Local Jazz Scene gets the nod

March 9, 2005

Is Northern Michigan ready for a jazz supergroup? Well, ready or not, that’s what’s happenin’ with NOD, a new group putting an electronic funk sizzle in the late night atmosphere over the region.
NOD includes Northern Michigan’s tip-toppiest jazz veterans Ron Getz on guitar, bassist Jay Kott, drummer Matt Hayes and Jeff Haas on keyboards, collaborating on new sounds.
The band has claimed Tuesday night as its own at Union Street Station and will be playing there weekly from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. NOD will also headline a Funk & Fusion concert on Wednesday, March 9 at 7 p.m. at the Traverse City District Library as part of a new Live@The Library Composers Series. The show is free and highlights the composing skills of Jeff Haas, who has more than 100 compositions to his credit.

FUNKY DIRECTION
Haas, who is playing electric piano and synthesizer for the first time after years of a musical uptown life on an acoustic grand piano, says the new band is dance-friendly, working with progressive jazz/funk sounds and even a dash of hip-hop. “This is a different direction for me and I didn’t have any preconception of how I should sound,” he says. “But Matt and Jay bring a hip-hop sensibility to the music that really makes things interesting.
“But NOD is quite different from anything I have done musically - on a number of levels,” Haas adds. “This is the first electric band in which I perform my original music as well as music by Ron Getz. Up to this point, I have only worked in acoustic groups.”
Haas notes that he and Getz are old performing pals; they were part of a mainstream jazz quintet that held sway at the Park Place Parlor in TC from 1991-’96. “At that time, we were performing mostly jazz standards from Gershwin, Ellington and Irving Berlin to Miles, Monk and Herbie Hancock,” he says.

BACKGROUND BITS
In recent years, Haas has been composing original music and leading a trio and quintet based in the Detroit area featuring legendary trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and multi-instrumentalist Rob Smith. He also has a new double quartet project which blends jazz with string quartet sounds.
His perennial concerts tend to be sure-fire sell-outs in Traverse City, Petoskey and at the Suttons Bay JazzFest, but often to an older demographic of listeners. With NOD, Haas plans to keep active with his mainstay projects while experimenting with new musical directions and access to younger listeners.
Getz, Kott and Hayes have been active in a multitude of local projects, as soloists and as members of groups such as The Heaters, a cover band that plays rock and pop. Getz is perhaps the hardest-working musician in Northern Michigan; in addition to performing virtually every night of the week (sometimes at two venues per evening) he also teaches guitar to 60-70 students per week. For his part, Kott has been leading Northern Michigan in new musical directions with his interest in electronica. Kott overlays a blizzard of pedal-generated sounds with solos on his seven-string bass.
Together, their new NOD enterprise is an egalitarian group with no band leader, and that’s how the music evolves as well -- as a collective effort. The individual players use their own songs or riffs as a starting point for the input and improvisation of the other band members.

CONNECTING
“The music that NOD makes is a bit difficult to describe,” Haas says. “I call it funkatronika -- a hybrid blend of funk, rock, jazz, electronica and deep dance grooves. We focus on original music almost exclusively. Everyone in the band is involved in several other groups, many of which perform in venues that are interested in covers. This band is a commitment on all of our parts to perform originals.”
In an age where every bar band lives and dies by its dance grooves, NOD is well aware that a good backbeat is the key to not just popularity, but survival. The idea behind NOD is to connect with listeners on the emotional level of rhythm, harmony and melody while offering a pulse that keeps the dance floor churning. Find out for yourself: in addition to their new Tuesday night Union Street gig, NOD hopes to perform at other venues throughout the year, including a March 18 Heritage Center benefit in TC as well as gigs in Ann Arbor, Lansing and Detroit.