Meet people through music
Meet people through music
Club d'Elf is the brainchild of bassist Mike Rivard, one of the most respected musicians on the Boston music scene, having played with a startling variety of artists, including The Either/Orchestra, Natraj (Indo-jazz), Hypnosonics (with members of Morphine), The Story, Aimee Mann and Paula Cole to name but a few. In 1998, Rivard seized the opportunity to play a residency at Cambridge's ultra-hip Lizard Lounge by creating a rhythm section-oriented band with a floating cast of guitar, keyboard and horn players. Playing his tunes, which draw on influences ranging from Miles Davis and The Meters to electronica and Moroccan music, Rivard created a distinctly personal style from the bottom up, a sound which varies depending on the sidemen, but is always fascinatingly broad and a mile deep. Club d'Elf's existence as an ever-changing live band made it logical that its first seven CDs were live albums. However, d'Elf's first studio recording reflects another side of leader Mike Rivard's musical personality. Now I Understand takes fearless improvisations recorded "live in the studio" and weaves them into tight, layered compositions, perfectly paced and meticulously detailed. Primarily occupied with creating virtually a new edition of the band for every show (which would amount to dozens of personnel combinations throughout the collective's history), it would take Rivard years to construct the studio tracks thereby documenting the composer/bandleader/ensemble's journey through time. Collaborators include d'Elf live show regulars John Medeski on Hammond organ, Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron and analog synthesizer, Billy Martin on drums, Mat Maneri on viola, Dave Tronzo, Reeves Gabrels, Duke Levine, Gerry Leonard (aka Spooky Ghost) on guitar, Alain Mallet on keyboards and DJ Logic on turntables. The core of the band, its rhythm section, remains consistent: Rivard on bass and a Moroccan three-stringed bass lute called the sintir, Brahim Fribgane on oud, dumbek and percussion, Mister Rourke on turntables and Erik Kerr on drums.