Fascinating Rhythm

Band tries to keep jazz alive and well in Lawrence

Thursday, December 28, 2000

"Kenny G is not jazz," Rick McNeely declares emphatically. "Some of the stuff that David Sanborn does is definitely not jazz. Just because it doesn't have vocals doesn't mean it's jazz."

McNeely should know. Not only does he play saxophone and guitar in The Majestics Rhythm Review, he's also the founder and owner of The Jazzhaus, a popular Lawrence nightspot at 926 1/2 Mass.

The Majestics Rhythm Review continues to provide jazz music for Lawrence audiences.

Ever busy and bustling, McNeely phones on a recent afternoon for a discussion of his majestic approach to music, the Lawrence scene and how jazz doesn't always pack the house.

Rhythm and groove

McNeely, a lifelong music enthusiast, didn't begin playing until his senior year in college when he signed up for an "Introduction to Jazz" class, taught by the legendary, now-deceased KANU host Dick Wright.

"I had listened to lots and lots of jazz in my life, but then Dick played 'Giant Steps' by John Coltrane," McNeely recalls. "It was like a bolt out of the blue hit me. I'd never heard that particular cut before. I'd heard lots of Coltrane and lots of Charlie Parker, but there was something about that song and the way it was constructed. That's what inspired me to start playing the saxophone."

McNeely's inspired saxophone work can be heard in The Majestics Rhythm Revue. The band formed in late 1997 when several players who had been attending local blues jams got together for a group project.

"We're all seasoned musicians," says McNeely of the band, which includes trumpet player Tommy Johnson, vocalist Liz Garriss, guitarist Guy Messenger, bassist Brad Maestas and drummer Randy McGill.

What: The Majestics Rhythm Review

When: 10 p.m. Sunday

Where: The Jazzhaus, 926 1/2 Mass.

Ticket information: 749-3320

The Majestics' sound is a spicy bouillabaisse of rock, rhythm, blues and funk with a healthy dose of jazz hornblowing for good measure.

"There's a real blending of influences, but there's nothing really synthesized or formulated," McNeely says. "We'll take a Charlie Parker tune and do it as a ska number."

In the fall of 1998, the band recorded its debut, "Digga! Digga!," at Red House Studios in Eudora. The CD has sold well, and the band continues to tour the Midwest extensively. In early January, the sextet plans to record a follow-up effort at Airborne Audio in Lenexa. McNeely is privy to the trials and tribulations of recording a large band on an indie budget.

"Primarily, we're a live band," he explains. "We're not a studio band. So we come in and just kind of lay the stuff down, then do vocal and horn overdubs and then we're done. We're not a band like The Beatles or XTC who'll spend six months in the studio making a really great polished studio album. Plus, there's a financial implication involved because we're a DIY (do-it-yourself) band. We're completely self-funded, so it's not like we can spend 30 hours getting a good kick drum sound."

Mass. Street music

A tireless promoter of area concerts since 1969, McNeely opened his own club, The Jazzhaus, in 1982. In the ensuing 18 years, the Mass. Street hotspot has seen a laundry list of jazz and blues legends perform in its cool, dark setting.

Herb Ellis, Stan Getz, Barney Kessel, Bill Watrous, Mose Allison, Albert Collins, Son Seals, Mighty Joe Young, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Jimmy Thackery, Lonnie Brooks and Robert Cray are just a handful of the artists who've sweated out a few sets at The Jazzhaus.

Unfortunately, in the low-flash world of jazz and blues, big names do not necessarily mean big revenues.

"Those were exceptional shows," McNeely says. "Unfortunately, I lost money on every single one of them. I did. A lot of times people will give me the raspberries for not doing more jazz shows. (It's) because nobody ever comes."

Why?

"It goes back to that old saying, 'You can lead a mule to water but you can't make them think,'" McNeely says, laughing. "Jazz demands more of a listener than any other music, even classical music. Jazz is coming at you from a million different directions at once, so it can be a very cerebral type of music. But once you get it, I think it's the most emotionally powerful of all music."

Emotionally powerful or not, jazz has gone from the forefront of the music scene to being a bit player. Jazz accounts for less than 1 percent of all music sales. McNeely, who also co-directs the 18-piece Jazzhaus Big Band, chalks it up to jazz's transition from raucous dance music to stuffy, elitist listening fare.

"Somewhere along the line, jazz ceased to become this music of nightclubs and party atmospheres and became a kind of chamber music," he says. "There became this attitude that you had to hang on every note. When it did that, it really killed itself in the nightclubs. If you talk to any of the old guys, the crowds back then would be just as noisy and nuts as any rock show that we have today. I guarantee you that when The Count Basie Band came to Kansas City, Kan., in 1939, the place was just rockin'."

Over the years, McNeely has probably seen just about every local band that ever played around town. He points out that the local music scene has always had its ups and downs, but also notes that things are now in a serious down cycle.

"It's pretty bad right now," he says. "I wish the Nintendo generation would get their asses away from their video games and learn how to play their instruments. In the last two years, there hasn't been a local band to come out and really tear things up."

Billy Wassung :: This long-time Lawrence musician steps out of his jam-band shoes with a new solo album, which favors soulful alt-folk tunes with mellow chord changes. Lawrence ex-pat Sarah Blacker returns from Cambridge to set the stage ... More info

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