26 Mar Club Red: The Motet & Elephant Revival
Beyond the Groove presents The Motet and Elephant Revival to play Club Red at the Telluride Conference Center, Mountain Village, Thursday & Friday, April 2 & 3, 2015. Doors, for The Motet, 7:30 p.m.; show time, 8 p.m. Doors for ER, 8 p.m.; show time, 8:30 p.m. All shows are all ages. Tickets, $22, here.
Beyond the Groove is pleased to announce two nights of incredible music at the Telluride Conference Center’s pop up musical venue Club Red: Thursday, April 2, features The Motet; Friday, April 3, Telluride welcomes back Elephant Revival. Plush decor, ambient lighting, VIP seating and bottle service make this venue unique to destination.
About The Motet:
The Motet, by Brian Spady
Hailing from Colorado, the Motet is a world-class improvisational funk band that has dedicated more than a decade to the healing powers of funky dance music. Although the early years of the band saw a constantly revolving cast of characters, the most recent incarnation of the group has been touring the country for the last several years developing a new and unique style with roots in funk, afrobeat, disco, electronic music, and soul. This new Motet has quickly gained a reputation for throwing infectious dance parties everywhere they go, creating a deep rapport between band and audience.
With the release of their 7th album, the Motet has once again showcased their commitment to pushing the sonic envelope while remaining dedicated to the musical traditions that have defined their sound. The band’s decision to call the album The Motet is a reflection of the fact the group has finally become what it has striven to be throughout its existence. The album is a truly collaborative effort, with each member contributing equally to the writing process. In addition, the band spent hundreds of hours in the studio meticulously crafting vintage tones that hearken back to the glory days of funk music. The result is an organic collection of strong interlocking parts and melodies that sounds like nothing else on this planet.
All bands have their influences and the Motet is no exception to the rule. The band has a long-standing tradition of putting on a musical costume each Halloween, playing consistently sold-out shows along Colorado’s Front Range, while performing the music of groups like Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Tower of Power, and Jamiroquai. The careful study of these bands has had an undeniable effect on Motet’s creative direction. As bandleader and drummer Dave Watts told the Boulder Weekly, “We realized how effective a great song is on a crowd. Instead of just the energetics we’re used to bringing with improvising, soloing, and extended arrangements, we really decided to focus on tunes, because we understand how powerful a great song is.”
A great song needs a great band to play it, and the Motet proves to be more than up to the job. In addition to Watts, Joey Porter (keys), Garrett Sayers (bass) and Ryan Jalbert (guitar) form a core rhythm section that has been playing together for nearly a decade. The time together has led to their characteristic deep rhythmic pocket and also created the musical bonds that allow them to take their collective improvisation to heights bordering on precognition. The Motet horns consist of Matt Pitts (sax) and Gabriel Mervine (trumpet). Although deeply rooted in jazz, their time with the Motet has made them into one of the funkiest horn sections on the scene. Front man Jans Ingber rounds out the lineup with his soulful singing, welcoming stage presence, and “Soul Train” dance moves, which inspire concert-goers to boogie like no one is watching.
These seven musicians form what is undoubtedly the strongest, most cohesive incarnation of the Motet to date. Whether you’ve loved the Motet for years or you’re just tuning in, listen up. You haven’t heard the Motet like this. And you won’t be disappointed.
Members:
Dave Watts (drums)
Joey Porter (keys)
Garrett Sayers (bass)
Ryan Jalbert (guitar)
Gabe Mervine (trumpet)
Matt Pitts (tenor sax)
Jans Ingber (vocalist & percussion)
For a preview of the show, check out this video:
About Elephant Revival:
“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.” — John Muir
The five members of Elephant Revival share a deep commitment to certain ideals: community; recognizing one’s place in the flow of the natural world; harmony. Holding on to these ideals in the midst of heady career growth and strong individual creative forces can be difficult, but they weather these storms with aplomb, and in doing so, have produced their best album to date. It is a document about striving for transcendence under These Changing Skies.
Elephant Revival formed on the banks of Spring Creek in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and then relocated back to Nederland, Colorado in fall of 2006. They loved one another’s sense of shared values, and the way their disparate musical influences formed a more cohesive tapestry the more they played together.
“It really is a natural confluence of our elemental influences,” says bassist/multi-instrumentalist Dango Rose.
That elemental tapestry extends beyond music to a worldview that is expressed not only through the underlying sound, but in the group’s lyrics. That Elephant Revival worldview centers on connecting with fans: The band is a favorite at festivals such as Telluride Bluegrass, Vancouver Folk Festival and Old Settlers; and is selling out theaters in their native Colorado, as well as legendary rooms such as Joe’s Pub in New York, The Ark in Ann Arbor, and The Tractor Tavern in Seattle.
For a band of five individuals, all of whom contribute original songs, there is a consistency in expressing those shared values. In the song from which the album’s title is culled, “Remembering A Beginning,” multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Paine, one of the band’s primary vocalists, sings of the unity of all things:
“There’s a fire burning, in the middle of this turning/Wild and yearning/For everything, for everything/Remains inside, these changing skies/Through waves in time/Remembering.”
The changing skies she refers to remind us that while the very stuff of the universe remains, everything is always unfolding, expanding and contracting, ebbing and flowing; changing. “If we could remember that we are all varying expressions of the same living thing,” says Paine, “maybe we would have less interpersonal and environmental struggle.”
