The Ethan Ardelli Quartet is:
Ethan Ardelli – Fearless leader on drums
Luis Deniz - alto saxophone
Chris Donnelly - piano
Devon Henderson – bass

I was thinking of calling this a performance review but realized I don’t know nearly enough about jazz to do anything like a proper review. In the music tradition I hail from, anything with more-than-four chords is jazz-fuzion. But hey, they were playing at the curling club, so that surely says something about their appeal to the pop-music laity.

Indeed, I discussed this matter of jazz-descriptors-for-beginners with band leader Ethan Ardelli during a break at the concert. It turns this language issue is one of those crosses that jazz players must bear. Sometimes people say [jazz] is cerebral, offers Ardelli. Or if they want to sound neutral in their opinion, they will just Mmmnnn, which can mean yes or no. Which is sort of like when my dear-old-Dad would tell me that my youthful attempts at art were "interesting".  Jazz. Mmmnnn. Interesting.

I arrived in the middle of the set, which I know isn’t great form. The music I first heard was super-restrained. It was as slow as a pavane (a death march) and as quiet and pretty and full-of-breath as a first snow. There was a conversation between the musicians, but it was quite unlike the call-and-response pattern I know from rhythm-and-blues.

I set out to determine the time signature of the music, which I remember learning at my Introductory Ballroom Dancing classes. Was it 4/4 time (probably), or 3/4 time (a waltz) or some other curious time signature? And this raised one of the interesting discussion-themes of the night: were all the players playing the same time signature? There were times when I guessed not. But these musicians were clearly responding to some higher-order of math and communications than I was able to decipher. I mean I understand that one of the memes of jazz is for musicians to depart from normal rhythm-and-melody to create something more. With this band, all four musicians would depart, and then depart some more, until you were left wondering what happened to that pretty melody they started with. But then somehow, on some signal that I was never able to catch, they would all lock back into synch again like they had never departed. It really was something. Did I mention these guys are really-good musicians?

Another interesting discussion theme that evening was whether the music was more practiced or more improvised. Given that this was an album-release party, I would have guessed practiced. Who would improvise on the songs at an album release? Well, maybe jazz bands do.

I had one other insight. One of my hobbies is watching storm waves rolling in at the beach. I have been thinking about ways to set the rhythm of waves to music. I have been noodling this idea of creating a reverse Fibonacci sequence drum rhythm to mimic the rolling and toppling of a wave. I haven’t entirely figured this out yet. So, imagine my surprise when Ethan Ardelli starts doing that very rhythm at the club. He did it a bunch of times in a row, to cement the notion that it wasn't an accident (which, by-the-way, giving some fuel to the argument that this performance was practiced and not improvised). The durn guy stole my best-ever musical idea before I even fully had it myself. Pretty clever, Ethan!

So, I think I have figured out something about jazz. Well maybe.  As I understand it, music is a way of articulating moods using sound. Since young people are usually the driving force behind music, this might account for insistent grinding rhythms of pop music that evokes the mood of youthful romanticism. But there are other moods too. Some moods are wistful, like those evoked by happy dreams that you can’t quite remember but vaguely recall upon waking. And moods like the surprise you get when a rhythm you recognize gets altered into something completely unlikely. Hey, maybe this is that cerebral understanding of jazz I thought I didn’t have in me.

A good and thoughtful time was had by all. And I am indebted to Ambassador LeJean for buying me a beer, and to Kenny Bruleigh for debating jazz theory with me.  And to the Ethan Ardelli Quartet for reminding me that with music there is always potential for new moods to evoke.