Where no jazz has gone before

Will jazz ever make it into the dance clubs? If Alpaca! has anything to do with it then, yes.

Named after an animal that is somewhat of a cross between a camel and a llama, Alpaca! holds true to this idea of a crossbreeding rings as it plays a refreshing mix of jazz-funk-electronica that makes jazz lovers dance and dance lovers at last become receptive to jazz.

All transplants from elsewhere across the country (Chicago, North Carolina, Mississippi and New Mexico), the quartet of Alpaca! features Greg Pelander on keys, Matt Murphy on jazz guitar, Rowan Cobb on bass and Ian O’brien on a trap kit.

“We met in Virginia,” says Pelander about he and Murphy’s original collaboration. “We played in a weird comedy/classic rock cover band called Greg Pelander and the Pelandertones. A few years later, Matt moved out to Portland, and I followed him here.”

Through friends and a mutual love for random jam sessions, Pelander and Murphy met Cobb and O’brien, both of whom were jazz students at Lewis and Clark. The quartet’s brand of jazz-infused funk/electronica was difficult to get a finger on. If Pelander and Murphy had had classical training the band may have taken a totally different route.

“Compromise,” Pelander says. “I think all of us had different ideas of where this band was going from the start. I know that I saw this project developing as more of a jazz-funk group than what it is now. We’re all sort of tugging the band in our own directions, and the result is really fun and interesting, definitely better than anything I could come up with alone.”

The band is very careful not to be pigeonholed into any one genre because for them it is all about the audience and the vibe that is traded off between musician and listener.

“I don’t think that the Portland jazz scene is really aware of us,” Pelander says. “We have shared the bill with some artists I would consider jazz musicians—Ben Darwish, Asher Fulero, Chris Mosely, etc.—but we haven’t played Jimmy Mac’s or for a ‘jazz crowd.’ I would hesitate to call our music jazz at all, though it is heavily influenced by it.”

Alpaca! are the sort of musical chameleons that like to let the crowd dictate what sort of set they will play. The band asks a metaphorical “What the fuck are you gonna bring?” to its audience and then replies in kind.

“Whatever our audience is gravitating towards [we play],” says Pelander. “Sometimes you show up at a venue and you know immediately that they aren’t going to dig the break-beats or electronic noise, so you keep it tight and funky. On the other hand, we could be playing an after party at 3 a.m., and we can skip right to the raging electronica, because the crowd is already ready for it.”

But for all their electronic leanings (think New Deal or Sound Tribe) there is a sonic counter-part to Alpaca! that relies heavily on the members’ jazz background. It’s in their bones: the plunking keys, the jazz scales and the thumping bass. There’s a certain element of jazz the band will always have.

And it is never more evident than in their self-titled debut album. More often than not the electronics give way to mellowed jams. The track “One Up” begins with a frantically funky key line and then devolves into the more subdued mood of a good jazz lounge. But the dance-party promised from the start is only kept in the hi-hat twitter of the drums. It’s understated and mellow throughout the whole.

Alpaca! shines in tracks like the opener “Tetsuo” where even though keys change and tempos shift, the layers keep piling up and underscoring the other elements of the song. The ambient waves of synth create the blanket that the sparse guitar, funky drums and general electronic schizophrenia frolick around in. Halfway through the tempo changes hand claps are introduced, coaxing any listener to use their bodies as well. However, these are elements that the recorded medium is more conducive to than the live experience.

“When you’re recording an album track,” Pelander says, “you might not want to include the 10 minute jam or that really long solo, but you can go back over it several times and add new parts that you wouldn’t be able to do live. ‘Testuo,’ the first song on our EP, is a good example of this. We were able to add more pads and effects than we can effectively do live.”

Wherever Alapaca! wanders, one can be sure they have the musical fortitude and know how to continue adapting to their changing circumstances. Whatever shape it takes that is the best shape, and the audience is just as complicit as they are.

Like the band’s mission statement says: “When we step onto the stage above a dance floor, we bring it hard and non-stop. Our music is an invitation to co-create in the live music experience, so throw on your glitter and sequins … bring your disco balls, lights and body paints … fill up your spirit … and LET’S GET DOWN!”