Living Daylights: Real jazz for grooveheads, groovy for jazzheads
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., April 11, 2001) - Jessica Lurie admits she's being a little facetious when she asks if John Coltrane would be considered a jam-band artist if he were performing today.

"He took twenty-minute solos over repetitious, meditative grooves," points out Lurie, the saxophonist/composer and leader of Living Daylights, the Seattle-based instrumental trio that performs at Club Helsinki next Thursday, April 19.

But Lurie's point is well-taken, and it goes to the heart of the problem of trying to pin down Lurie and Living Daylights in the greater context of the musical present. As heard on the group's three CDs, "Falling Down Laughing," "500 Pound Cat" and last year's "Electric Rosary" (all Liquid City), Living Daylights plays a funky mix of soul- and world-beat-inflected, rhythmic instrumental music that is equally at home in a jazz club or on the stage of a groove festival.

But there's no doubting that Lurie, bassist Arne Livingston and drummer Dale Fanning bring an inordinate virtuosity and depth of musical knowledge, vocabulary and sophistication to their unique blend of composed and improvised music.

For example, "Pike or Pine," the Lurie-penned opening track to "Electric Rosary," alternates a catchy, fusion-jazz melody with a klezmer-like saxophone arpeggio and a bit of Latin jazz. But then the title track kicks in with some up-to-date drum 'n' bass rhythms rubbing against a Balkan melody, as if Dave Douglas got down with Massive Attack. "I guess Living Daylights has a pretty eclectic repertoire, and broad influences which we don't hesitate to bring into our music, which is what I think sets us apart and also makes it hard to peg us into one category," offers Lurie by way of explanation.

"I think we bring many different influences into our music besides traditional jazz and funk -- Eastern European music, rock, Latin, West African/Senegalese, Jaco, and some of the New York City sound -- Charlie Hunter, Medeski, Martin and Wood, John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Tim Berne -- that collectively and hopefully cohesively bring the listener's ear to a newer place than your run-of-the-mill jam band."

It is indeed an original place, made even moreso when put in context of the musicians' work outside of Living Daylights. Lurie, for one, keeps busy with concurrent membership in the all-female Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet as well as her solo work, including compositions for dance, film and multi-media works. Perhaps her most inventive music can be heard on her excellent solo album, "Motorbison Serenade" (Zipa!), which with its evocation of shimmering Eastern European nights as interpreted by an impressionistic acoustic jazz ensemble recalls trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas's work with his Charms of the Night Sky ensemble with a bit of Frank Zappa-like musical jump-cuts thrown into the mix.

Lurie has also recorded and performed with musicians including Wayne Horvitz, Booker T. Jones, the Posies, Sleater-Kinney, Amy Denio and the Indigo Girls, and has been a featured soloist with the Berkeley Symphony. Her latest project is working with visual artist Danijel Zezelj on a collaborative piece based on the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Livingston and Fanning have equally varied resumes. Livingston, who does for bass what Charlie Hunter does for guitar, meeting the latter somewhere in the middle, has shared stages with Youssou N'Dour, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Joshua Redman and Roy Hargrove. Fanning has performed and recorded with Wayne Horvitz, D.J. Nasir, mark Whitfield, Pete Droge and Omar Torrez.

"Our basic premise is that we create music that turns us on and hopefully it will translate to an audience," said Lurie. "You could listen or you could dance. Music for thinking people to dance to?" Speaking of groove, the weekend at Club Helsinki kicks off tonight with the sounds of two funky groove bands. New York City quartet Ulu headlines tonight. As heard on the group's self-titled debut, Ulu plays a catchy, saxophone and keyboards dominated soul-jazz - imagine Steely Dan's melodies interpreted by Medeski, Martin and Wood.

Also on tonight's bill is Hartford-based groove outfit Mori Stylez. As heard on the group's debut CD, which in addition to eight original compositions tackles Charles Mingus's "Reincarnation of a Lovebird," the group stands out from the jam-band pack with its unique instrumentation, which includes clarinet, mandolin and bassoon.

Columbia Records is obviously pinning big hopes on JBender, a New York City-based pop-rock band whose debut album, "Look Back and Laugh," is due out next month. The quintet, which performs at Helsinki on Saturday night, plays a dizzying brand of dense modern pop which jumps from Beatlesque pop, hip-hop, electronica and vocal harmonies, which have already garnered the group comparisons to Sugar Ray, Garbage, New Radicals and Sublime. Look for tracks like "Be" and "Kick Me" off the upcoming album to be big summertime hits. And get a sneak peak at the next big pop thing on Saturday night at Helsinki - a sign that record companies are starting to pay close attention to the little nightclub that could.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 13, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]