by Ryan P. Ives

A funk influenced jazz quartet Aug. 28.played the Kirkland Café and they return Sept. 23 for a nine o’clock show.

“The way we like to describe our musical style is jazz straight up, funk chaser”, said James A. Frey, a city resident and drummer in the Rollo Tomasi Quartet.

The RTQ played a high energy five song set opening with an earthy deeply grooving rendition of The Meters classic “Cissy Strut,” which was followed by Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints” and a funk version of Charlie Parker’s “Ornithology.”

Frey said the crowd-pleasing “Ornithology” was arranged spontaneously during a practice session. “We were at practice and Chris called the tune. Before we started playing it I started playing a funk pattern on the drums. Chris started playing ‘Ornithology’ on top of it. It sounded really good, so we created our entire arrangement of the tune based on that,” said Frey.

They closed the show with an infectious version of Sonny Rollin’s “St. Thomas.” The entire band soloed but reserved the final solo for tenor saxophonist Douglas J. Moore who was celebrating his birthday.

All of the band members are accomplished on multiple instruments and bring a variety of musical influences to the mix Frey said. The RTQ plays an array of jazz standards, often with a noticeable funk influence, as well as original compositions.

Moore has written several of the bands songs including the experimental “In Theory,” a composition he wrote for a college music theory class Frey said.

“Doug likes to write in odd time signatures to keep us on our toes, and he also likes to switch time signatures. In the “b” section of ‘In Theory’, the song changes key signatures four times in only four measures”, said Frey.

“I’m interested in an avant garde approach to writing music while keeping it user friendly, I want audiences to like to listen to it. That’s what I was trying to do with ‘In Theory’. Use an exotic scale along with the odd time signature to create an intriguing mood but at the same time being user friendly”, said Moore.

For the Aug. 28 show bassist Steven G. Conahan said he played fast paced bass grooves on the electric bass but he is equally talented on the upright bass. “I think the upright has a better swing feel because of the larger size of the instrument and physical nature of it.”

“It takes longer to speak and that gives it a nice jazz groove in terms of locking in with the horn and the drums. It’s slightly on the back of the beat which allows the rest of the band to lie back even on the faster tunes. The electric is more of an immediate sound and it’s a lot easier to play fast patterns and things like rock and funk on it”, said Conahan.

The band started in 2001 when Chris Wisdo, the guitarist in the RTQ met Frey at work. “Chris was doing contract work for the company I used to work for and we discovered that we both liked jazz and started chatting about it,” Frey said.

“One day he pointed out that there was a back office that wasn’t used. He asked the office manager if we could use it to practice at night and she said yes,” he said.

These encouraging initial sessions in and empty office, which included a keyboardist, led to an unexpected early gig, he said.

“They closed the entire Boston office and about 25 of us lost our jobs at the same time,” said Frey.

“We continued to practice there for a while after the company moved out. They threw a party right before new people moved into the office and invited everybody that got laid off. The three of us played at the party.

Chris dubbed us ‘Into the Frey,’ and we played with that name for a few months”, said Frey.

During this time the band found a bass player and continued to practice regularly but wasn’t gigging. At the end of the summer of 2001 Moore joined the band. Moore, who went to the same college as Frey during different years, said he moved to Boston not knowing any musicians, he said.

“I got a call from my college jazz band director who told me there was a really talented saxophone player moving to Boston and he asked me if he could give him my e-mail address,” he said.
“A few weeks later I got an e-mail from Doug. He came to a practice in October 2001 and it really clicked. It was almost magical how everything fell into place,” said Frey.

The group had their first gig with the name Rollo Tomasi Quartet in May 2002 at Sabur in Teele Square where they played a cramped but memorable four-hour show, he said.

Soon after the first gig Frey said the band lost their keyboardist who left in part because he became a father.
From there Frey said the band played at a number of venues in the greater Boston area at one point playing a five gig run at the Banshee in Dorchester.

“Soon after that we got in with the Kirkland Café in November 2002. We’ve played there once and occasionally twice a month ever since.”

The band played a high energy more funk influenced set for their first appearance at the Kirkland thinking it was a rock oriented club Frey said. “We realized that it’s not exclusively a rock club, they are very diverse. If Mickey thinks your cool he’ll put you on”, said Frey.

Mickey is Mickey Bliss, who books bands for the Kirkland and also plays in The Mickey Bliss Organ Combo, began scheduling the RTQ to follow his own band on Friday nights, Frey said.

“Mickey is a great guy. He’s really given us a place where we can stretch out and do the kind of music that we want to do,” said Moore.

Frey said the style of the Kirkland, which often features single sets from multiple bands, was a new structure for the RTQ. “It’s great to own a night and play three sets, but the nice thing about the Kirkland is that you put everything you have into 45 minutes and you just focus on the music.”

Since starting to play regularly at the Kirkland the band has had one more personnel change. “Our bass player moved to Nashville in 2003 to start a new life and become a father. I’m starting to see a recurring theme with this, I wonder whose next?” Frey asked.

“Fortunately for us towards the end of 2002 Chris had met a guy at a party who knew a bass player,” he said.

After playing a show at the Good Life in Downtown Crossing, the band went to see Steve Conahan perform and he later sat in for a practice session with the band. “It reminded me of when we first played with Doug. We knew right away we wanted Steve,” Frey said.

The RTQ played a memorable show in late August at a music festival in Western Massachusetts, Conahan said. “It was put on by a band Brother Mosley who we met at the Kirkland, they were billing it as ‘Beanstock.’ It was a two-day camping event.

“I think they had around 20 bands, that was a very fun time,” he said.

Frey said during the RTQ set there was a major thunderstorm and the audience had to squeeze underneath the canopy that covered the stage.

“We got to really play a lot more loosely and be a little more experimental because there wasn’t as much of a time constraint and we were left up to our own devices in terms of the stuff we wanted to play,” Conahan said.

“We got to do some more out there on the edge playing that day that I think is going to bring the band to the next level,” he said.

All of the members of the RTQ said at the core the band is really a group of guys who love to play music. “One of the great things about this band is we’re all pretty much on the same page,” Frey said.

“When Chris and I started this we were both in the same position, we had non-musical careers but really loved music and were serious about playing good music. We’ve been lucky to find other people in our position,” he said.

The band continues to expand their repertoire and the variety of gigs and just recently was booked for the Boston Young Professionals Association’s New Years Eve party at Vinalia in Downtown Crossing, Frey said.

“We’re at a point now where we are interested in expanding, but no matter what we’ll continue to play the Kirkland because they’ve been great to us and we love it there,” he said.

The Rollo Tomasi Quartet will play the Kirkland Café Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. To contact the band for booking or to join their e-mail list serve send emails to rtquartet@yahoo.com