Time, again, for Three

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

By Matthew Irwin

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Do not use the word “crossover” when talking to Nick Kendall about his classically based trio, Time for Three.

“We’re not aiming for a crossover, but reaching a wide variety of audiences because we’re helping the art form evolve.”

Crossover, he said, connotes a band that adapts its music to attract more listeners, whereas the failing record industry has left a gap in music definitions that has allowed musicians to stretch their boundaries without being constrained by classifications.

Time for Three, he said, is a classically trained garage band.
Let’s be sure not to deemphasize “classical”: Kendall met his band mates at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute for Music, and when I asked him at what venues other than concert halls and amphitheaters the band performs – considering Tf3 appeals to bluegrass, jazz and Americana fans as much as classical fans – he said none. The sound in a concert hall is too good to give up.

“We have an epic sound,” Kendall said. “It’s melodic, but infused with a lot of rhythm taken from styles of gypsy – the energy of gypsy and American roots music with scope and range of classical.”

By example, Tf3 takes a certain concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach, and plays it as fast as possible. The piece turned into dueling violins with a walking bass line.
One of two violinists, Kendall comes from a hip-hop background in Washington D.C. Ranaan Meyer (bass) takes his jazz background from New York City. And Zack De Pue (violin) is from Bowling Green, Ohio, where his music bin included country.
“So much of our music is indicative of Americana – it relates to the urban and flat lands of America, and the mixed cultures of its regions,” he said. “Jackson Hole is the perfect place to perform it.”

The band played here two years ago during the GTMF (again the trio’s host) – an experience that left a mark in the form of a song by Meyer, titled
“Wyoming 307.” He wrote it on a ride from Salt Lake City, and now the band opens every headlining show with the composition.

The trio began playing together at music school for “beer money,” Kendall said, and they were having too much fun to quit. That was eight years ago.
Now, Tf3 is finishing its third album, Three Fervent Travelers, and from the level of Kendall’s enthusiasm, Time for Three is doing well at creating an art form that stirs different types of music lovers in a similar way.
“People come away having a good time.”  JHW

Time for Three plays 8 p.m., tonight, at Walk Festival Hall. $41; $10 students. www.gtmf.org.

Courtesy Tf3/Vanessa Brinceno-Scherzer
Time for Three unofficially kicks off the GTMF season.

PERMALINK:
Time, again, for Three | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

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