DARMON MEADER continued from page 16 it is such classic stuff. The vocalese lyrics that Jon and Annie wrote are just great. Then for me, I have to say that much of my influence comes from the instrumental side of music, the sax players in particular. My sax teacher at college threw some Phil Woods stuff at me and I just love his sound; and then I was introduced to Sonny Rollins, Cannonball and Charlie Parker. I was also a huge Michael Brecker fan and I was into the crossover things like the Brecker Brothers and the Yellow Jackets; which kind of ties into growing up listening to Earth, Wind and Fire, Steve Wonder and Chicago. JJ: Was rehearsing much of a problem when you first started? DM: It was actually easier then because our lives were so much simpler and it was pretty much about trying to get the band going. We all lived within a subway ride of one another. Now we rehearse in a hotel room on the road because the four of us are spread out all over the Northeast. Those early days were exciting. We were starting from scratch and trying to figure out what it was we were doing, writing tunes, writing arrangements and wondering if it would actually work. We had to be our own business people as well. I remember calling clubs and record labels and pretending we actually knew what we were doing when we were trying to get a gig. Sounding like we were old pros — trying anyway. Yeah, that was a lifetime ago. JJ: Since you’ve mentioned clubs, what are some of your favorite places to play? DM: Munich is a favorite town. I think because we have been there a couple of times at Christmas and it’s such a festive time to be there. One of the most unusual concerts we did was in Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace. It’s really old and something of an acoustical nightmare because it’s basically a big hollow cave. But, the power of the room and the impact of being there was pretty amazing. That was a special gig. Lately we’ve spent a lot of time in the Scandinavian countries and those have been a blast. The audiences are great, the auditoriums are wonderful, and the food and everything have been fun there. The first time we went to Estonia was very cool. We heard that the Estonians love to sing, one of those cultures that embrace choral literature. I remember our first concert there; the hall itself wasn’t anything super memorable, but the <strong>Jersey</strong>Articles<strong>Jazz</strong> Numerous musicians along the way gave me the advice to try not to lose sleep over the commercial success of the group, because you’ll go nuts. You’ve just got to do the music you believe in. people…I can’t remember doing more encores in one night. They just wanted more and more — it was a very special bond we had with that audience. JJ: What about in the States? DM: Well, for personal reasons, it is always fun when we go to Boston because both my sisters live there and my parents come down from Maine. And, other people in the band have family there, so it's our home away from home. Plus, I'm still a big Red Sox fan so if we go up during the summer I try to squeeze in a game. [Chuckles] The Pacific Northwest has a strong interest in vocal jazz. It’s kind of a regional thing; in addition to your usual jazz fans there is a huge education component. Just about every high school and college has a thriving vocal jazz program. So there’s a very knowledgeable audience up there, which makes for some fun concerts. Plus I like Seattle a lot. Also, during the winter I like any gig near good skiing. [Chuckles] I know this sounds like a stock answer, but the first time we played Carnegie Hall was great — there is something just pretty exciting about that experience. It was interesting because I had never gone there for an event so it was my first time in the building. I walked in through the stage door and out onto that stage — that was my first view of Carnegie Hall. It was a double bill with Take 6 — quite an exciting night. JJ: How did it go? DM: We did well. It was billed as a Take 6 concert and we were the opening act. I kind of thought: “OK, there is some common ground in terms of our audience, but Take 6 has more of a gospel sensibility. Is this audience going to be into what we are doing?” We got there and discovered that just as many people came to hear us. The opening act syndrome can often be a drag — people are waiting for you to finish so they can hear the act they actually came to hear. It was definitely not one of those nights. People were digging it. So we had a great time and we got to meet Take 6 and hang out with them. Nice guys and very good at what they do, that’s for sure. JJ: Well, when you’re not in a great hall, but just a regular club, how do you deal with a noisy room? DM: It’s especially challenging as a vocal quartet. There are times when the audience will take care of it for us. If there’s a decent amount of the audience there to listen, they’ll be all over the people making too much noise. But, as you can imagine, by the nature of our four-part harmony stuff, room noise can be pretty distracting. We have been doing this for many years, so hopefully it sounds relatively easy but it is a challenge to get the four parts to line up harmonically. Getting comfortable in a room, moving from night to night to a different sound system, a different environment and different acoustics all those things, that’s the challenge you face doing this type of music. So if you add in the element of a rowdy crew hanging out, it ain’t much fun. Our soundman almost got beaten up by some completely out of control patrons at a club in São Paolo, Brazil. He was trying to control these people and having no success. He had to be snuck out of the club at the end of the night. We’ve even had a couple of situations where people got completely wasted and decided to try to join us on stage! I have to admit, we certainly enjoy doing jazz clubs and I’m sure we’ll always do them, but our favorite environment is that 400- to 800-seat performing art setting. It still has a certain intimacy but it’s more like going to a classical concert. It’s not about people mingling and having drinks and eating while we are singing and the cash register isn’t ringing in the middle of our a capella ballad. It’s all about the music. JJ: Do you have any simply funny stories from the road? DM: Funny things for us are often some of our more goofy moments. One night while performing at the Lionel Hampton jazz club in Paris, we had a bit of a train wreck on an a capella tune where it went into a first ending and then a second ending. That night one of us had just the worst memory lapse and couldn’t remember how to get from A to B. We had to stop and start again and we just started cracking up. We had to skip the tune and come back to it later because it was one of those “Don’t laugh in church” kinds of moments. After the set, we found out that Michael Legrand was in the audience! 18 _________________________________ February 2009 continued on page 20
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