JAZZ REVIEW : Electric Instrument Group Zzah Makes Sparks Fly at Studio Cafe

Longevity counts towards a band’s success, even if that band has a decidedly contemporary sound--a fact apparent Friday at the Studio Cafe where Zzah, a Visalia-based electric instrumental group, played to a standing-room-only crowd.

Zzah’s core members--keyboardist Richard Garoogian, guitarist Rod Borges and drummer Mark Shuklian--have been together 20 years. The most recent addition to the band, bassist Duane Andre, has been there 10 years. This shared history must be the reason that the band works with such tight precision and a surplus of empathy during improvisational excursions. They seem to know each other’s moves even before the moves are made.

That doesn’t mean that Zzah performs with cold, calculated precision. Instead, the upbeat first set Friday made clear that this is a hard-working party band, the kind of group that feeds off the mood of the audience, working up its own brand of high spirits in return. That Zzah sounds good , without the sloppiness that goes unnoticed with most party bands, is its strength.

With the exception of a single tune pulled from keyboardist Jeff Lorber’s book, the band performed material written by Garoogian and Borges, most from Zzah’s eponymous CMG label recording. A variety of moods and rhythms was mined, with enough changes to keep even the most straight-ahead backbeat number from becoming tedious. Just when you thought you had a handle on its groove, the band moved on to another.

Adding to the variety was the number of sounds and instrumental combinations the group came up with. Borges moved almost constantly between hollow-bodied electric, acoustic and straight electric guitars. In addition to the spectrum of tones he generated from his synthesizer, Garoogian played melodica and a home-made, shoulder-hung keyboard with which he generated blues licks. Often he blended melodica and synthesizer tones. And when he wasn’t hitting the keys, he was adding percussive color with shakers and rattles.

The band opened with “Brazilian Breeze,” a tropically paced exercise with a laid-back theme stated in unison by the guitar and keyboards. “Ti Louie” featured a chordal guitar solo from Borges and Shuklian’s fine brushwork improvisation, a roller coaster of dynamic ups and downs. The drummer also shone during “The Cool One,” driving it with melodically minded tom-tom and snare play.

Garoogian strapped on the shoulder-hung keyboard for his solo during “The Cool Groove,” decorating his effort with wah-wah effects and sliding tones. He moved back to his synthesizer for the road tune “Northwest” which Shuklian powered with plenty of cymbal accents. Andre’s melodic bass solo during the Brazilian-flavored “Some Sun Fun” was decorated with whistles and other percussion from Garoogian.