Jazz Artists Are Going in New Directions : Quartet: In just a few years, O.C.’s Minimum 3 has become capable of playing cool, shifty originals with plenty of fireworks.
Those who have followed Orange County-based jazz group Minimum 3 over the past few years may have noticed some changes.
A couple years back, the group, then a trio, could be found playing funk-inspired fusion at the now-defunct Bon Appetit club in Westwood and other such venues. A year ago last March, it opened for Chick Corea’s Akoustic Band at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano with a set of standards that included John Coltrane’s “Impressions.”
Minimum 3 returned to the Coach House last month, this time as a quartet, to open for bassist Brian Bromberg and keyboardist Jeff Lorber. On that occasion, band members played cool, shifty originals with plenty of dynamic fireworks--the kind of sophisticated material that recalls the work of guitarist Pat Metheny and groups such as Joe Zawinul’s Weather Report. Minimum 3 will be playing Mucho Gusto Sunday in Costa Mesa.
What’s most amazing about the band’s newfound maturity is that its leaders, drummer Evan Stone and guitarist Gannin Arnold, are still so young. Stone, who is 21, met Arnold, 20, when both were students at Capistrano Valley High School.
“We started out just hanging out after school to play together, got into jazz and hung out with good musicians who could teach us something,” Stone said.
“We had a science class together,” Arnold added, “and we just started meeting over at his house. It took a while to get where we are now. We started out playing more rock, then began experimenting with different styles.”
The evolution in the band’s identity is largely because of Arnold’s interests and writing abilities. Its April set at the Coach House, although it included some backbeat-heavy material, also featured more ambitious charts that shifted through a variety of rhythmic and melodic moods.
“What happens to me,” Arnold says, “is that I’ll listen to a form of music for a while and then get bored. And my writing is like that. I like to change a lot, dabble in all types of things. When a certain type of music gets to be too restricting, we’ve changed the form. If you’ve seen the band play at all, you know we’ve done this so many times. We don’t have a record contract, so we’re allowed to do that.”
Stone not only likes the band’s direction, he also likes the way Arnold develops the material with the band. “He’ll bring an idea into the room and not have it completely charted out. . . . It’s more like a skeleton form. We’ll listen to it and grab the concept, then arrange our individual parts.
“I think a lot of times when a guy writes out each specific part for the instruments, it forces you to play in a certain way,” Stone said. “It doesn’t matter who’s in the band, it all ends up sounding the same. But Gannin leaves it up to us to interpret and lets the individual play their own way.”
Both musicians say the changes in the band’s style reflect their expanding musical interests. “I was into (guitarists) Jeff Beck and Allan Holdsworth when we first got together,” Arnold said. “Then I started to listen to Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’ and ‘Four and More’ (albums), the period with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter.”
Arnold, who cites guitarists Scott Henderson, John Scofield and Bill Frisell as influences, said he looks now to pianist Keith Jarrett, Metheny and albums by saxophonist Wayne Shorter that date back to the ‘60s, including “JuJu” and “Speak No Evil.”
Stone said he was influenced by the Eagles and U2 when he first moved to Orange County from Long Island in 1986. Seeing Al DiMeola’s band, with drummer Tom Brechtlein, a few years back at the Coach House was the turning point. “I was just blown away,” he said. “I discovered this whole new thing and jumped into it.”
Now he likes jazz drummers such as Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey and crossover percussionists such as Brechtlein and Vinny Colaiuta.
The band’s style also has been influenced by the addition of keyboardist John Opferkuch and bassist Bill Ursom.
“Bill came out from New York, where he played with George Russell and the Gil Evans Orchestra,” Arnold said. “He brings a lot to the band, having so much experience dealing with other musicians and how to set things up. It’s amazing how much creativity he’s added to the group.
“One of our goals,” Arnold said, is “to go back (to New York) and see if we can play with those kinds of guys. I think the kind of music we play would be more welcome in New York than it is here. The standards are different. I used to think that all you needed to do was practice hard and get better. But the better you are, the less you’re looked at out here.”
The band is preparing to record a demo album this summer. Arnold and Stone believe that they’re ready and that they’ll be able to continue to develop, even with the demands that might accompany a record contract.
“Gannin’s not real interested in going commercial,” Stone said. “Some of his material is commercially acceptable, not too hard to figure out. But it’s not the same old thing, either.”