Jazz Review : Smooth Interchanges Make the Freeway a Nice Ride

There’s no easy way to describe the Freeway Philharmonic’s music. The quartet’s unusual, string-based instrumentation and eclectic take on its material are impossible to slip easily into any one category.

Because improvisation plays a part in its music, it could be called a jazz band. But the instrumentation (there are no horns) and the minor role that jazz rhythms play (the group swings at times, but it also waltzes, rocks and does the two-step) would seem to make it something other than a jazz combo.

Its viola, acoustic guitar and Chapman Stick front line (the Stick is a 12-stringed instrument that looks like a long guitar neck without a body) gives the sound a classical flavor at times. But its arrangement of Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown,” with its contemporary leanings, stands at a great distance from the composer’s original. And even though the group covers the Beach Boys and the Beatles, it is too close to jazz and classical styles to be considered a pop band.

Its show Thursday at the Dana Point Cafe neatly demonstrated the Phil’s versatility. The pastoral sound, neither too loud nor too timid, fit perfectly into the cozy setting and suggested that there might be a category for this band after all: Call it “wine bar music.”

There was little that demanded strict attention from listeners during the pleasant first set, though there was just enough intricacy in the arrangements and interplay for those who wanted to look beneath the surface. The foursome, together some seven years, falls together in such practiced style that its most complex passages arrive with attractive simplicity.

*

With drummer Scott Jackson playing an electronic percussion machine in deference to the intimate cafe’s acoustics, the quartet sampled heavily from its just-released “Sonic Detour” CD (on the audiophile-oriented Sheffield lab label). “Bullfrog Rag” featured guitarist Robert Stanton on 12-string, Novi Novag’s viola dancing against clip-clop percussion, and Larry Tuttle’s bass lines from the Chapman. At times the piece took on a loose, ragtime feel; at others, Novag’s viola added touches of bluegrass.

“Albert’s Go-Kart” continued the rhythmic and tonal variations with Tuttle’s Chapman adding both bass line and synthesized guitar effects. Novag took a short improvisation during the number that was neither too aggressive nor somnolent.

The band’s fun-loving side came through in its pop arrangements. Tuttle developed a long string-section introduction before the group swung into “Eleanor Rigby.” “Good Vibrations” closed on a tightly played line from James Brown’s “I Feel Good.”

“Hoedown” was the most varied piece of the set, including not only portions of Copland’s high-stepping theme but also touches of “Old Folks at Home” and rural color from Stanton’s jew’s-harp.

The mood became more somber as Stanton moved to a nylon-stringed guitar for his own “Lullaby of Tears,” a moody piece that at times suggested Brahms’ famous lullaby. But that tempered frame of mind dissipated quickly as the four responded with the upbeat theme from “The Bugs Bunny Show.”

That kind of playful contrast defines the Phil’s approach: The band is not too much of any one thing. The musicianship is fine but never so technically oriented that it becomes inaccessible. The band works in a host of musical styles, melding them in a pleasant hybrid that never becomes too emotional, one way or another.

But such evenhandedness might present problems for those who want more dynamics and feeling in their music. The Freeway Philharmonic plays a smooth soundtrack to modern life but doesn’t reflect its more intense demands or Angst -producing situations. Need a breather from the harried pace? Try the Freeway.