March 16, 2005
Band gets NOD of approval
Funk fusion group plays packed house at library composer series
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Nodding their heads and tapping their feet to the beat, more than 120 people grooved to the funkatronika sounds of NOD Wednesday evening.
The enthusiastic audience packed the main meeting room of the Traverse Area District Library to hear the sounds of NOD, a funk and fusion group featuring Jeff Haas on electronic keyboard, Ron Getz on guitar, Jay Kott on bass and Matt Hayes on drums.
The evening was the first of three part Live at the Library Composer Series, a special program funded by grants from the Traverse Area Arts Council and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Mike Moran will play on April 13 while Don Julin and the Neptune Quartet will play on May 11.
NOD members spent some time discussing composition and their collaborative relationships, interspersed between lengthy displays of their unique and developing style. Everyone in the band contributes ideas, direction and motivation for their sound, which is an eclectic mix of funk, jazz, electronic music, rock and dance music.
"It's a new and different pleasure: no bandleader in the group," said Haas, a veteran classical and jazz musician. "It's egalitarian. We're bringing in Ron's tunes and my tunes and I guess they are only our tunes when they come in, then they become the band's tunes."
Or, as Hayes summed it up the creative process more directly: "You put your own stink on it."
The quartet discussed the three basic elements of composition, which are melody, rhythm and harmony. Getz shared the relatively quick development of one of his pieces, "Wellwisher."
"I heard a melody and besides changing a few notes, it just came out of my head," he said. "I wrote the melody first, harmony next and then I heard the rhythm in my head. It was a tune that was kind of complete."
NOD's sound is garnering wide appeal and Haas noted the audience mix included everyone from a 1 « year old to an 88 year old.
All members of NOD have a resume boasting both solo careers and collaborations with other musicians into a variety of groups. Haas and Getz played together for years, part of a jazz quintet that played for six years in the 1990s at the Park Place Hotel. Bringing in younger players like Hayes and Kott links generations of musical styles.
"They [Hayes and Kott] are both just deeply, deeply talented musicians and groovemeisters, they hit a groove and rock steady," Haas said.
Haas said he and Barb Nowinski, assistant director for the Traverse Area District Library, conceived of the Composers Series as a way to enhance listeners' understanding of music. He believes that understanding the process of composition brings listeners one step closer to the music creator and their realm of personal expression.
"Anytime a composer has a chance to share his or her music, it helps to close a gap between him or her and the audience, helps to open the audience's hearts and minds," Haas noted.
This window into a composer's motivation and emotion help listeners appreciate a song and interpret it through own their emotions and lives. The Live at the Library Composer Series is a step to creating that link for area residents and Haas is planning another three-program series in the fall.
"The composer can give you information about the emotion that was going through his or her mind when they wrote the piece, but still leaves the rest up to the imagination," he said. "Music videos are the other extreme, they imprint an image in your mind every time you hear a tune."
"And probably that's one of the most beautiful things about music, imagination," he added.