Chill X / The Infidels launch ft. Atley King’s Four recap

Once again, we have a new Infidels Jazz series. It began as of Wednesday, August 23rd and is even newer than the last, being at a first-time venue: Chill X in Mount Pleasant.

Chill X welcomed us using what the tech Lean Startup people would call a minimum viable product (MVP), which makes sense: prove demand first, fill in the bells and whistles later. And prove demand they did, as Tim Reinert got up to introduce two sets of music to a full house.

The bar took only cash or E-Transfer, selling water, Bubly, alcoholic fare, and snacks. Some curtains behind the stage separated the green room from the house floor; there was a PA with a couple microphones, and the musicians brought amps. All of this may change between now and when Wednesdays begin in earnest at the space, a month from now on September 27th.

It's a dark room with neon colours everywhere. As musicians kept coming in to hear the second set, including the trio who just wrapped an evening at nearby La Fabrique St-George – Chris Davis, Sharon Minemoto, and Dan Howard – the side-stage area became a lounge where they could chat and catch up a bit.

The band was vibraphonist Atley King's Four featuring Andrew Skepasts on guitar, David Caballero on bass, and Arvind Ramdas on drums...

It's a tight stage, especially with vibraphone. Arvind played a 3-piece kit on the far side stage right to make room. All the musicians adjusted well to the room's industrial acoustics as the night went on.

The opening arrangement of "Night and Day" switched from Afro-Cuban to swing and presented the joy of the David Caballero - Arvind Ramdas hookup immediately; you can feel how much time they've spent playing together over the last four years.

George Coleman's "Apache Dance" had more where that came from as Atley and Andrew played super-long bebop lines confidently; we won't see an instrumentalist here who has to breathe to make sound until trumpeter Thad Bailey-Mai is the bandleader in late September.

Atley opened a version of Cedar Walton's "Hindsight" with unaccompanied vibes, then Andrew and David backed him nicely with all the bass background figures from this arrangement:

They closed the first set with an original, "Wandering", from Atley's upcoming album Unconditional on Cellar this fall; and a Peter Bernstein blues that Atley wanted to "relay across the country" after learning it directly from Bernstein in New York.

In set two, the band Four played Freddie Hubbard's "Dear John", John Coltrane's "Impressions"with a bass solo up-front that captured the house's attention, "Autumn in New York" arranged intricately by Andrew, and another blues to close: "Blues for David". Atley said it "wasn't written for David Caballero on the bass, but tonight, it might as well be."

While Atley led off the blowing on almost every tune in set one, the second set showcased the band more evenly in what was a more straight-ahead, up-and-down set of tunes than I expected – see the last time I wrote about the vibraphonist and the 10+ minute flowing compositions.

This was about as good of a start for jazz at Chill X as you could dream up, so it'll be fascinating to attend in a month, see the venue’s evolution, and get a feel for the momentum.