Monday, May 21, 2012

Athens jazz group celebrates 10 years on scene

By on October 15, 2004

(Special - The Red & Black)
Admin R&B
(Special - The Red & Black)

Everyone wears out their favorite sneakers, but Trey Wright of the local jazz quartet Squat hoped his would last an extra long time.

“We played our first gig at Sneakers, which was kind of a dive (chicken) wing place, and back then we said we’d do our 10th anniversary there, but since then they closed it down,” he said.

Nonetheless, the group is celebrating its 10th anniversary in style, releasing a compilation of old and new songs during their concert Friday night at Seney-Stovall chapel.

“The Seney-Stovall chapel is a beautiful facility, and the sound is great in there, so it’s a great place to play this show,” he said.

The CD, the band’s fifth release, is titled “Recycled: 1994-2004,” and includes remastered tracks from the band’s previous albums, now out-of-print, as well as three new songs.

The band has also picked out 75 minutes of funny or interesting tracks from recording sessions and live shows for a compilation called “Archive : Volume 1,” to be given away to the first 30 people who buy the album at the show.

“We hope to do something like this every year, even if we don’t make an album,” Wright said.

Squat started off as strictly instrumental, but in recent years has added the vocal stylings of bassist Carl Lindberg and pianist Tommy Somerville.

“Carl and Tommy have beautiful voices, and after a while we realized that they were two instruments we had been overlooking,” he said. “Carl had been singing while he’d play his bass solos and things like that, but before there was no set lyrics to any of the songs. The vocals are a nice way to break up the set and give it some contrast.”

The evening will begin at 8 p.m. with short solo sets by Wright, Somerville and Lindberg. The solo performances will be followed by a set by pianist and University Jazz Studies director Steve Dancz, who Wright said was a mentor to the members of Squat early on.

“We all met in his jazz improv class at the University,” Wright said. “Some of us went to India with him to play several years ago, and he plays with us in Grogus (the band’s 10-piece Latin jazz side project). He’s been a big part of Squat and it’ll be great to have him there with us to celebrate.”

The band’s performance will also include original drummer Carlton Owens and long-time friend and trombonist Kevin Hyde, rounding out the history of the group, Wright said.