Travels with Rhody

Larry Hardesty, an old friend and colleague from Technology Review (now with the MIT News Office), has turned me on to a new local jazz-fusion group that I’m really excited about. Ra Quintet is their name; Larry describes them as “Bach meets Bird meets Black Sabbath,” or if you prefer alliterations from a little deeper into the alphabet, “Mozart meets Mingus meets Metallica.” I went to see them play Friday night at the Lily Pad, a funky performance space in Inman Square, Cambridge, and was totally absorbed.

I bought Ra’s eponymous debut album on iTunes and have listened to it three times since Friday. As Larry’s description suggests, the music has a little bit of everything—classical, jazz, rock, samba…”chamber fusion,” the group’s own term, fits as well as any other term. It’s music you have to pay attention to—which is not hard, because there are plenty of inventive melodies—but if you don’t keep track of composer/guitarist Brant Grieshaber’s constantly shifting time signatures, you can get a bit lost. It all puts me in the same mood as the music of Lars Horntveth, whose symphonic word Kaleidoscopic was an obsession for months last winter.

Grieshaber’s intense, nimble guitar playing could actually bring me around to appreciating the electric guitar a bit more. (Brant lives just a couple of blocks from me; I shared a ride with him to a party at Larry’s once. He’s a cool guy.) Brendan Burns on classical and electric guitar and Rich Greenblatt on vibes were equally amazing.

I need to get out and see more local music! Ra Quintet is a revelation—I can’t wait until their next show.