Brad Fritcher + trois and its invigorating, genre-blending jazz: The Local Spins Artist Spotlight

With a new studio album on the way, the fast-rising Grand Rapids jazz quartet is growing its audience and exploring creative side projects at the same time. (Story, podcast, video).

 

For Brad Fritcher + trois, moving forward and thriving as a jazz band is all about giving individual members “their own voice” by encouraging numerous side projects.

So, even as the fast-emerging, young Grand Rapids jazz quartet gets set to release its sophomore studio album, “The Year of the Architects,” various members of the band have kept their creative juices churning while pursuing musical ventures of their own involving other West Michigan jazz players.

“All of our friendships are solid,” trumpet player Brad Fritcher says of the band formed less than two years ago at Grand Valley State University. “Everyone knows each other’s little quirks more, which makes it fun to play because we know each other’s styles and sense of humor so we can bridge gaps that way.

“These guys now are doing their own solo projects and that’s what it’s all about: If I can provide a role not only for myself, but to somewhat be selfless and help these guys.”

The band – Fritcher, pianist Dutcher Snedeker, bassist Ryan Wallace and drummer Christian VanDuinen – quickly has established itself as a force among fresh, cutting-edge groups in the region’s contemporary jazz scene, even winning the jazz category as part of the song contest in last year’s ArtPrize competition (which Snedeker has entered yet again for 2014).

IMPROVISING AND KEEPING IT ORGANIC ON THE NEW ALBUM

The prize for that win included studio time at Michael Crittenden’s Mackinaw Harvest Music in Grand Rapids, giving the quartet the ideal opportunity to create its new album, which officially gets released Nov. 7 during a performance at Hugo Claudin’s Mexiains Sans Frontieres on S. Division Avenue.

The seven-track affair continues the group’s inventive, genre-blending and fun-yet-daring approach to jazz.

“It just worked out real nice. We already had the material,” Fritcher says of recording at Mackinaw Harvest Music. “We cut it in two days … I think 75 percent of it is improvisation. We’ll take a composition that we write and we might have it in our head one way, but we bring it to the studio and we trust each other enough that we trust each guy’s perception as to how they see it and how it feels.

“We try and keep it pretty organic as far as reading or improvising. This album is all original compositions. Dutcher and I split the majority of it, and then Ryan contributed a track.”

On Wednesday, Fritcher and Snedeker performed the album’s lead track, “Foolin’,” as a duo in the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) for Local Spins Live. Listen to a podcast of the interview and full show here and watch a video below of their exclusive performance of the song, which incorporated a bit of another original track, “Must’ve Forgotten,” into the mix.

Fritcher stresses that a myriad of styles weave into the quartet’s delivery, shaped not only by the music of jazz icons Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett and Robert Glasper but the “hardcore emo punk” that Wallace and Fritcher first unleashed as teens.

“It’s basically just taking who you are and blending where you’re at now,” says Fritcher, who considers the band a “medium” for audiences to seek out other jazz artists. “I’m hooked on jazz and improvisation, but my roots are other things.”

That attitude keeps band members on a constant musical exploration, with Snedeker leading his own jazz trio and Fritcher and Wallace launching a brand new project, Moods, which performs Friday night at SpeakEZ Lounge with drummer Scott Veenstra. Moods plans to record a new album later this month.

‘GETTING TO YOUNGER PEOPLE’

“Operating in a trio … allows me to kind of flesh out more ideas that I might not be able to in the quartet setting,” offers Snedeker, who’s studied the way Peterson and Jarrett have guided piano-driven trios. “It’s nice to have an avenue to practice these things and to perform these things and to really play around with ‘What’s my role now and what do I bring to the table now that I’m suddenly the melody and the leader?’ ”

Adds Fritcher: “Everyone now has kind of opened up their own voice. We’re allowing that to take some precedence these days.”

That voice is being heard as younger audiences and musicians turn to contemporary jazz and its ever more eclectic vibe.

“I think it’s getting to younger people, and we’ve been fortunate to play for a bunch of people in a lot of different scenes and it’s been really receptive. I think it’s because we’re not judging the music,” Fritcher suggests. “We’re not trying to really be pinpointed. Sometimes I get annoyed with being called a jazz band, but if then if they don’t call me jazz, I get annoyed with that, so I don’t know. Maybe it’s Brad’s music or Dutcher’s music.

“I think people are ready for some new things. I think we’re on the (cusp) of a page-turning and I’m just happy that I can witness it and add a little bit.”

For more about Brad Fritcher + trois, check out its Facebook page. To listen to more of the band’s new album, visit bandcamp.com.

Copyright 2014, Spins on Music