Early Elton Trio is a Tribute to the Elton John, Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson trio tours of 1970 - 1972 featuring Jeff Kazee of Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes (piano, vocals), Rich Pagano of The Fab Faux (drums and vocals) and John Conte of Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes (bass and vocals). Early Elton Trio shows play to capacity audiences in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut , Virginia and DC.
As the story goes, Elton's label didn't have the funds to send him out to tour the US with a full band yet Elton needed to promote his imminent releases. Having decided on Dee and Nigel, Elton then rearranged the songs and vocals to fit within the limitations of his new lineup. Suddenly, a new sound emerged that was both raw and poignant.
While Jeff, John and Rich have painstakingly scoured the net for rare video, bootleg recordings and even Elton's own home demos in shaping their collective vision of Elton's Trio Period, they blur the line slightly between replication and innovation -- while still capturing and utilizing the spirit, mood and energy from those early tours.
The Gospel/Funk of "Take Me To The Pilot", the soulful storytelling of "Levon" and "Amoreena", the epic-sounding "Indian Sunset" and "Burn Down The Mission", the countrified "Country Comfort" and the grand scale of "Madman Across The Water" are just a few of the fantastic chapters that make up the Early Elton songbook. The band has also been known to perform Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water and the live concert, 11 - 17 - 70 in their entireties.
Early Elton Trio is dedicated to continuing the spirit of this period-arguably, his finest in terms of material, production and performance.
JEFF KAZEE
(piano and vocals)
Jeff on performing Elton's early music:
I've always heard a ton of Leon Russell in Elton's early playing and writing. Russell's influence—along with guys like Allen Touissaint, Ray Charles and The Band—seemed to clearly drive Elton's Americana-influenced "Tumbleweed Connection". To take the influences of such strong Artists and then forge a style of your own that appeals to musicians and non-musos alike, well-it's a rare occurence. Adding the dynamic performing style that Elton possessed? Lightning in a bottle.
"Tumbleweed Connection" has always been a favorite of mine—so soulful and earnest, still sounding fresh to me after all these years. It's as if Elton and Bernie Taupin were trying to write their version of Great American Novel in musical form, with Elton hanging his heroes' influences on his sleeves with that funky, churchy—almost guitaristic, at times—approach to the piano and letting his soulful tenor tell tales of the Old West and yearnings of loves lost.
Earnestness. A quality underated by college Jazz musicians and the Seen/Heard It All Cognoscenti alike—but thankfully, celebrated and valued by the Average Joe that just likes music that somehow touches. If you haven't guessed, I fall into the latter. Earnestness completely drives Elton's seminal Live record "11.17.70", dripping with ambition, hard-rocking declarations and a sense of—well, desperation. Screwing around with an impromptu "Take Me To The Pilot" at a soundcheck, I was pleased to find that my bandmates John Conte and Rich Pagano also shared my love for "11.17.70" and the effectiveness—sheer power!—of Elton, Nigel and Dee's interplay on (the already cool) Elton and Bernie Taupin's material. The original Piano Power Trio! Fast forward a year or two later and you find myself, John and Rich exploring and exchanging, through our own interplay, on the "early stuff" that we dig so much in our "Early Elton" shows. I only hope to rock as hard as the trio that inspired us did and that others will share our enthusiam for the music that continues to inspire and challenge the three of us.
A longtime member of the legendary Rock/R&B band Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes, Jeff teamed with Southside Johnny Lyon to write and produce the Jukes' 2010 album "PIlls and Ammo". Another one of Kazee's musical relationships is as a keyboardist / vocalist with Jon Bon Jovi, performing Jon's solo shows and often sharing the stage with the group Bon Jovi—most notably, as a Touring Member on the band's "Have A Nice Day" World Tour.
An eclectic career has seen him perform with Folk/Pop singer-songwriter Dar Williams, guitarist/bandleader G.E. Smith, Soul Music legend Steve Cropper and in the Downtown milieu of Chocolate Genius…oh, and Snoop Dogg. Full bio on Jeff's Facebook and Myspace pages.
Recently recorded Crystal Bowersox's celebrated debut "Farmers Daughter" (Jive Records).
Kazee also leads kazeedigs, a band dedicated to performing music "currently on Heavy Rotation on Jeff's iPod." kazeedigs has presented shows such as "Greats Of The 88's", "Stax Rides The Subway: Soulsville, NYC" and most recently— "Exile On Ocean Ave." at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ—performing in full sequence, the Rolling Stones' landmark Rock double LP "Exile On Main St.".
