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October 2001
When a band's itinerary for the next month includes stops at both the Yard Rock and the Regatta-Bar, something special is going on. Both the tiny
shipyard pub in Quincy and the leading bastion of jazz in Harvard Square will host the Boston Horns in October.
Saturday night the funk-rock-jazz sextet unveiled its latest album, "Boogie Stop Shuffle," with a CD release party show at Harpers Ferry in Allston
(venerable home of roadhouse R&B and modern jam bands), and it was another hot night of near-constant musical surprises.
"This music transcends genres, which is why we can play all these different venues and have people appreciate it," said Boston Horns co-founder
Garrett Savluk. "In this band we're playing exactly what we want to play," said partner Henley Douglas. "The nice part is that the business end just seems
to work. All these different clubs want us."
Trumpeter Savluk and saxophonist Douglas were first known as founders of the Heavy Metal Horns. But as HMH moved a bit too much away from
jazz-funk and more toward pop, with an added emphasis on vocals, both men decided to leave. Before long both had reunited in Ron Levy's Wild
Kingdom, and their excellent adventures with that Hammond B-3 organ king and genre-smashing R&B bandleader convinced them that they should give
the idea of a horn-powered group another try.
Not quite two years ago, the duo combined forces with a North Shore trio called Pass the Peas, which included keyboardist Mark Longo, bassist Mike
Rush and drummer Jack Howard Jr. Guitarist Jeff Buckridge, who teaches music in the Andover school system by day, was the final piece of the puzzle.
"This band is closer to the original concept of the Heavy Metal Horns," said Douglas. "We wanted to play more instrumentals, but also some vocals. We
some shows for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and Garrett and I said to each other, 'This is it, this is just what we want to be doing.' Bands like Galactic
and Medeski, Martin and Wood were also becoming popular, and taking the music just where we wanted to go with it. We've been playing horns together
for 17 years now, so we think we kind of got it figured out what we want to be playing."
The new album is a 71-minute dose of the Boston Horns' steamy concoctions, with all the members providing some writing but Savluk and Douglas
doing the bulk of it. The precision arrangements leap off the CD with startling clarity and unavoidable grooves. Yet there is enough instrumental dexterity
to satisfy jazz fans; these aren't simply endless groove jams, but logical melodic
progressions that keep turning unexpected corners.
Saturday's marathon show at Harpers Ferry was much the same, with percussionist Mike Farias, who appears on the album, guesting with lots of added
rhythmic flourishes. "Medicine Man," off the new album, amply demonstrated Longo's vocal abilities, as his gruff baritone added a roadhouse authenticity
to this funky tune, and Buckridge's swampy guitar was deft counterpoint to the horns. (Savluk said this was a new arrangement of an old HMH song.)
"Skillet" was a heavy funk number centered on Douglas' nonpareil skills on baritone sax. His lengthy solo sounded like a whole rhythm section unto
itself, making good use of the instrument's floor-shaking undertones. Rush wrote "Afro Soup," also on the new CD, and Saturday it was an exuberant
blast of swirling world beat rhythms, punctuated by Douglas' soaring tenor sax lines and finally a Savluk trumpet section that cut through the dense
rhythms like a bolt of lightning.
After playing at the Yard Rock Friday, the Boston Horns play the RegattaBar on Oct. 31 and Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge on Nov. 23.
When a band's itinerary for the next month includes stops at both the Yard Rock and the Regatta-Bar, something special is going on. Both the tiny
shipyard pub in Quincy and the leading bastion of jazz in Harvard Square will host the Boston Horns in October.
Saturday night the funk-rock-jazz sextet unveiled its latest album, "Boogie Stop Shuffle," with a CD release party show at Harpers Ferry in Allston
(venerable home of roadhouse R&B and modern jam bands), and it was another hot night of near-constant musical surprises.
"This music transcends genres, which is why we can play all these different venues and have people appreciate it," said Boston Horns co-founder
Garrett Savluk. "In this band we're playing exactly what we want to play," said partner Henley Douglas. "The nice part is that the business end just seems
to work. All these different clubs want us."
Trumpeter Savluk and saxophonist Douglas were first known as founders of the Heavy Metal Horns. But as HMH moved a bit too much away from
jazz-funk and more toward pop, with an added emphasis on vocals, both men decided to leave. Before long both had reunited in Ron Levy's Wild
Kingdom, and their excellent adventures with that Hammond B-3 organ king and genre-smashing R&B bandleader convinced them that they should give
the idea of a horn-powered group another try.
Not quite two years ago, the duo combined forces with a North Shore trio called Pass the Peas, which included keyboardist Mark Longo, bassist Mike
Rush and drummer Jack Howard Jr. Guitarist Jeff Buckridge, who teaches music in the Andover school system by day, was the final piece of the puzzle.
"This band is closer to the original concept of the Heavy Metal Horns," said Douglas. "We wanted to play more instrumentals, but also some vocals. We
some shows for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and Garrett and I said to each other, 'This is it, this is just what we want to be doing.' Bands like Galactic
and Medeski, Martin and Wood were also becoming popular, and taking the music just where we wanted to go with it. We've been playing horns together
for 17 years now, so we think we kind of got it figured out what we want to be playing."
The new album is a 71-minute dose of the Boston Horns' steamy concoctions, with all the members providing some writing but Savluk and Douglas
doing the bulk of it. The precision arrangements leap off the CD with startling clarity and unavoidable grooves. Yet there is enough instrumental dexterity
to satisfy jazz fans; these aren't simply endless groove jams, but logical melodic
progressions that keep turning unexpected corners.
Saturday's marathon show at Harpers Ferry was much the same, with percussionist Mike Farias, who appears on the album, guesting with lots of added
rhythmic flourishes. "Medicine Man," off the new album, amply demonstrated Longo's vocal abilities, as his gruff baritone added a roadhouse authenticity
to this funky tune, and Buckridge's swampy guitar was deft counterpoint to the horns. (Savluk said this was a new arrangement of an old HMH song.)
"Skillet" was a heavy funk number centered on Douglas' nonpareil skills on baritone sax. His lengthy solo sounded like a whole rhythm section unto
itself, making good use of the instrument's floor-shaking undertones. Rush wrote "Afro Soup," also on the new CD, and Saturday it was an exuberant
blast of swirling world beat rhythms, punctuated by Douglas' soaring tenor sax lines and finally a Savluk trumpet section that cut through the dense
rhythms like a bolt of lightning.
After playing at the Yard Rock Friday, the Boston Horns play the RegattaBar on Oct. 31 and Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge on Nov. 23.
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