Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
The Essence of Emily
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
Jonathan Scales carves out a space in the jazz world for his instrument on his latest album, Pillar (Ropeadope).
(Photo: Courtesy of Artist)Béla Fleck knows a thing or two about establishing an identity in the jazz world while playing an unusual instrument. So, it made sense that the banjo player would bond with a younger jazz musician whose specialty is an unusual instrument: steel pannist Jonathan Scales.
“I see a kindred spirit in him—in his need to be the best he can be,” Fleck said. “I identify with his struggle to learn jazz on an instrument where it’s hard to find the path, because currently there isn’t a clear one for pans or banjo.”
Fleck plays with Scales and his band, Fourchestra, on “Focus Poem,” a track on Scales’ sixth album, Pillar (Ropeadope). The clipped twang of his banjo fits well with the distinctive ping of the steel pan.
“[The Flecktones] are such a big influence on me,” Scales said. “I wouldn’t be here without them. I’ve worked very hard at getting to know them, driving for hours, so I could be at their show seven hours before they went on, so I could talk to them and maybe play with them at sound check.”
Just as the banjo is closely associated with Appalachian music, the steel pan is tightly linked to Trinidadian calypso. But just as Fleck liberated his instrument, Scales has freed the pans, crafting a jazz-rock fusion on the new album, which also features trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, among others.
It was at North Carolina’s Appalachian State University that Scales fell in love with the pans. Due to the efforts of now-retired professor Scott Meister, the school had its own steel pan orchestra, punfully named the Steely Pan Steel Band. Oddly enough, Scales initially was not interested in the group. “My friends twisted my arm, and I joined the band,” he recalled. “I loved it. It was the perfect combination of rhythm and melody.”
In 2013, Scales dubbed his quartet the Fourchestra, and kept the name even after the group was trimmed down to a trio, which now includes bassist E’Lon JD and drummer Maison Guidry.
“When I was in college,” Scales said, “I had this idea that I would create a jazz band with steel pans and it would be totally unique. Then my friend told me, ‘Yo, Andy Narell exists.’ ... I’ve been to Trinidad three times, and I’m definitely not turning my back on tradition. But I’m going to play the music I want to play. I grew up listening to Dr. Dre and Eminem, then studying classical saxophone and orchestral and film score music. I want to get it all in there.” DB
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
Cynthia Erivo and Herbie Hancock perform “Fly Me To The Moon” during a Grammy Awards tribute to Quincy Jones on Feb. 2.
Feb 3, 2025 10:21 PM
The jazz and blues community may not have been center stage for the majority of the 67th annual Grammy Award…
