By Jake TenPas
The Entertainer | Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:00 am
Rebound Jazz Quartet reunites after more than a decade
CORVALLIS - When Dave Feinberg, Fred Berman, Ron Leach and Mark Bielman first dubbed themselves the Rebound Jazz Quartet, it had nothing to do with bouncing back. It was simply an homage to a particular drum shot, one which a jazz drummer might commonly employ.
But now, either 10 or 15 years after their last show together (depending on whom you ask) the name begins to take on a whole new significance. They groove at Iovino's in Corvallis from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 14.
All but Feinberg are Corvallis natives and have been playing music either together or on their own since as far back as grade school. Feinberg moved to the area in 1976 in pursuit of a woman, and after both his car and the relationship broke down, he decided to stay anyway.
Feinberg jokes that Corvallis is "the land of unlimited limited opportunities," adding that whatever you do here, you might be able to become the best at it. Over the years, he's crafted his own niche as a piano and keyboard player, as well as a dance instructor. He even has provided musical accompaniment for silent movies at Oregon State University. Not bad for a man who says he's an untrained musician who learned just about everything he knows through library books, including "The Real Book."
"I had a good ear," Feinberg says modestly.
Shortly after moving here, however, he was looking for musicians to play with while checking out the local rock, jazz and blues scene. While seeing musicians such as Magpie and Bill Beach, he happened upon saxophone and clarinet virtuoso Fred Berman. After approaching him, the two began to practice together at the Memorial Union, eventually performing their first gig as part of the MU's Thursday concert series, now called Music a la Carte. The duo would continue to play, eventually picking up Leach and Bielman along the way.
"You really want to like the people you're playing with," Feinberg says, proceeding to tell an infamous story about Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach recording "Money Jungle" together. Evidently, Mingus tried to storm out, and Ellington had to bring him forcibly back to the sessions. Such was their personality clash.
Clearly, Feinberg feels quite differently about his bandmates, extolling their virtues to no end.
Berman's been in a number of local groups over the years, including funk group Fat Chance, Hammond organ ensemble the Groove Merchants, and the Nairobi Boys with Neal Grandstaff and Ray Brassfield. He also moved to Athens, Ga., for a while, playing with The Kenosha Kid, a group that played Sahalie Wine Cellars a few years back.
Bielman has played with Neal Gladstone, Jon ten Broek and Dave Storrs, as well as being a regular with The Mark Lichtenthaler Trio. He was even tapped to play with Portland pianist Darrell Grant for his Corvallis performances.
Leach has been playing with the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in recent years, ripping through the repertoire of such artists as Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller, along with other classic Dixie material. He's also played with Gladstone, Maharimba and The Vanilla Syncopators, with Feinberg.
In the early days of the Rebound Jazz Quartet, its members often played a mix of traditional jazz and post-bop standards by the likes of Horace Silver and Wayne Shorter at local restaurants such as Auntie Pasto's, which used to be where New Morning Bakery is now on Second Street. Eventually they would earn a spot at the Mount Hood Jazz Festival in 1985.
Sometime between that performance and 1999, the group stopped playing together as much and each went their separate ways.
"Playing in a band is accommodating," Feinberg says. "It's a dance."
After pursuing new styles and platforms, the four members of the quartet come back together with fresh perspectives and a new bag of songs. "What we realized was that the tunes we picked were really hard," Feinberg says.
When they play Iovino's Friday night, they'll play some of the favorites fans might have heard the first time around, as well as pieces by Chick Corea, Bud Powell and Wayne Shorter. Mostly, they'll be looking to continue to challenge themselves as musicians while reconnecting with the audience.
"A lot of people say they like a tune because they know the tune," Feinberg says. "The jazz musician says, 'I've played this tune 5,734 times. What can I bring it that's new?' Musicians are always trying to get to something that gets with their audience."