Paine also touches on a theme that is ever-present in any discussion with any member of the band — the idea of “intentionality” as depicted in the song “Willing And Able”:
“I am willing and able/In the silence of our loving/All in all is recognized/Clearly knowing our intention.” As she explains, “We all hope to develop our sense of volition with regards to how we effect and are affected.”
Paine is from Oklahoma and spent many years playing with her sisters under the tutelage of the legendary Randy Crouch, whom she considers the earliest important and most lasting influence on her musical sensibilities.
Singer/guitarist Daniel Rodriguez also explores the theme of living on the surface of perception while deep mystery is all about, in the album’s lead track “Birds And Stars.” He recognizes the distance between the state of human awareness and the more transcendental state that the members of Elephant Revival strive for:
“The love in you it runs so deep/Upon the surface here I sleep/Walking the dark and light/Walking all the day and night”) and ends with an exhortation for the listener to reject the temporal and embrace the ecstatic: “So…out from your slumber/Into the wonder/Under the starlight and dance, dance.”
Rodriguez also penned and sings the band’s first single from the album, “Grace Of A Woman.” In this song, he pays homage the physical sacrifice that women undertake; the sacrifice that allows us all to be here; and to the feminine energy, both loving and creative, that balances out the masculine energy which so dominates the present world — all wrapped in an infectious tune that is utterly joyous.
Rodriguez, as have all members of the band, has sacrificed material comfort for the sake of the dream of playing music. After a stint as a college basketball player, he committed to music. While running live sound at a club, Rodriguez met Paine after a show she played at the venue. They climbed onto the rooftop and played music until the sunrise. After the club closed down, he headed west to join Paine and the others, living for a time in a truck and for a time in a teepee.
Singer/banjoist/multi-instrumentalist, Sage Cook, spends a little more time in the real world, lyrically speaking, adding a more direct narrative approach to the band offerings. In “The Obvious,” Cook channels the Occupy movement in a song written after spending time in Zuccotti Park just as the protest was in its formative stages. Cook affirms that the power of the people is being cast asunder by the lure of modern consumer culture: “What’s not bought is what’s not made” and by the press of national identity:“I heard it through the walls of the station/Steel and stone could not contain us/Beyond the bounds of a nation/Steal and stone could not contain us.”
“Over Over And” was penned in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, with Cook struggling to comprehend the incomprehensible. Cook’s consciousness of community started 20 miles down a dirt road in the gyp hills of Kansas, where music, farming and ranching was part of the fabric of his early life; where street dances, wide open country, and even a few metal bands, influenced his sensibilities.
Elephant Revival’s use of folk idioms in their music is indicative of both their interests and their upbringings. Fiddle player Bridget Law was born and raised in Colorado. When she was younger, Law competed in Texas-style fiddle competitions. In college, she expanded her studies to include swing, jazz and the skills of improvisation, while applying these skills outside of school in the Colorado bluegrass scene. Her affinity for Celtic music was influenced by multiple visits to Scotland, where she was invited to teach western music at prestigious fiddle camps. “There is so much from these experiences that I bring to the band,” she says.
Law was also a ballerina most of her young life; her love for dance has carried over into her style as a musician as she weaves, compliments, and reacts to what the song is seeking.
Dango Rose comes to the band from the city of Chicago, where in his younger days he was influenced by his involvement with The Old Town School of Folk Music. There, Rose broadened his musical perspective from alternative rock and jazz to include the variations of acoustic roots music made available by the famous institution. Upon leaving the city, Rose became part of a tribal music community in Oregon and then traveled across the country in various American roots music ensembles based out of Nederland, Colorado, Woodstock, N.Y., and New Orleans, Louisiana. Throughout, Rose has been a seeker of musical kinship, realizing the inherent gift that is given and received by the sharing of musical experience.
Adding his talents to the natural confluence of “These Changing Skies” is producer Ryan Hadlock (Lumineers, Milo Greene, Ra Ra Riot, and Blonde Redhead), who recorded the band at his Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington.
“It was an amazing space to record in, a big barn with amazing acoustics,” said Rodriguez, adding, “The band is so tight knit that it took a couple of days for everything to gel with Ryan, but once it did, it worked beautifully. He is sonically gifted and really captured things in the right way. The proof is in the music. We’re very proud of this album.”
Elephant Revival took its name from Rose’s experience busking outside the elephant cage at The Lincoln Park Zoo, in Chicago and honors the memory two elephants who had lived there together for 16 years, but were separated by zookeepers. Within days, both elephants died, leaving the elephant cage empty.
Check out this video for Elephant Revival for a preview:
Tickets are available here and also at Wizard Entertainment.
About Beyond The Groove:
Beyond the Groove is Denise Mongan’s music production company. Her goal: bring good quality live music to Telluride, primarily at the new Club Red at Telluride Conference Center.
Her first sold-out show at Club Red was in March 2014, Blitzen Trapper. Since then she has produced Deer Tick, Matisyahu, Cash’d Out with upcoming shows including Lettuce in Feb 2015.
Denise has worked in the Music business for almost 30 years and is thrilled to now have the opportunity to living her passion producing live shows.
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