previous page
Merl returns with Southern
|
WHO: Merl Saunders with WHEN: 10 p.m. tonight WHERE: Mangy Moose in Teton Village HOW MUCH: $15 By Matthew Irwin |  Merl Saunders has been playing good-time boogie music for four decades. |
|
On its way to Jackson Hole from Atlanta on Monday, King Johnson was looking forward to kicking off its winter tour with funk-jam legend Merl Saunders. "First of all, he's a great musician and a great guy," guitarist Oliver Wood said of Saunders. "We've learned a lot playing with him."
Needing little introduction to Mangy Moose music fans, Saunders is a beacon, a living time capsule of the music world. The 67-year-old keyboardist tours with the open heart of a sprite who needs his audience's affection to exist, and he's played with nearly every jam band from Blues Traveler to Jerry Garcia, whom he affectionately refers to as Jerome. Saunders is known for his feel-good vibe and Hammond B-3 organ, Jessica, as much as his radiant smile and love of dolphins. His recordings have varied from rock and funk to rainforest-inspired New Age. A horn-driven blues and jazz-rock quintet, King Johnson is based in the South and spends most of its time touring the East. A native of Boulder, Colo., Wood said he is especially pleased to see an explosion of world and American music in the Rocky Mountains. "I've heard the scene in the mountains has grown," he said. "Especially in January, when it's slow in most other places of the country, the mountains are the place to be for sure, and I love the mountains." Once a blues trio with long-time Wood cohort Chris Long on bass and Greg Baba on drums, the crew picked up trombone and tuba player Adam Mewherter and saxophone and clarinet wiz Marcus James. The new mixture brought out a funkin' jazz waiting to happen. Influenced by the Meters, Taj Mahal and Stevie Wonder, Baba found new freedoms with the horny rhythms and salsa melodies that Mewherter and James brought to the stage. Those rhythms now define the drummer's "earthy" sound. "Earthy is raw and creative and improvised," Wood said. Baba tries to follow the natural progression of a riff rather than focusing on technique. "He's open to playing it different every time," Wood said. "And he listens to what everyone else is doing." King Johnson was first picked up by Saunders when the stalwart funkster heard a copy of the troupe's latest album, Luck So Strange. After a Southern tour last year, Saunders invited the crew to join him for a winter tour of the Rockies. Luck So Strange is a collaborative effort showcasing the band's ability to co-write songs out of a free-style jam. The members play together often, saying, "Wow, let's save that for later," Wood said. And what they save sees hardly any over-dubbing when the band hits the studio. "We play like we play," Wood said. "What you hear on the album is what the band would sound like live." With a name derived from a history of blues — King as in B.B., Albert and Freddie, and Johnson as in Robert, Blind Willie and Tommy — King Johnson has been likened to James Brown, Little Feat and Van Morrison. |