BEATING THE ODDS
Friday night I went to Palisades, one of my favorite venues, and heard "populist zombie jazz band" Drama Section do a live show. While their genre could generally be described as jazz and their style generally described as free-form, they venture into some noise and electronics as well, making their sound unique.
One of the first songs they played was "Every Day is An Odyssey", which was an excellent demonstration of the band's versatility. It starts out with a single four note phrase that's played by itself and then repeated. Gradually the other instruments join in one by one. The tempo increases gradually, the volume increases gradually until we've got a frenzy. As the "day" comes to a close, the music quiets down and the last thing we hear are those original four notes which we heard at the odyssey's beginning.
The band is a four-piece, having a saxophone, guitar, "big bass", and drums.
Here is "Every Day is An Odyssey" played by Brooklyn band Drama Section. This is the second track from their 2014 album, "Things Are Great Right Now: Live Selections Vol. 1".
I had a chance to talk for a few minutes with Nate Mendelsohn, the group's sax player. He told me that the band is newly arrived in Brooklyn, having come here from Oberlin, where the four first met and studied. They originally came from places as geographically diverse as Boston and Portland, OR, to name two. After graduation, they all decided to keep the band and move to Brooklyn together.
What they've done is something unusual; they've beat the odds. There are too many stories of excellent bands of college musicians that end tragically when the bandmembers go separate ways after graduation. Drama Section isn't succumbing to those patterns; these guys are keeping their band together and vibrant and moving forward. In fact they're coming out with a new tape, releasing the album on March 15th when they headline at Trans-Pecos. In the meantime, if you would like to visit Drama Section on line, here is the click to their Facebook page: Drams Section on Facebook (CLICK HERE)
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