Volume 16 Issue 9 - June 2011

What Is This Thing Called Jazz? / Part IHeavyweights – left to right, Butcher, Metcalfe,Whitty, Teehan, Challoner.Heavyweights HitDavid Pecaut SquareORI DAGANFIVE MIGHTILY AMBITIOUS twenty-somethings make up TheHeavyweights Brass Band: Rob Teehan on sousaphone, PaulMetcalfe on sax, Jon Challoner on trumpet, Chris Butcher ontrombone and Lowell Whitty on drums. Barely 18 months old,the band is psyched to make a splash at this year’s TD Toronto JazzFestival, with a main stage show on Canada Day and a CD Release eventat The Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar on July 3. Aside from their cordlessinstruments that harken back to a New Orleans of yesteryear, what’s allthe fuss about? Drumroll, please. It’s the repertoire they arrange, fromLady Gaga and Beyoncé to Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber. GASP!Can a group that covers Gaga and the Biebs be a legitimate jazz band?“It’s a point of debate, depending on who you talk to,” admitshas to encompass other styles of music that use the language of jazz,so I would say YES! we are a jazz band because what we do is verymuch in the tradition of improvisation.”“What we’re doing is bringing our own life experience into thegenre,” explains Butcher, who was inspired to form the band aftervisiting New Orleans in 2009. “These are songs that we grew up with,they are a part of us, so we’re trying to incorporate them into ourjazz tradition is playing the music of the day. Thelonious Monk andMiles Davis wrote their own music, but they also played the popularmusic of the day. The goal of this group is to play music that anyonecould enjoy, not necessarily someone who went to jazz school. As muchas I love modern jazz, one of the things that scares me about it is whenit only appeals to people who play bebop, not many can relate …”The band’s (ironically) light approach to entertaining a crowd iswinning them fans of all ages (“the reaction from young children hasbeen explosive!”) and in the tradition of old-school swing bands, theirinfectious rhythms inspire even the stiffest audience members to dance.Guess the lesson here is don’t judge a band by its covers. is impossible, since the word is itself a mystery. Furthermore, in acontinued on page 41SN BIANCAJune 1 – July 7, 2011 thewholenote.com 7