Preview
BARON SAMEDI E.S.Q.
Saturday, May 1
Night Gallery Cabaret
Ah , the Lord of the Dead. You’ve seen him – top hat, black tuxedo, sunglasses and a cigar. Between leading people to the Haitian underworld and making lewd jokes, Baron Samedi was known as a bit of a party animal.
Apparently Vancouver’s Baron Samedi Ecstatic Soul Quintet aren’t the only ones that think this Voodoo Lord of the Dead is cool. There’s also a horror-core rap group from Georgia that shares the name, but that’s probably where the similarities end. Baron Samedi the rapper explores the world of voodoo and other things of a dark nature while the Baron Samedi E.S.Q. offer up clean, raunchy funk without a hardcore message. Much more than a party band, their self-styled ecstatic soul is a surprisingly successful mix of soul, funk, jazz, rock and punk.
The founder and leader of the group, bassist Steven Balogh, says the combination of instruments makes for a unique sound with every member’s eclectic tastes coming into play.
"Every band I’d been in before had a singer and guitar player," says Balough. "So I guess when it came time for me to start my own band after being in other people’s bands for years, I decided I didn’t want to have a singer or a guitar player."
Instead, the group is a classic quintet made up of Shane Krause on saxophones, Rod Navarro on percussion, Tyson Naylor on Hammond M3 Organ and Benji Bohannon on drums. Most of the members have traditional jazz training, so hearing an extended solo in one of their live shows wouldn’t be a shocker. Mixed with a rock sensibility and funky style, the guys from Baron Samedi seem to have found a niche that can include a dichotomous mixture of differing styles.
"I think that we’re doing something truly different," says Balough. "I really don’t think that there’s any band that sounds like us – at least any that I’ve heard in Canada. It’s not really rock and roll and it’s not really jazz. We end up playing with rock bands and ska bands. It’s hard to pin us down I guess. It was part of the idea when we were starting out. We don’t have to adhere to any strict genre." |
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