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Fresh jazz-funk fusion

Winners of the 2007 Independent Music Awards, Garaj Mahal, combine jazz, Middle-Eastern and American funk influences
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Great Garaj Meet the masters of jazz funk fusion at its finest: Garaj Mahal

Who: Garaj Mahal

When: Monday, Dec. 29, doors at 9 p.m.

Where: GLC

Admission: $20

What do you get when you mix upbeat jazz improv with a Middle Eastern feel and American funk? Garaj Mahal.

The foursome is Fareed Haque on sitar and guitar, Kai Eckhardt on bass, Eric Levy on keyboards, and Alan Hertz at the drums. The group came together in 2000, after Haque and Hertz met through a mutual friend in management, who thought their sounds would be good together. Hertz was good friends with Eckhardt, Levy was one of Haque’s top students, and from there, everything just fell into place.

“It was a very easy, natural fit,” Haque reflected.

Their sound immediately meshed, with the foursome walking into the studio to record their first album, Mondo Garaj , just after meeting.

“There was a lot of magic in terms of the chemistry before all four members of the band,” he said.

But they’ve also clocked a lot of hours building and developing their unique sounds, and trying to ensure that they stay fresh and on their game. While each comes from a unique musical background, they share a lot of common interests.

“Kai is, of course, African and German in his heritage. I’m South American and Pakistani in my heritage, so we’re both people of colour, and that has its certain connection,” Haque pointed out. “But we’ve both been pretty heavily interested in Indian music, and I think that’s common with everybody. We’re all musicians who have a good understanding of jazz, are very interested in Indian music, but add to that, we all like to have a good time, we like to party, and we like music that is fun and funky.”

According to Haque, these fun and funky elements, which are an essential part of jazz music, have faded away as the genre has evolved.

“I think a lot of people associate creativity with this kind of angst-ridden, painful, soul-searching process,” he said.

That definitely isn’t the approach that Garaj Mahal takes with their music; instead, they’re busy keeping the party alive. Even their name lends itself well to the party atmosphere and feeling.

“When we originally started the band, we didn’t have a name, and we held a little informal contest on our website, and we had about 800 name submissions.”

Garaj Mahal came out on top.

“It was the one that rung the most true, because we were kind of loose and funky and a little raw — garaj — but then we were also interested in the elegant, spiritual and more formal complexities — so mahal,” Haque explained.

The lineup has changed slightly this year, with the drum seat being shared between Hertz and Sean Rickman, who first stepped in about a year and a half ago to play with Garaj Mahal.

“He also has a fantastic voice, so in addition to being an amazing drummer, he’s a great singer, and that’s a big plus,” Haque added.

With homes in New York, Illinois, and California, practice time can be hard to come by. Fortunately, the group’s live performances are almost entirely improvised, so rehearsals aren’t essential.

“We don’t really rehearse, so that solves that problem, right there,” he deadpanned. They do manage to get a bit of practice time while they’re on the road, traveling from gig to gig.

The self-professed technophiles manage to keep in the same groove by sharing music through fax, phone or Internet. That technological theme even found its way into their newest album, wOOt , which was released earlier this year.

Last year, their 2005 full-length album, Blueberry Cave , was recognized in the jam category at the 2007 Independent Music Awards, which boasts an impressive roster of judges, including Peter Gabriel, Ozzy Osbourne, Cyndi Lauper, and Rob Wasserman.

“It was kind of interesting because I guess there are a fair number of well-known and respected musicians (on the panel), and I guess they were ostensibly able to appreciate what we do,” he said.

The success of Blueberry Cave allowed them to pour more resources into their latest album, which is paying dividends, now.

wOOt has been getting great reviews up and down the board,” Haque said.

This newest effort, while sadder sounding than the first, features much more technical, complicated music. It was also recorded at one of the finest studios in the world, the Record Plant in San Francisco, where Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded Déjà vu , Santana recorded Abraxas , and Stevie Wonder recorded, Songs in the Key of Life .

“We were thick in it,” Haque recalled wistfully. “Just the sound of the room was great, the recording process was very relaxed, and we had enough time and we, of course, had been touring, so we knew the music.”

Over the years, they’ve also had the chance to work with some very well-recognized artists — Dizzy Gillespie, Sting, Chick Corea, just to name a few. But taking the stage with legends doesn’t seem to faze these long-time musicians.

“Kai and I have been doing that for a long time, so it is a danger, but it is true that it becomes business as usual,” he admitted. “…What’s interesting about working with a lot of the masters is you begin to find that we sometimes associate genius or greatness with a divine character. We say, ‘none of us could ever achieve that greatness because we are human, and they are divine.’”

But Haque says that’s a cop-out, and famous musicians are human, too, albeit they’re usually pretty out-there. By now, the men of Garaj Mahal have embraced their eccentricities, which is what Haque believes is the key to their success.

“The moment you can accept how weird you are and let that come through your music, you’re going to be great,” he said.

And these guys definitely qualify as weird.

“If you’ve ever sat in an RV with a guy playing World of Warcraft , completely covered in his winter coat, his hat over his nose, lying in a prone position… for eight hours without stopping, that qualifies,” Haque said with a laugh.

Garaj Mahal has played Whistler plenty of times before, selling out The Boot on a regular basis when they were first getting started. Now, they’re bringing their unique sound to the GLC just after Christmas.