Say as many unpleasant things as you want about the retro fads that have swept the nation in recent years, but understand that none of them can apply to The People’s Quartet, playing this Saturday night at Nevin’s Live. Featuring Chicago favorites (and NU grads) Kevin O’Donnell and Andrew Bird, (both also play in Bowl of Fire and the Quality Six), the Quartet draws from an entire century of jazz, blues, country and even gypsy music history.
Their trademark aggressive, electrifying live show – especially one right here in Evanston – should not be missed. nyou recently spoke to drummer/band leader O’Donnell about the upcoming show, Northwestern’s School of Music, and the formula for “rocking” jazz.
nyou: For the typical NU student who doesn’t really get out to see a lot of music that they haven’t heard of, how would you describe what you do and what would you say to entice people to the show?
KO: We do a lot of older tunes – like we do a lot of early, early country-blues stuff, bluegrass stuff, hot jazz, early swing and some New Orleans R&B stuff. But the fact is that we’re not just playing old music – cause I think the way we play, the quartet is really rocking, really. It certainly isn’t academic and we’re certainly not really a jazz band even though a lot of the tunes we do maybe fall into that category. Half the time the guitars are kind of distorted, and the violin is kind of distorted, even though we’re playing some old Charlie Christian Kansas City swing type thing. Jazz used to be popular music and people used to play it in brothels and shit. We sort of have more that kind of energy- even though we’re playing these tunes you’d expect to hear in a polite, well-behaved environment.
nyou: Is there a lot of improvising?
KO: It’s a lot of soloing – that’s what’s fun about it. Without meaning to sound like a jerk, the four of us are all really good at this type of music and it’s fun to be in a situation where everybody in the band knows what to expect and everyone in the band can solo whenever he wants to.
nyou: How did going to school here affect where you’ve gone with your musical career?
KO: Well, I guess, as much as the School of Music is great and I learned a lot, you also learn all this stuff that you really don’t care about. I had to look for a lot of my own opportunities.
nyou: You guys had some trouble with the recent swing fad.
KO: You get grouped in with that stuff and you understand why it happens but it holds you back as much as it can help you for a little bit. There was a period when we might see more people at shows, but people who were really into music didn’t take us seriously. It happened to Bowl of Fire, too, on the road. The only way the clubs thought they’d get a crowd is if they told everyone we were a swing band, which they could sort of justify saying at the time, and then people would show up in derbies and wide ties and stuff. They’d be totally unhappy with the situation, and we’d be unhappy because they were expecting something different. It’s a weird thing, but we kind of ask for it. We knew we were doing music that was referencing older styles, so what did we expect? nyou
