Roister |
The group Roister is coming
to Bell’s Brewery on May 22, 2014 . It’s an original band created like a super
group. The core group features Markus Messina, Ray White, and Jesse Clayton.
Members of Roister have
played with Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia Band, The Macpodz, The Grateful Dead,
Melvin Seals and JGB …
Markus Messina is the
founder of the group. He says the name "Roister" means boisterous
merry making. “I saw it somewhere and I thought, what a great
name for a band. “Making people dance,” he explains with a dash of
para-improvisation. “It kind of fit.”
"We're kind of trying
to create a celebration of life," says Messina. "And in that you have
a lot of funk mixed with some fusion and we've added a couple Frank Zappa tunes
because a lot of the guys have played with him."
Thinking about Zappa’s music
was notoriously challenging for studio musicians to record from sheet music
solid black with the rock maestro’s notations, covering Zappa constantly
presents a challenge.
“Like TomFowler said, there’s easy Zappa and there’s real Zappa,”
Messina says.
“I don’t know,” he adds with
a chuckle, when asked to explain the difference.
“It’s a groove-oriented
band. What Ray brings to the table is a way of improvising. We could be in the
middle of a jam and suddenly we’re playing a Zappa song.”
That improvisation lends
itself to a unique evening of music resembling The Grateful Dead in one way:
never duplicating the same set list two nights in a row.
“We’re trying to provide a
one-time experience,” Messina says. “If you’re here that night, you might hear
something that we won’t play the next night,As a young musician, what I've
always respected and liked about Frank Zappa was the approach to a live show
and not having it be set in stone,"
The band members try to make enjoying music
with each other and performing fun. The group has a lot of capable musicians to
let one single individual overshadow anyone else.
"It's really all about
listening to each other and creating these moments for everyone else to
shine," Messina says.
The band has big plans for
this forthcoming show at Bell's Brewery. The band will debut a storytelling
tune from Roister's Ray White called "Spring Water." They'll also
play a number of other new songs and you might even notice a Beatles medley
inside.
The band will move to
Chicago to record their initial album shortly after their performance at
Bell's.
Roister is coming to Bell’s Brewery
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frank zappa newspaper
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