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Emphasis (on parenthesis), with keyboardist Robert Walter and guitarist
Will Bernard
Stanton Moore has proven many times over that he'll try just about anything.
As the co-founder of the "steamroller funk" band Galactic, a recurring
member of the tongue-in-cheek avant-funk ensemble known as Garage a Trois,
engineer of a rapidly accelerating solo career, and session player for everyone
from Irma Thomas to Corrosion of Conformity, this drum virtuoso from the
bent-but-unbroken music mecca known as New Orleans maintains a rhythmic arsenal
that embraces jazz, funk, R&B, pop, hard rock and so much more.
When Moore joined the Telarc roster with the September 2006 release of III
- his third solo recording - he brought with him some high-caliber session
players, including keyboardist Robert Walter and guitarist Will Bernard.
At the time, Moore and company were a loosely knit collective - each writing
his own songs, each getting a feel for the others' musical sensibilities.
But in the year-and-a-half since III, after settling into a comfortable groove
amid scores of live gigs and exploratory forays, Moore, Walter and Bernard
have become something more than just a random mix of musicians.
Emphasis (on parenthesis), the followup to III, features this same threesome
in a much different creative place. It's clear from the eleven tracks that
the trio has achieved a level of cohesion and confidence that no longer requires
assistance from any other session guests.
"In the past year, I started to think, 'Well, we're really developing
some momentum, and we're seeing more and more people coming to our shows,'" Moore
explains. "So when it came time to do another record, I had already
known for a while that I wanted to build on the momentum of this band - three
musicians who were becoming a unit unto themselves - and I wanted to get
a little more adventurous with the music itself."
The quirky album title stems from Moore's recurring habit of slipping parenthetical
phrases into just about every song he writes. "When I was working on
the last Galactic record, the guys were commenting on how I tend to do that," he
recalls. "When you're writing instrumental music, I think it helps to
add a little something to get the song and its title to stick in listeners
minds."
Emphasis (on parenthesis) is full of songs that stick. The set opens with
the highly expressive "(late night at the) Maple Leaf," a tune
loosely based on instrumental jams that emerged during some gigs that Moore
and Walter played with bassist George Porter at the famed New Orleans club. "Robert
remembered some of the stuff that we improvised - in particular, some of
the chord structures that George was messing with at the time. Over time,
Robert and I fleshed it out into more of a song."
Tracks like "(proper) Gander" and "(who ate the) Layer Cake?" are
more riff-based and driving. "Those songs come from a heavier groove," says
Moore. "We all listen to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, so tunes like
these lean more toward our riff-rock roots."
"Wissions (of Vu)" came about as the result of an interesting
composing process. Moore and his trio donned headphones in the studio and
improvised to the sounds of a favorite track by Wu Tang Clan. "The idea
was to come up with parts to a song that would be assembled later," says
Moore. "Once I was in the mix-down process, I just stripped away the
track we were all listening to and started pulling out the parts that each
of us played that I liked. Then I composed all the pieces into an actual
song."
"(I have) Super Strength" was built around the exuberant exclamation
of Walter's four-year-old son. "He came into the studio, and he was
running around like a superhero," Moore explains. "He kept yelling,
'I have super strength!' We all thought it sounded pretty funny. I had Robert
loop his son's voice, and then we improvised against that."
This sense of experimentation and exploration has always been the cornerstone
of Moore's music, no matter who he's playing with or in what context. But
Emphasis (on parenthesis) never loses its connection to its basic three-man
core.
"With this record, I went into the process with a lot more experience,
and also with a lot more confidence," he says. "By just having
these three guys in the studio, we could really do whatever we wanted. We
could play things with loops in it, we could play things that were in 5/4,
we could improvise, whatever. But the thread that holds the entire album
together is the fact that it's the same three guys on every track...it's
just a matter of what's coming out of us at that point in time. It's a very
natural, organic process."
For more information, contact:
TELARC International
23307 Commerce Park Road
Cleveland, OH 44122
www.telarc.com
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