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stage presence // MOUTH
local musicians, feel free to swoon.
"Let's do a grooved-out disco-funk thing," Stephen Gunn, Mouth's drummer, says. The band's electric bass player, Zach Rizer, nods, looks to his rainbow of sound alteration pedals and taps three buttons with his foot. Rizer rhythmically plucks his bass, causing his amp to sound like an arcade space invasion. Gunn lays a danceable beat and Jeremy Anderson, the trio's guitarist, complements Rizer's bass line with a trance-inducing melody. "Ghetto-ass mix-a-lot," Gunn says, and Mouth's sound transforms accordingly.
The trio's palette of improvisational capabilities spans far beyond the previous two suggestions. "We don't try to have a certain genre." Anderson says. "We take elements of music that make people dance and put them together." They examine such dance catalysts in funk, hip-hop, electronic, Latin dance music and others. Mouth's improvisational influences come from jazz artists such as Jojo Mayor, Victor Wooten and Madeski as well as Martin & Wood.
"They have a mentality about music that helps us come up with what we find," Rizer says. Mouth's compositions spawn in practice jam sessions, and then develop once they explore the song's potential. Their songs, like
many jazz compositions, have structured areas and places for creative improvisation. "Audience members come to us and ask us about our sweet new song when it was just a variation of one of our old songs." Rizer says.
Mouth's songs also evolve with their resources. Rizer and Anderson spend hours researching alteration pedals for their instruments to carefully expand their sound credentials. They have supplemented their experience by featuring guest musical and video performance artists at recent shows. Visit the Jazzhaus, 926 Massachusetts St., at 10 p.m. on April 9 and get in on the word of Mouth.
// TAYLOR BROWN
Photo by Layne Haley
Members of Mouth from left to right Jeremy Anderson, Zach Rizer and Stephen Gunn
GRAMMY AWARD WINNER
LIED CENTER OF KANSAS
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