Events

[JAM] It might be a testament to quality, or maybe it’s just dumb luck. But jam-jazz trio Moon Hooch has been able to support its three members pretty much from the beginning, which consisted of busking in New York City. Which isn’t to suggest there’s any lack of talent involved. But lots of talented musicians struggle endlessly to stay in the game, just barely making their lives and careers somehow work together.

“That’s what’s so crazy about this whole experience,” horn man Mike Wilbur explained over the phone as they headed back out on the road for a six week tour that arrives at Buffalo Iron Works on Wednesday, February 8. “We’ve had no day jobs since Moon Hooch started. We could support ourselves right off the bat.”

Maybe the band’s success has more to do with there being nothing else around that sounds anything like them: two sax players (WIlbur and Wenzl McGowen, who both play other horns and wind instruments as well) and a drummer (James Muschler), going at it hard, churning out hyper grooves that pull on everything from rock to swing to klezmer and well beyond. They’re a modern day force of fusion—innovative without becoming inaccessible. It’s high brow music that you can definitely dance to, which keeps a gleeful spirit running through their shows.

Wilbur, McGowen, and Muschler met while attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in downtown Manhattan (also Becca Stevens’ alma mater). Up until that point, WIlbur had assumed he’d probably end up working in a funk/party outfit of some kind, performing lots of private house shows—not a bad way to make a living, but perhaps not the best method of engaging his muse. Moon Hooch feels much more appropriate.

“I definitely think that we attract young jazz musicians and young instrumentalists, because we speak to them in a way that a rock band can’t,” he said. “We brought playing horns to the main stage as lead instruments, which I think gives up and coming jazz players a bit of hope. But it’s a diverse audience, and we work to engage everyone that comes to see us. Last night we played a sold out show and people from myriad backgrounds were in attendance: there was a big mosh pit circle and some older couples up front against the stage… lots of folks that just like to come and dance to something a little off the beaten path. I think the diversity of our audience is evident in the numbers we see for our videos on youtube. Our Tiny Desk show has 1.5 million views.”

Indeed, Moon Hooch attracts a diverse audience that shares a love of listening. It’s not light enough to successfully ignore as background fodder for party conversations and endless selfies: the trio’s music demands your attention and presents a bit of a challenge. Last year’s Red Sky, (Hornblow/Palmetto), received many raves, and WIlbur feels it was their best album to date. But he also feels the recording studio sells them a little short.

“We all come from an improv background, and for me personally, I don’t feel like tracked studio recordings capture our true essence,” he said. “Improvising is really truthful. It’s what you are, what you’re capable of. Rehearsed music speaks to a different part of your creativity.”

To satisfy the improv itch and perhaps come a little closer to truly representing the band’s musical spirit with a recording, Moon Hooch released a pay-what-you-can EP, The Joshua Tree, at the end of the year (which has nothing to do with the namesake release from that overrated Irish band).

“We had some time off after our last tour and we wanted to do something more raw. We’re really into lo-fi, raw, intense music and we wanted to emulate that. [Sacramento-based experimental hip-hop trio] Death Grips does a lot of stuff like that, putting out free EPs in real time, rather than the planning and scheduling you go through with a label. It’s more like making music as an immediate expression, which is attractive. It’s sad that even music has to be looped in with the capitalist mindset and rabbit-chase of money. Ideologically, we’re not capitalists.”