Self-released and available at b3jazz.com; CD $12.97, digital download $9.99
"My name is Kevin Gerzevitz and I play the Hammond Organ. I've learned through my fellow organist Robert Kennedy that you write reviews of jazz recordings. I am a member of a group called B3B4. We are based in the San Francisco Bay Area and I'm wondering if you would consider reviewing our recently released debut album."
I started off my last PF review of Gabriel Mervine's People, Places and Things trilogy by discussing music recommendations from friends and acquaintances, specifically when you're in the business of reviewing music. It's a concept fraught with compromised values and potential mediocrity, that you're doing someone a favor by reviewing their music and being a little less than objective about it since they're your friend or acquaintance. My own experience has been nothing like that—I've received one outstanding recommendation after another because I generally try to hang out with cool people who have great taste in music. I've been very lucky in that regard.
There's another variation on that theme, of course, and it's the cold call—some guy approaches you out of the blue to review his new album because he's read something else you've written and he suspects you'd get what he and his cohorts are trying to accomplish. This is another dicey proposition, because it reeks of "we gotta start somewhere guys, so let me send some emails to random reviewers." But once again, in the real world, I've been lucky with this strategy. These intrepid musicians, go-getters as I like to call them, have all been very genuine and earnest and, above all, talented.
Kevin Gerzevitz, I imagine, is a go-getter. I reviewed Hammond B3 player Robert Kennedy's album Closer to Home right before Christmas and I wrote the following:
"If the world of contemporary jazz is going to have a theme for 2018, it's probably going to be 'The Year of the Hammond B3.' Over the last few weeks I've received so many new jazz releases that feature the classic B3 organ, and if I've learned anything it's this: I love the B-3. It puts me in a great mood, a sunglasses kind of mood. I love the growl, and I love how the player can easily manipulate the dynamics. It's the kind of instrument that can hang back, almost as a drone, and just add a little texture to the music—and it can also take the lead and drive the melody. It's unique and flexible and I'm not surprised that B3 recordings have become so popular."
All of that still holds true five months later. Since that review, I've also written about Hammond B3 players such as Gregory Lewis, Adam Scone, Jared Gold, Loren Daniels, Joe Vincent Tranchina, and many more. I still love the sound of the B3 and the unique energy it creates in contemporary jazz. That breathy growl of these old organs helps the music to break loose from time and float through a world where musical influences fade in and out like slightly dingy, pastel-colored dreams.
B3B4, Gerzevitz' new "soulful funky organ jazz" quartet, takes this untethered feel a step further. This eponymous album, consisting entirely of original compositions from the quartet, starts off in a familiar organ jazz vein with the first two opening songs, "Ranking Member" and "The Convener." These two songs, while lively and direct, sound just familiar enough to trick you into thinking that you immediately get what B3B4 is about. It's B3 jazz. It's hot right now. It's a thing.
But then the next song, "Howdy Stranger," opens up with an acid rock guitar riff that announces the versatility of the group, and that anything goes. From there we get a sanguine variation of the theme song from Hawaii Five-O, titled "Toronado Man," and you can almost see that powder-blue 1969 Oldsmobile cruising down PCH past the sandy cliffs at Santa Monica. B3B4 is from the Bay Area, however, so they might not appreciate the nod to LA. But think about this cool fact: they play twice a month at Club Deluxe, which is located at 1511 Haight Street right of the corner of Haight and yes, Ashbury. That's major helping of '60s mojo right there.
The rest of the album is equally inventive and varied. Every new groove will surprise you, at least a little bit. I realized something, however, when I got about halfway through my first listen to B3B4—I started thinking about The Ventures. B3B4 has its feet firmly planted in the world of contemporary jazz, but there are times when I started hearing parallels. The Ventures, of course, played instrumental surf rock but they also could dislodge themselves from the narrow confines of that genre and explore other types of music—and still sound just like The Ventures. B3B4 has that same fixed identity mated to a willingness to explore. Tenor sax player Tom Griesser, guitarist Scott Foster, and drummer Daniel Foltz can clearly play a number of musical genres, but it's also clear that they love those genres and are more than willing to have a lot of fun playing in those sandboxes. (They are the polar opposite of Ryan Gosling's jazz musician character in La La Land—at least when he had to play Flock of Seagulls at that awful party, that is.)
As you might imagine, that's the key word in explaining this album…it's fun. It's more than just fun, however, it's unusually full of life. If you walk away from B3B4 without liking it, you're probably a stick in the mud. You need to loosen up a bit. Like the Ventures, B3B4 will cheer you up while impressing you with their phenomenal musical chops. So thank you, Kevin Gerzevitz, for asking me to listen to your new CD. I'm at the end of a long winter, waiting for the sun to come out, and this is the closest thing to that feeling I can imagine right now.
One more thing about saying, "Sure…send me your CD." Sometimes the band signs it!
