Brian Slattery Photos
The musicians were laying down grooves on Tuesday night before anyone arrived or the house lights went down. They settled into something nice and mellow that still let every player take a turn. They stopped when the State House’s doors opened and joined the first few people who came in. For a time they chatted with the audience members. Then they started for real.
“Old friends, beautiful people, talented musicians,” Paul Bryant Hudson said from the stage, “thank you for coming to the Jam at the State House.”
The event, which looks to become a semi-regular thing at the State Street club, brought a big band of New Haven-based musicians — Hudson on vocals along with Jeremiah Fuller and Andwele Coore on keys, Pete Greco on guitar, Travis Hall and Albear Sheffield on drums, Stephen Gritz King and Dylan McDonnell on saxes, and Trey Moore on bass — to the stage to give the audience a full night of jazz-inflected neo-soul, while keeping things loose and fun for themselves as well.
They began with a simmering jam, in which McDonnell and Greco passed a few ideas around while the rhythm section held it down. Moore took a small break mid-jam to eat a little brisket, which gave the drummers a chance to stretch out. They wandered into a take on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that reconfigured and reharmonized the song, making it more languid and also a little creepier. They were just getting warmed up.
To the left of the stage, Josh Wyrtzen of Nexas Barbecue was handing out said brisket to eager customers. “I grew up watching guys do it at church potlucks and house parties,” he said of how he learned to make brisket. “Growing up in Texas, that’s what everyone did. Everyone has a smoker in their backyard.” He’s considering moving Nexas to the level of doing catering, but “the thing that makes me happiest is doing house parties. Things like this.”
“House party” might be the best phrase to describe the evening. A switch in rhythm, to something that swung a little harder, drew an oooooh from the people in the back. The drummers traded measures, back and forth, while Moore held down the pulse on the bass. They arrived at a 2019 version of Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing” that gave everyone in the band a taste of the action.
Hudson took the stage to sing one, but before he did, he extended an invitation to the crowd. “I’m going to hang out here,” he said, “and anyone who wants to join us in any way, whether you want to tap dance, play the tambourine, sing, or do the Harlem Shake … you don’t have to say too much. Just tap me on the shoulder and I’ll show you the way.”
One audience member took him up on it. He started one song, then decided to pick up the Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy.” He was good. The band followed. He took a verse and a chorus, then looked around and smiled.
“All right,” he said, “I’m going to pass it to someone else. Thank you, thank you.” The audience cheered.
Another singer took his place. She finished the second verse of the song, then did some improvising of her own. She started to leave the stage. The audience begged her to stay, but she was done. The band moved out of “Crazy” by diving into a fleet-footed rhythm that had the drummers’ hands fluttering. Greco and Moore kept up a simple harmonic structure. The two keyboard players headed into outer space, trading lines back and forth. Fuller had a huge smile on his face.
The first set of the Jam turned the State House into a hot nightclub. As Fuller and Hudson led the band through jam after jam, eager listeners crowded toward the front to shout their enthusiasm at the band, while those who can come to socialize hung in the back and chatted. It made, in a word, a scene.
The crowd for the second set was a bit smaller, but the people who stayed wanted a good time. And the band — now augmented by Eric Rey on congas — gave it to them. They first jammed on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” turning it into a highly danceable meditation. Another audience came up, and all together the band tore through Steve Wonder’s “Superstition.” The rhythm section was now fully warmed up and smoking; everyone got a chance to rip into a solo. It was a song that felt like a finale, but it wasn’t all.
The night finished at last by visiting D’Angelo’s take on Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love,” and then proceeding to D’Angelo’s own “Sugar Daddy.” They fell into their longest, grittiest jam of the night, as Fuller called in reinforcements on the keyboard so he could take over a drum kit. The singer who had made “Superstition” her own took the other keyboard slot. The two keyboardists dug deep, getting gnarlier and more chromatic with each pass. Finally the drummers responded in kind with a beat battle that made both of them crack the widest smiles of the evening. Hudson thanked everyone for coming. The audience was slow to leave. It had been a good party, and they were in no hurry for it to be over.
