet were not over powered by the brass section.

One of the goal's of the Zubatto Syndicate, was to mix this quasi big-band style with contemporary styles. A lot of Andrew's songs (All entitled as Z, followed by a number. He said this was because when he was brainstorming musical ideas and motif's he just numbered them and instead of creating a name for the tunes, he just kept them as Z7, Z2, Z35 and etc.) were built around grooves. Rock grooves, hip-hop grooves, bluesy grooves and all sorts of interesting rhythms (One of Andrew's pieces was built around a 7/8 drum groove, really cool!). Byron Vannoy was playing drums, and John Hammer was playing bass, and together they really held down a good foundation for the band.

Once the band had rehearsed a few times, it was time to get down to Town Hall and perform the show. Even after rehearsing and practicing the music, I know that I was still on the uncomfortable edge when it was performance time... and I do not think I was alone! Part of it was because of the difficult passages, and rhythms that the music contained. Another part of it was that since Town Hall is such a huge room, with thirty foot ceilings, the sound of the bass on stage was basically disappearing. Because of this, throughout the show I was trying hard just to lay down the basic harmony of the pieces so that soloists could tell where we were in the forms (It sure was pretty tricky in spots!!!). I do not know how well I did, we can all see when the concert is broadcast on the Seattle Channel in January!

Overall, I think the nervousness of the band helped the performance. We were all super attentive as a unit, and there were several times where people stepped up and helped to lead everyone else. If everyone was super clean on all of the material and at ease, I do not think it would have had the same energy that it did.

I love working with Andrew, because all of his music has such interesting melodies, and he writes truly original music. Not to mention he is a good friend of mine, and we always have fun playing together! I would recommend not just jazz lovers, but any music lover to at least give the Zubatto Syndicate a listen to see what they think, it is an ambitious music, experimental, energetic, and then it is rounded out by some great soloists! Clark Gibson, Chad McCullough, Chris Stover and Jim DeJoie were all killing it.

Zubatto Syndicate is:

Zubatto Syndicate is:
Byron Vannoy - drums
Chris Stover - trombone
Greg Sinibaldi - bass clarinet and tenor saxophone
Francine Peterson - bassoon
Chad McCullough - trumpet
Taina Karr - oboe and English horn
Jon Hamar - bass
Mack Grout - keys
Clark Gibson - alto saxophone
Jim DeJoie - baritone saxophone
Jesse Canterbury - clarinet

Andrew Boscardin - guitar

Check out Andrew Boscardin's blog on the band here.