Skip to main content[JAZZ] As strong and tight as the Ben Darwish Trio is, when listening to its latest album, Ode to Consumerism, you'll quickly notice another presence on the recording: the boisterous crowd that cheers and whoops along to the jazz ensemble's flights of post-bop fancy.
"That was crazy," says the 24-year-old pianist Darwish, shaking his head as he remembers the night of Aug. 1, 2008 at Jimmy Mak's when the new disc was recorded. "We've played there a lot, and to much bigger crowds, but this one was a lot more rowdy."
But the crowd's response was fitting considering the trio's work on this disc. The local group (featuring Darwish, bassist Eric Gruber and drummer Jason Palmer) gives listeners plenty to shout about, tearing into originals like the multi-tiered, swinging title track and an extended breakdown of the Green Day pop-punk classic "Longview." The group's performances are so solid, in fact, that everything on this disc was laid down exactly as you hear it—no editing or combining of multiple live recordings needed.
"I really wanted to help create the live experiences as much as possible," says Darwish, after a night of shaking the Chapel Pub with pipe-organ renditions of Neil Young and Gnarls Barkley tunes. "It's just us playing straight through, and I want the listener to do the same: To sit down and listen to it straight through."
The album is as immediate and energetic as the recording process is pure. As with any good jazz combo, the Darwish Trio relies on a great deal of improvisation throughout its sets. "I would say it's about 90 percent improv," says Darwish. "We write a set list out, but none of us know how we're getting in and out of the songs." As such, all the songs on Consumerism are over seven minutes long. Darwish and his group are free to deconstruct Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel's "Killing Me Softly with His Song" (a song first made popular by Roberta Flack and then the Fugees) for 10 minutes, moving from a gentle opening to a blustery middle section that hints at a Latin groove and on to a bombastic closing. As Darwish sees it, that song—and the whole record—is a pure distillation of the kind of group he's always wanted to play with: "We can use our individual strengths toward this one concept, and after that, anything goes."
The Ben Darwish Trio plays its album-release show Friday, Feb. 20, at Jimmy Mak's. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
WWeek 2015