Preview: Deanna Bogart Band brings its "blusion" to The Ark
“Blusion.”
It’s a clever term that Deanna Bogart and her bandmates created to describe their inspired, rollicking fusion of blues, R&B, boogie-woogie, funk, jazz and rock.
“’Blusion’ grows out of the blues, but it doesn’t always end there,” says Bogart, who brings her blockbuster band to The Ark on Thursday, Aug. 6. “I was looking for a word that described the music we create, the four of us, together. We’ve been playing more and more instrumentals, and when we get rolling, this foursome seems bent on exploring more of a free-form approach to the arrangements — more willing to head down that ‘blusion’ highway.”
You can definitely hear Bogart and her band’s adventurous mingling of styles on her new disc, “11th Hour,” which is credited not just to Bogart, but to the entire quartet: Bogart, Dan Leonard (guitar), Scott Ambush (bass) and Mike Aubin (drums).
The disc’s leadoff track, “Sweet Pea,” is funky-jazzy from the get-go, with a deep-funk groove by Ambush and some keyboard parts that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Steely Dan’s mid-1970s discs. And then, in the middle section, the judicious use of punchy horns add more color and soul to the mix.
“High Horse” gallops to Bogart’s boogie-woogie piano, but she also manages to sneak in some jazz phrasing and inflections. And some of the terse, angular fills again bring Steely Dan to mind, most specifically, Walter Becker’s stinging tone on the Dan’s classic “Black Friday.”
Meanwhile, “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” (a title way too close to one used by Jeff Beck during his mid-’70s jazz-rock fusion phase for it to be a coincidence) starts off with hushed electric piano, suggesting that the song will be pensive and reflective, but about a minute into the tune, the group lets fly with into a seven-minute-long instrumental vamp that segues from a bluesy shuffle to something more out of the boogie-swing realm, with Bogart taking us home with a melodic but percussive solo.
And then “Heart and Soul” (another titular reference to a well-known tune, this one a ‘30s jazz standard) whooshes out of the blocks with some speedy, nimble piano from Bogart. Finally, “Thrash Boogie 2010” is just about what you’d expect, given the title.
And Bogart is multi-talented. In addition to laying down some rollicking boogie-woogie grooves on the piano that have earned her more than 20 Wammie awards (handed out by the Washington Area Music Association), she’s also an accomplished saxophonist who was named Horn Instrumentalist of the Year at the Blues Music Awards in 2008 and ’09.
When Bogart started out, she was more steeped in blues, R&B and boogie-woogie. But her bandmates were schooled in jazz harmonics and arrangements. “So I learned that side from them, and once I was more comfortable with it, we began egging each other on, to take the music further and further,” says Bogart by phone from her Maryland home base. “We kept evolving, to the point that I stopped editing myself, both in terms of my writing and my playing. I just decided to set aside the roadblocks and forget about categories. Because, now, to me, it’s really all just music. I don’t think much any more about distinguishing between these styles.
” One of the dreariest and over-used clichés in music is the notion that hybrids of different styles will “not please the purists.” Which, of course, is ridiculous — because, these days, very few people listen to only one style of music.
“Yeah, there was a time, decades ago, when being a purist meant being devoted to this ‘new’ style of music, whether it was blues or jazz or whatever,” Bogart agrees. “But with so many different styles coming along over the years, and intersecting with each other so much, I think the notion of being a ‘purist’ now means something very different. Today, I think the essence of being ‘pure’ is that, when you’re making music, you just stay true to your creative instincts.”
Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music and comedy for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.
Deanna Bogart Band Who: Quartet led by accomplished pianist. What: Inspired, rollicking mix of blues, R&B, boogie-woogie, funk and jazz-rock fusion. Where: The Ark, 316 S. Main When: Thursday, Aug. 6, 8 p.m. How much: $15 Details: The Ark website or 734-761-1451.