By Ann Treacy
If I built a time machine, and I could bring one band with me to the past, present, and the future, I’d pick Irie Sol. A full brass section, guitars, basses, drums, keyboards and three main vocalists, their music is joyous, and their songs tell a story. Thursday night I joined them in their time machine to celebrate F Scott Fitzgerald’s birthday at the historic Commodore Hotel. Guests dressed in period – and people were of the moment if the moment was 1920. (Side note: apparently the Commodore bar is opening for regular business in late October. You should go if you like old school class!)
The Puttin’ on the Fitz soiree was the perfect backdrop to the release of Irie Sol’s latest CD, Dred Scott Fitzgerald: A Novella. It features songs for the literary sect such as Dancehall Daisy (as in Daisy Buchanan, a love interest from The Great Gatsby). Bernice Dreads Her Hair (loosely based on Bernice Bobs Her Hair) and Reggae Gatsby. It was fun to hear them play those songs and more in a place that has known how to party for more than 100 years.
Irie Sol has a timeless blend of Jazz that’s been around for generations and newer musical twists like beatboxing. Neither feels out of place or contrived; the music sounds just as it should. It’s as if they brought the beach to the manor house more than bringing modern touches to old stories and classic rhythms. It is the band that would have been hired to play F Scott’s birthday back in the day. It’s the band from The Music Man, it’s the band from Blues Brothers, it’s band you want to see.
The band looked the part- crisp white shirts, black ties, fedoras, red vests, sideburns, and dreadlocks. They started the show with drums and bass and a smooth sound. Modern dancers in flapper dresses drew the audience in as the rest of the band slowly sauntered on stage, one at a time, each adding a layer to the original beat. Suddenly there they were at full sound and adding a special Commodore rap featuring highlights from the neighborhood (WA Frost and Nina’s). The room got 10 degrees warmer – and cooler at the same time.
Dancehall Daisy mashes up a bouquet of sounds from a preacher’s pulpit, rap, and scat. Throughout the Jazz swirls “Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer true”. Feels so Right is funk with fast lyrics, just a touch of ska and ends with horns testifying the sentiment. The Eau Claire Sound is reggae-ified musical score that ties the Harlem Sound to the St Paul Sound via Eau Claire (home to Bernice – who bobs or dreads her hair, depending on the version you know).
What it isn’t – is music to sit to. The dance floor was hopping. The musicians played, sang, danced among the audience. Some of us dancers were invited on stage, which is always fun. As good as the musicians were, they were even better showmen. The music felt improvised in the best way because it feels like it’s original like it’s being performed with the audience as an active participant. Like how could this ever be this good again – but I bet they manage it.
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