RICH PAGANO
(drums and vocals)
Rich Pagano, a respected New York sideman known for his expertise in producing, recording or playing drums on tour with artists including Patti Smith, Rosanne Cash, Robbie Robertson, Ray Davies, Willie Nile, gospel icon Marie Knight, Joan Osborne, Levon Helm, and Mott The Hoople legend Ian Hunter. Rich released his first solo effort, rich pagano + the sugarCane cups in 2009 to high praise ("Among the best albums that you'll hear in 2009" - Blurt Magazine).
www.thefabfaux.com
www.richpagano.com
rich@earlyeltontrio.com
Rich on the Influence of the early Elton John Trio:
Early Elton John music was a natural progression for me. The Beatles had just broken up and because of them, I was transfixed by great melody. Elton had the melodic parlor sense of Paul McCartney and the bluesy inflections of John Lennon all in one. It also seemed that all of drummers used on the first three records had a similar sound - Nigel Olsson being my favorite due to his sense of space and trademark consistent behind the groove back beat (and his look! When i was a kid, Nigel was the first rock star that I wanted to look like). Dee Murray was a great mix of Motown and McCartney and although, as a musician, it is important to note his groove lock and live reactions with Nigel, It is equally important to acknowledge the brilliance of Herbie Flowers as a bass player on the early recorded material. We often say that if Herbie felt that there should be a drum fill within a particular section of a song, he would play it himself on the bass!
In later years, I discovered the The Band's influence on Elton and Bernie. A cerebral mix of Nigel and Levon Helm is something I bring to just about every session and live date that I am a part of these days.
JOHN CONTE
(bass and vocals)
Two questions for John on the music of Early Elton:
What led you to want to play the music of Early Elton in with this particular group?
Well, in Elton's early days of touring, the band was strictly a trio made up of Elton, Dee Murray & Nigel Olsson. They were doing something that, to my knowledge, nobody else was doing—or at the very least, no one else was getting attention for doing—and that was rocking out in a trio without a guitarist! That basic trio was not lacking musically in any way—solid, exciting, dynamic, great songwriting plus interesting interplay and improvisation between all the cats…and they all sang well.
Having spent the better part of my musical career playing in standard guitar/bass/drums trios—a departure from that setup is welcoming to me. In this band, I am excited about the different creative possibilities that I own as the only fretted intsrument!
What about the music of Early Elton John attracts you?
When I first heard the Live "11-17-70 " album 20 something years ago, it smacked me right in the face of just how steeped in American Blues, Soul & Gospel music that Elton and his band were. As a bassist, I've always tried to channel the spirit and feeling of the players on those old Soul and R & B records from the 60's and 70's—that stuff is very close to my heart.
Dee Murray's bass playing was always supportive—but not strictly invisible—he was melodic, colorful or slippery just at the right moment . It's astonishing how much sound they made for a trio on those live performances from that Early '70's era and the scope of musical landscapes they could travel over—barrelhouse Rock n' Roll, Stones-ey swagger, Brian Wilson-esque Pop, Gospel, Soul, Country twang, moody ballads—but it all works, like combining many colors to paint one picture.
Generally, Elton's first 3 or 4 records are more rootsy—simple, stripped down and compared to the records that he would later make, there is a significant absence of slick studio production, synthesizers or gimmicks—leaving the listener touched by the melody, lyrics and performances.
John has been an in demand bassist for studio work in NYC and Live touring for the past 2 decades. He has released 3 independent records of his own with his bands "The Contes" and "Crown Jewels", the latter of which was voted one of the top unsigned bands in the USA by Musician Magazine in 1998. John was also a member of Mercury/Polygram recording artrists "Company of Wolves", releasing a Billboard 200 rock album in 1990.
Current projects include: Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Ben Neil's XIX, chiildren's Rock and Roll band "Leo's Mom", Prisoners of 2nd Avenue and the singer/songwriter Danielle Evin (Vapor Records).
Other Artists that John has recorded or performed with include:
Marc Cohn, Rosanne Cash, Levon Helm, Joan Osborne, Perer Wolf,
Ian Hunter, Phoebe Snow, Johnnie Johnson, Rachael Yamagata, David Bowie,
Jon Bon Jovi, John Waite, Billy Joel, Simon Kirke (Bad Co.)
johncontebass.com
prisonersof2ndavenue.com
leosmom.com
thecontes.com
john@earlyeltontrio.com