The shape of jazz to come

It could probably be said that when the Park Bench Prophets rehearse or write, there is probably not a debate as to which style they will play in, but instead how many styles they’ll fit into whatever jam they’re working on. Listening to their tunes you hear everything from the Average White Band to Booker T & the MGs to King Crimson, sometimes all in one song. Their music has more ingredients than a Louisiana gumbo, with jazz, funk, soul and ’70s-style progressive rock among many other elements.

In the hands of others, this could be an unfocused mess, like a bunch of chefs dumping their various seasonings in the pot irrespective of how the final dish tastes, but the Prophets pull it off with a seamlessness and seeming effortlessness, all without the artistic “I’m better than you” smirks of some of their peers. Listen to “Aftermath”: With a dramatic, almost funereal beginning, an uplifting organ melody sneaks in and the song takes off, with moments of fuzzy bass and space-age keyboards mixed into Bourbon Street jazz.

This is exactly how they want it. Started a few years back as a way for Ventura music veterans Joe Baugh and former Reporter employee Tony Cicero to test their respective musical boundaries, the lineup has evolved around drummer Cicero and three cohorts, each of which leaves their mark on the sound of their new self-titled record.

Cicero, best known as the former drummer for L.A. punks Saccharine Trust and local surf-rock outfit the Phantom Riders, mixes the hard-hitting power of John Bonham with the subtleties of a Buddy Miles or Alex Acuña. Eric Szabo combines greasy-spoon Hammond organ with spacey keyboards that wouldn’t sound out-of-place on a Pink Floyd record. Saxman Kyle O’Donnell seems to play it the most pure, but adds some hip-hop and R&B to the mix, while Johno Dunn adds bits of rock thump to traditional jazzy basslines. New Age this isn’t.

“It’s an amalgam of everything I’ve learned,” says Cicero, whose father was a jazz musician. After leaving Saccharine Trust, he formed the Mecolodiacs with guitarist Joe Baiza, where he started to explore mixing jazz with other kinds of music. Nowadays, Cicero is most inspired by a younger wave of jazz musicians such as Charlie Hunter, Joshua Redman and Medeski, Martin & Wood, artists who freely match traditional jazz with other musical textures. “There’s a certain purity to this music, a certain spirituality I wanted to tap into. It’s always been a part of me.”

Now, like modern jazzmen such as Hunter, he wants to test the boundaries of the form and see where it takes him and the band. He sees a new wave of jazz-influenced artists taking hold creatively, if not commercially. When asked about Redman and frequent collaborator Brian Blade, he says, “What they do is nothing short of amazing.” It’s not to say he doesn’t have his old-school influences, either. He calls the Meters “one of my very important influences. Zig [drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste] is one of my favorite all-time drummers.”

The band certainly has a mission in mind.  “We want to bring a high level of musicianship and remain accessible to people who like rock, jazz, funk, and soul,” Cicero says. He figures these fans will hopefully, in turn, be turned on to jazz, which he speaks of in almost religious terms. “Sometimes it can be fun and high energy, other times brooding and dark. There’s always a lot of different colors and moods going on.”

The new record is a reflection of this. There is the mournful “Crescent City Lament,” which along with “Aftermath” was inspired by the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. There is the groovy jazz of “Soul Mover” pushed by O’Donnell’s saxophone, and the slightly spaced-out “House Atreides,” perhaps the only jazz tune named after the Dune books.

“This record is a time capsule of who we were and what we were doing at the time of the recording,” says Cicero, who adds that when the band plays live they like to stretch the material out, add elements and seek to challenge themselves artistically. “We want every night to be better than the last night.”

Cicero makes no bones about his goal.

“The modern guys are part of a growing family of bands that thrive because they’re always challenging themselves musically and creatively,” he says. “I want to see Park Bench Prophets become a part of that.”   

Park Bench Prophets performs June 18 at the Experi-Mental Café (401 S. A St., Oxnard, 385-3605). For more info, visit www.myspace.com/parkbenchprophets.