How a one-off experiment evolved into one of the most exciting collaborations on the Philly jazz scene
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"Great Philly music has two things: a definite groove and great melodies."
FRESHMAKERS: The three co-leaders of the Fresh Cut Orchestra: trumpeter Josh Lawrence, bassist Jason Fraticelli and drummer Anwar Marshall.
When I first dropped in on the Fresh Cut Orchestra in a UArts rehearsal room in October 2012, none of the ensemble’s members were thinking about a future much past their “one night only” debut performance scheduled for a couple of weeks later. The FCO’s formation was the opposite of organic, so all involved could be forgiven if they were still skeptical about its longevity in those early days, despite some promising indications.
The band’s three co-leaders — trumpeter Josh Lawrence, bassist Jason Fraticelli and drummer Anwar Marshall — were selected by Painted Bride music curator Lenny Seidman to pull together a large ensemble of locals to help celebrate the venue’s four decades of presenting jazz. At the time, Marshall half-jokingly referred to the trio as “test dummies,” thrown together despite having little or no history of working with one another. But that one-time experiment has since evolved into one of the most exciting and fruitful collaborations on the local jazz scene, and this weekend the 10-piece ensemble will celebrate the release of their first CD, From the Vine (Ropeadope).
The CD was recently lauded on NPR by no less a jazz eminence than fellow Philadelphian Christian McBride, who declared himself “bowled over” at the richly layered arrangements. The disc pulls together many of the city’s most gifted young musicians, most of them leaders and composers in their own right: saxophonists Mark Allen and Mike Cemprola, trombonist Brent White, pianist Brian Marsella, guitarist Matt Davis, guitarist and laptop musician Tim Conley and percussionist François Zayas.
“I have to say we were lucky,” says Fraticelli. “The fact that Lenny chose us three and that we had an instant chemistry just worked out perfectly. We’re all involved in different scenes, but everybody was open to put all those worlds together and just create some stuff.”
Whether by accident or design, it also helped that the three co-leaders played instruments that are amenable to a trio setting. Keeping a 10-piece band working can be a daunting prospect, but the three have continued to play together as a trio or quartet, with other members of the Fresh Cut Orchestra or special guests. They’ve also been hired as a unit to bring their cohesive sound to other artists’ projects. In 2013 they served as the Bride’s house band for a regular series of shows featuring guest artists like Orrin Evans and John Swana. Last summer, they premiered a new four-part suite tracing the stages of life, co-composed by the leaders along with Conley.
According to Lawrence, the FCO has succeeded because of the bandleaders’ diverse styles and outlooks. “We all have different strengths that support each other,” he explains. “From an art-istic standpoint, we each have different perspectives on music, and for some reason when they come together it turns into something that people res-pond to.”
Lawrence is an in-demand member of the local jazz community who plays regularly with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band and Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound and brings a more straight-ahead style anchored in swing and blues. His contribution to From the Vine, “Uptown Romance,” features daubs of Ellingtonian horn writing inspired by time spent in Harlem. Marshall is a near-constant presence on local stages working with the likes of Orrin Evans, Tim Warfield, Duane Eubanks and others. His “Sanguine” marries modern jazz complexity with electronic grooves.
Fraticelli has long split his time between jazz, exper-imental, rock and electronic music; he was instrumental in bring-ing Conley into the band, whose laptop textures have broadened the ensemble’s palette as it has developed. The bulk of From the Vine is dedicated to the bassist’s “The Mothers’ Suite,” a sweeping six-movement piece inspired by the death of his mother-in-law and the birth of his son. “Seeing my wife lose her mom and become a mom so quickly was a really intense, in some weird ways beautiful experience of the cycle of life,” says Fraticelli.
The eclectic range of influences pulls the band in multiple directions at once, but Lawrence says that it is unified by its Philadelphia identity. “Great Philly music has two things: a definite groove and great melodies. And I think that despite all of the electronics and layering of sounds that we’re doing, there’s still catchy, singable melodic content and an underlying quality of insistent groove.”
Wed., Feb. 18, 8 p.m., $20, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, philly.worldcafelive.com.
