This is a little blog on the birth of my wonderful trio, Kultura.
This project was a few years in the making. Harry (guitar) and I had been playing sessions and a few party gigs for other artists and bands. We both had a love for the jazz idiom and would share records of our favourite bands, artists, tunes, live gigs at rehearsals at sound checks. And right before we'd finish said sound check we'd play, for about 2 min, chord progressions and melodies that we absolutely loved. And each time we finished the 2 min jam we'd say "that's the head of that dream gig! Right??..." and then we'd go play some covers to try and make a living. Then the pandemic came.
Eventually that dream gig had to become a reality. So we buckled down and put a setlist together of tunes that we liked. We had tunes from Brad Meldhau, John Scofield, Dr. John, Roy Hargrove, Julian Lage, Nina Simone and much more. We went in for a rehearsal and played the heads. It was good. Refreshing. After months of not being able to play, we had to relearn how to music again. After some deliberation on the setlist, we then decided to think about originals. The tunes stemmed from all our influences. Sounds from our upbringing, sounds of home, sounds of the tunes we grew up listening to.
We had 5 tunes in the bag and, quickly, we knew this would be an originals band. I had sessioned with Cameron (bass) in a rehearsal, before, and we got to play for a brief 2 hours. The musicianship and groove he displayed was the sound I thought would be perfect for this trio. He was in.
We had one rehearsal before our recording and we bashed through the sections, experimented with sounds, dynamics and solo sections. This was turning into an improvisational experience we knew we could feel safe in and just play the music. After a 3 hour rehearsal that was it. Tunes were called and a completely original setlist was formed. The day of the recording is documented and up on Youtube.
If you wish to follow the band on Youtube, follow the link here:
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