I’ve never been to the Hult Center, but I’ve always liked its parking garage. I’d call it the second best skate spot in Eugene and about the seventeenth most worthy place to have a cigarette. This past Sunday, I ventured past the cars and and rode on into the venue to catch The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio.
The guys were on the first bit of a US tour before their stint in Europe where they’ll stay until May touring the band’s new album, “Cold As Weiss.” The LP hits shelves on Feb. 11, but at the Hult Center, we caught an early listen of a handful of tracks, and I snagged the album early on sky blue vinyl.
I chatted with the band’s manager, who told me that the LP is named after their new drummer, Dan Weiss. Legend has it that when the prior drummer, David McGraw, split from the band, there were 160 scheduled auditions for his replacement. Weiss was No. 161. Like the upcoming album’s name suggests, Weiss keeps it as polar as a Baltic winter.
The new LP picks up where last year’s album, “I Told You So,” dropped off, but it feels tighter while somehow staying just as laid back. The chill nature of the trio is what sets them apart from any other modern jazz I’m hearing these days. When I first checked these guys out in passing, I swore they were some 60s soul gem I hadn’t yet heard of.
The thin yet sturdy way Delvon Lamarr works the organ is complemented by guitarist Jimmy James’ tendency to play with his delivery a bit. James brings the band a psych rock sound that shoots the trio far out of the universe of its staunch-jazz-head counterparts. In the trio’s live performance and on record, the overarching word I’d use to describe them is chill.
The guys were set up at the Hult Center in refreshingly casual garb. James sported a hoodie, Weiss a baseball cap and Lamarr wore a Seattle Krakens jersey. The stage banter and audience interactions were equally as casual. If I hadn’t seen the packed auditorium in front of them, I would’ve said, based on delivery, they were playing in an intimate coffee shop or some greasy dive bar. Chill as can be.
Don’t get it twisted, the band’s free and easy feel doesn’t mean they can’t go balls to the walls when they feel like it. Homies shred. One of the highlights of the set was a playful little cover compilation the trio threw out off the cuff. It was a prime time sampler platter of an anthology, if you could even call it that. James got the band started on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and moved it into “Down on the Corner” to warm ‘em up and get the crowd smiling. He switched gears and started ripping on a Jimi Hendrix Woodstock rendition of “Star Spangled Banner” that licked out into the famous Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” riff.
All I’m saying is: This ain’t your mama’s jazz trio. Lamarr and the guys were a pleasure to catch live; the trio gives a new life to an old sound and a fresh audience to concert hall jazz.
