What does a bass player want to do on his birthday? Jam with his friends. He knows he'll get the right kind of surprises.
Tall ranger Kaveh Rastegar has locked his electric bass with hand drummer Davey Chegwidden in the jazzrocketc unit Kneebody. He's ventured into fusionistic textured territory with guitarist Tim Young, an ingenious jack who sojourned in the house band of "The Late Late Show With James Corden." Jay Bellerose? Seems he's parked his drums next to practically everybody from Aimee Mann to Elton John to Sharon Van Etten, and played on Rastegar's 2019 "Haunted This Way." That's a birthday quartet for ya.
They warm up backdropped by a red curtain on the rear wall -- an improvement over ETA's previous floor/stage location next to the bar. Burly Bellerose leans over to beat soft mallet patterns on the front skin of his kick drum. Young, in chopped-up hair and strangely distressed trousers, leans forward (he's always leaning one way or the other) and slides some atmospheric electro-enhanced lines out of his Fender Jazzmaster while Rastegar daubs abstract parallels.
After a simmer, the psychedelic trip comes on sudden, and the shadows on the hideous turquoise leatherette couch next to Young's right arm wobble as Bellerose slaps sticks to the snare & high-hat and applies foot to the kick lever. Chegwidden starts bubbling along, making us understand why Bellerose left all his tomtoms at home. Rastegar digs into a midtempo riff. And Young is whirling up and down his fretboard, not in a hurry, just riding the rhythm and the communal vibe, as if they're all channeling the 13th Floor Elevators -- and Bellerose is the only one who was even born in 1966.
Throughout this opening set, the lysergiosity mutates into realms of funk, abstraction and reggae (Chegwidden did time with the dubwise Lions), the last manifesting with Young hand-rocking his tweed amp to stimulate its spring reverb, and Bellerose & Chegwidden retreating their brush and conga strokes to simulate echo fades.
Young busts a string on the Jazzmaster halfway through and picks up a red headstockless ax that looks like a stomped moose heart. Just for fun, Rastegar hands him a sketch of a new tune and starts plucking it as the drummers fall into the swaying rhythm. Laying the paper on the couch, Young squints at the chords, which prove anything but standard changes, and tries out different voicings. Rastegar says go.
This is one of those club moments a music fan waits for. Young's solo is pure music, pure feel. He doesn't know the song well enough to show off, but he knows where to put those pretty notes Charlie Parker talked about. He stays inside the beat and listens to the thumps and slides of the guy who handed him the sheet. It is just right. Happy motherf*cking birthday. Kaveh Rastegar nods and grins, just a little.