WAIPOULI — The night itself was a lesson in jazz: four musicians showing up on a few hours notice, agreeing to fill in for a cancelled show, and immediately sliding into a groove of smooth sounds, effortlessly sharing solos or
WAIPOULI — The night itself was a lesson in jazz: four musicians showing up on a few hours notice, agreeing to fill in for a cancelled show, and immediately sliding into a groove of smooth sounds, effortlessly sharing solos or “trading fours,” as guitarist Greg Yost explained it. The lesson is improvisation, which as bassist Michael Odo explained, is 90 percent of jazz music.
“It’s improvisation within a structure,” saxophone player Evan Wheeler said of the music, which is also true of their band. Although Monday night at the Oasis at the Waipouli Beach Resort was the first time they had played together as a quartet, all four know each other from the Kaua‘i Community College Jazz Band. Yost and Odo have played in the ensemble for 15 years, Wheeler one year, and drummer Jeremy Robinson only a few weeks, but Odo and Robinson have known each other for years.
“I was subbing one day at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, and they had a talent show,” Odo said. “He (Robinson) wheeled out a drum set and played a solo for five minutes.” Odo and Robinson got to know each other better over the years when Odo worked at Kaua’i High School. Wheeler moved on island a couple years ago sans his saxophone, but changed that when he found the KCC Jazz Band.
“I finally got my sax shipped out from Denver and started playing right away — I love it, it’s the best band I’ve ever been in,” Wheeler said. All four of these musicians know music, and during their break patiently explained the alchemy of it to this writer, who gave up the violin at age 10 after five years when told I had to actually read the sheet music. Odo explained to think of music as a language.
“Music is a language like anything else,” he said, adding to equate letters to notes, words to phrases, and sentences to tunes or melodies. Once you have learned the language, you can play, just like learning a foreign language and then going to the country and conversing. And just like conversation, jazz is organic, improvisational. But just like any dialogue that has a universal structure of beginning with a greeting and ending with departing words, a jazz song is the same.
“The tune starts with the melody and ends with the melody after everybody solos,” Yost said, explaining that the term “trading fours” translates to four beats for each soloist. Watching the band that night as they played in the open-air venue with tiki torches and the snaking pool in the background, if you paid close attention you could see how they communicated who should solo, and when. A head nod, a smile, or slight glances were gestures peppered into the fluid songs. There was a range of upbeat numbers to sultry ballads, picked from “The Real Book,” what Wheeler calls the “jazz standard.”
If there were any miscommunications or ad-libs gone wrong, no one noticed — a testament to their talent and to the jazz genre. Odo and Wheeler said there is a saying in jazz that “if you play a wrong note, play it three more times and it won’t be wrong.”
There’s no set date for this foursome to play at Oasis again, but hopefully it will be soon. Oasis, which still boasts 85 percent locally produced foods on their menu, is starting a discounted bar menu on Wednesdays with “affordable small plates,” Manager Michelle Freeman said, adding they don’t want to hear that it’s too expensive,” they want to make it appealing for local residents.
Oasis has live music nightly, and Freeman said musicians are always welcome to contact the restaurant about playing there. For more information call 822-9332.
