Document text
Photo by Bob Pennell Members of the jazz trio OM, from left, Ilya Stemkovsky, Dan Fusco and and Brian Felix, relax in the Talent duplex where they live and rehearse. The three moved to the Rogue Valley from New Jersey more than a year ago. Transplanted trio celebrates CD release Members of jazz group adjust to valley's slower pace By BILL VARBLE Don't miss it WHO : OM WHAT : CD release party WHEN : 10 tonight WHERE : Ashland Creek Bar and Grill ADMISSION : $3 The good part about moving from New Jersey to the Rogue Valley is you get away from the fast pace. The bad part is, you get away from the fast pace. "If Ashland was an hour from San Francisco, it'd be perfect," Dan Fusco says. Fusco, a 23-year-old bassist in the trio OM, grew up in New Jersey. Ditto fellow band members Brian Felix and Ilya Stemkovsky. Fresh from college and looking for new horizons, the men heard from a friend of Fusco's that Ashland was a cool place. They wound up in a Talent duplex. That was more than a year ago. Since then the band has become a mainstay on the Ashland jazz circuit. Now it's releasing its first album, "The Clarified Butter," on its own Slimtrim Records label. A CD release party is planned tonight. "We were looking for a cheaper place to live," Fusco says. What about rehearsal noise in a duplex? "We were here first," says Stemkovsky, 23, the group's drummer. Actually, they say there have been no complaints. They doubt that would be the case in Ashland. OM's name and the album title both come from jazz immortal John Coltrane, who once explained "om" as the first sound in the universe, the sound from which all else derives. This OM plays modern jazz and a jazz/funk/fusion mix uniquely their own. Think somewhere between Dave Brubeck and The Doors. As you step into the OM den, Clyde the cat sprawls on the couch. Rock posters line the walls -- Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Phish -- but musical scores lying around run more to jazz greats such as Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins. A calendar and handmade OM posters testify to the band's local gigs: Alex's, Evo's, Kat Wok, DaddyO's, the Osprey Brew Pub. The OMsters rehearse under a bare bulb in a single-car garage crammed with sound equipment, bicycles, drums, an organ, cables snaking around the floor. A tapestry covers part of a wall where a rustic painting depicts two women dancing in the sunshine. The drums and bass establish a gently swinging groove as Felix, 22, picks out the familiar melody of "Autumn Leaves" at an electric keyboard. Felix is equally at home on acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, clavinet or Hammond organ. He started piano at 5, studied with jazz pianist Kenny Barron and earned a music degree from Rutgers University. Stemkovsky says he's from "a backwoods town not unlike Medford." Actually he was born in Moscow, Russia, moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., then to Old Bridge, N.J., from which base he played the New York/New Jersey circuit while earning a public relations degree. Fusco, who handles OM's business end, discovered the bass as a teenager and kicked around various New Jersey bands. Also raised in Old Bridge, he earned a psychology degree while studying with the principal bassist in the New Jersey Symphony. "People in New Jersey are really intense all the time," Fusco says." "Nobody in Jersey has time," Felix says. The three list musical influences from jazz (Coltrane, Miles Davis) to rock (Led Zep, Frank Zappa, Phish) to classical (Debussy, Chopin) to funk (George Clinton) to the exotic (Philip Glass, Fugazi, Meshuggah). As if to prove the classic jazz trio of piano, bass and drums is as viable as ever, OM stays busy with jazz gigs. But there are few places to play original music in the Rogue Valley. To grow, the guys figure they'll need to take the band to a regional level, to Portland and beyond. In the meantime, they await the reopening of the old Mark Antony and the debut of a a new jazz club, both in Ashland. "This is the beginning," Stemkovsky reflects, kicking back on a couch that looks like it's seen generations of grad students. "Not having jobs is good. We don't go to a gray cubicle every morning. "Having people who aren't necessarily your friends come to see you is good." The band's first gigs were populated largely by friends, he says. "Dan knew everybody. He had 1,000 friends. He'd bring his friends, and I'd bring mine. There'd be 1,002 people at the gig.' That was then, this is now. OM gigs are more and more crowded, and not just with friends. The future beckons. Life is good. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA