2007-11-30 - The final performance of my jazz group Excursus

After a run that spanned nearly ten whole months and three momentous performances, my band Excursus is no more. Not because of musical differences, not because we fell off the charts, not because our rock star excesses led to any untimely demises -- simply because starting a band with college students means your days are inherently numbered. Half of the band just graduated from our home base, U. Maine Farmington, so it seems the end is nigh.

Me with the $80,000 piano and Dustin without a hi-hat

Our final show was a few weeks ago in Nordica Auditorium on the UMF campus. It was part of a larger event, which was dubbed "The Grand Carnival" for reasons that I can't particularly remember. We were the second of four acts, playing after an a capella group and before an experimental electronica performer and a free improv group. Attendance was respectable at around 120-130 people.

The set list was similar to that of our previous gig in April, but with one song cut (the 80's tune "Tainted Love") and two songs added (a brand-new, overly complicated original and a groove jazz version of the Big Star song "In the Street," better know as the theme to TV's "That 70's Show"). For background listening as you read, here's a clip of us doing "In the Street":



And here's a rundown of the whole gig:

1. Apocalypso. We moved this original up to the front of the set list because it's one of our more upbeat, lively numbers. Besides, I wanted to show off the originals more this time.
   
2. Heart-Shaped Box. This Nirvana song is the one we rehearse the least. It just plays itself. Mostly just the white keys on the piano...
   
3. In the Street. The theme from "That 70's Show," with a sound clip above. We played it with a groove reminiscent of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," which I even quoted in my solo.
   
4. Non Sequitur. Hours before the show, I realized that this original is a bit like "Christmas Time is Here" from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I tried to put a bit of that into my solo, but it didn't come out quite right.
   
5. Linus and Lucy. Speaking of Charlie Brown, folks usually call this the Charlie Brown song, though it's really called "Linus and Lucy." The melody and bits of the solo are done with big open chords like those in Miles Davis' well-known tune "So What."
   
6. The Grand Carnival. This new original, which I wrote over the course of a single lunch hour, was untitled until just before the show. Lacking a better idea, I just named it after the event, so now it's like a souvenir of the occasion. It has a few distinct parts, all in different keys, but it ties together nicely.
   
7. Super Mario Brothers Theme. I haven't been feeling this one lately, and I think it's a bit too cutesy, so I proposed dropping it from the set. But we didn't.
   
8. Mah-na Mah-na. Our big closing number was the immortal "Mah-Na Mah-Na." In between the "Mah-Na Mah-Na" refrains, where there's scat singing in the Muppet version, we instead interpolate bits of classic jazz songs. This time around, the tunes were: "Well You Needn't" (Thelonious Monk), "So What" (Miles Davis), "Straight No Chaser" (Thelonious Monk again), "Israel" (Miles Davis), "The Girl From Ipanema" (Antonio Carlos Jobim), and "Route 66" (Bobby Troup and many others).
   

Of course, we left the door open to any possible reunion shows, but for now it's time to look for something new. It's been nice having a band again, after playing mostly solo shows for years, so I'll probably put another together. Who knows when, though, so I have more posts about old gigs in the works.

The Excursus posse (minus me): Dustin, Dan, and Josh