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PlayersBrandonSeabrook ;Banjo PunkThe banjo hasn’t been a commoninstrument in jazz sincethe music’s earliest days in the1910s and ’20s, and whilebluegrass-oriented players likeBéla Fleck and Tony Trischkahave experimented with thefive-string version of theinstrument in fusion projects,the old four-string model haslargely been left by the side ofthe road. It would be hard tohear the legacy of old masterslike Eddie Peabody or BanjoIkey Robinson in New YorkerBrandon Seabrook’s playing,but he’s been wholeheartedlyreinventing the instrument. Themusic on the superb, eponymousdebut album by his trioSeabrook Power Plant (LoyalLabel)—named after a controversialnuclear facility in NewHampshire—has nothing to do with traditionaljazz, but Seabrook has revitalized the forgottenpredecessor of bluegrass’s five-string.“I didn’t really listen to banjo music at all,”Seabrook said. “Most of what I did was intuitive.I liked its percussive quality: It was kind of adrum set, and that’s how I approached it at first.”Seabrook first picked up the instrument whilehe attended the New England Conservatory ofMusic, where he studied jazz guitar. A professorasked him if he’d ever played the banjo, whichled him to borrow one from the school’s instrumentlibrary. He took a few casual lessons andtoyed around with it in his spare time, and beforelong he was bringing it, along with his guitar, togigs in Boston. The school’s environment ledSeabrook to all kinds of different music, even ashe initially suppressed his original loves—hardrock and punk. Visits from bassist WilliamParker and experiences with the late GeorgeRussell especially encouraged him to open up,whether it involved playing Scottish folk musicor klezmer.He moved to New York in 2003, and after acouple of years of hustling for gigs he began tofind a community. He played in trumpeter PeterEvans’ quartet among lots of short-term projects,but as the banjo increasingly rivaled the guitarfor his attention his desire to create a new contextgrew. He started Seabrook Power Plant inNovember 2007.“I wanted to compose or write some riffs on[the banjo], but soon after I mixed guitar into it,”he said. “I had the idea of putting together fragmentsthat didn’t necessarily relate to one anotherthat much—this was coming from metal stuffthat I was listening to—like this part happensand then it never happens again, and it doesn’treally relate to the next part.”Indeed, there is an appealingly disjointed,herky-jerk quality to some of the music on thetrio’s disc with bassist Tom Blancarte andSeabrook’s brother Jared on drums. On thevicious stop-start of “Peter Dennis BlanfordTownshend” Seabrook uses manic tremolo toimitate sustain on an instrument notorious forhaving none, while his trio lurches, grinds andexplodes in precise lockstep. “Waltz Of TheNuke Workers” delivers its crescendos moresmoothly, veering from an almost pastoralcalm to pure chaos. “Ho Chi Minh Trail,” onthe other hand, uses some five-string techniqueslike arpeggios (as well as bowing) tointimate Eastern scales and graceful melodicelucidation. He uses amplification, ambientmics and effects pedals to enhance the banjo’scapabilities, but the pure sound of the instrumentis never compromised.“I’m not one of those prolific people whowrites tons of stuff,” he said. “It takes me awhile to write these pieces, and I work on it allof the time. The band is becoming more structured,but within that it’s pretty loose and wecan come up with different ways of playing.We’re improvising with material more than freeimprovising.”—Peter MargasakMICHELLE ACRILLA24 DOWNBEAT May 2010