On 2011’s KAESHAMMER (Alert Music/Universal), Michael Kaeshammer doesn’t simply wow you with his chops; he
invites you in and talks to you. Yes, he’s a gifted singer and songwriter, a
highly trained technician and interpreter and an incendiary piano player. But
also, on stage and off, he’s a consummate host.
Recorded at
Toronto’s Drive Shed and Keen Studios in 2010 and produced by Ron Lopata
(Jacksoul, Ron Sexsmith) KAESHAMMER
plays like a love letter to life – A set of original songs as playful as they
are contagious. Literally, a feast for your ears that blends ingredients from
Kaeshammer’s vast store of jazz, soul, pop and R&B influences, served up
fresh, piping hot, and with a huge helping of joy on the side.
That joy is clear from the first note
of KAESHAMMER, as is Kaeshammer’s
uncanny ability to take ‘a bit of musical this’ and ‘a touch of musical that’
and create a sound that is uniquely his own – A singular brand
of pop tinged jazz that owes as much to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney as to
Professor Longhair and Albert Ammons on hook laden love songs like ‘A Little Bit Of
Love.
But while Kaeshammer’s fiery style
incorporates elements of his early influences – the New Orleans sound of Fats
Waller, Art Tatum and James Booker – on tracks like ‘Kisses In Zanzibar’ and
the high-energy, boogie fuelled romp, ‘Rendezvous’, he also takes his cue from
one of his own all-time favourite records, Robert Palmer’s Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, recorded in New
Orleans with influential local funk outfit, The Meters, in 1974. In short, it’s
the musical equivalent of Gumbo.
No great
surprise then that Kaeshammer is as passionate a cook as he is a performer and
songwriter. As he told lifestyle writer, Monique Savin: “I love music and
food… At home I have dinner parties where I invite some friends and everyone
cooks together. The day or occasion doesn’t matter. I go shopping just for that
meal and I don’t start cooking until people actually arrive — preparing food is
part of the party.” (Globe and Mail, Dec. 16, 2010)
Similarly, at his shows, the joy is
in the sharing, the process of getting where you’re going, not just the end
result. As the Montreal Gazette’s Bernard Perusse
says: “He's
a showman. And showmanship is what makes
people talk… If you haven't seen him live, you haven't really experienced him in his true element.”
“Technically Brilliant and a spectacle…” says Calgary
blogger, Tim Tamashiro. “Like taking a Ferrari for a drive through winding
mountain highways and then going for a gourmet meal. It excites all of your
senses.”
Like the dinners he whips up for friends in
his East Toronto loft, Kaeshammer’s shows are prepared with your full
participation, and never from a set menu. They’re a party, constantly evolving
and likely to explode in a wild flurry of joy that’s as undeniable as it is
contagious at any second. While no two shows are exactly alike, here’s a breakdown
of how a typical night with Kaeshammer might play out…
When
Michael steps on stage he’ll greet you warmly, as an honoured guest. He’ll play
a song like ‘Rendezvous’. A comfortable start, to showcase his fiery piano
chops and make you feel at home – The equivalent of taking your coat and hat
and showing you around the place.
You’ll
settle in and he’ll introduce you around – First to his longtime rhythm
section, drummer Mark McLean and bassist Marc Rogers,
and then to his horn section who’ll then rip it up with him on a tune dictated
as much by his mood as by what direction he believes you and his other guests
would like the party to head in. Getting there is more than half the fun.
Just
about the time you’re getting curious about how this guy learned to do what he
does so well, he’ll tell you. Not just about himself, but about the musical
family on stage with him, illustrating the fluid dialogue they share with a
tune like their signature cover of Curtis Mayfield’s
‘People Get Ready’, long a Kaeshammer staple live, only recently recorded for KAESHAMMER.
Next
you’ll be invited to take a close up look at the raw ingredients of this
musical feast – treated to a ‘cutting session’ between McLean and Kaeshammer.
They will dazzle and you will roar in approval. And they’ll roar right back –
continuing with a set of songs drawn from Kaeshammer records past and present.
From covers like Peter Tosh’s ‘Stop That Train’, to the title track of 2009’s Lovelight, to his latest work. Breaking
it down with freshly recorded, pop-inspired tracks like ‘The You and Me’ and
the classic R&B fuelled ‘Heartbeat’.
At
this point, even though the party has been in full swing for some time you’ll
be having such a great time it’ll feel like you’ve just arrived. And when the
show comes to a close with you clapping along with the band on the grand
finale, you’ll still want more, and you’ll get it.
And when you get up to go, you will leave
satisfied – not stunned or worn out, but exhilarated.
Kaeshammer’s performances, on record and on
stage, are an invitation to join the party. He doesn’t play at you. He plays
with you. At one of his shows, you’re all in it together – not only part of the
story, but virtually part of the band.
“For me the performance is as much about the
energy coming off the stage as the energy coming from the audience. It’s about
being myself, writing from the heart and showing my love for life. That’s what
I want to convey. After the show, people ask me, ‘do you really have that much
fun?’ And I say ‘you don’t know the half of it. It’s even more exhilarating
than it looks’.”
A night with
Michael and his band isn’t the kind of show where you just sit, watch and
applaud politely every now and then. Their goal isn’t to intimidate you with
the scholarly depth of their music, it’s to entertain, inform and include you –
A wild ride with no fixed destination except where he feels he and the crowd want
to go.
On stage and on record it’s all about
drawing the audience in. That’s where the joy is, pure and simple. And while
joy is something Michael Kaeshammer has never had difficulty expressing, on KAESHAMMER, his third record on Alert
Music, the German born, Canadian bred pianist expresses it more
enthusiastically than ever.