Patscha home, and all’s well with Ollabelle

By: Chris Smith Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2011

There's something quite special about voices joined in harmony, five to be exact, a capella, to open a concert of great roots music.

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There's something quite special about voices joined in harmony, five to be exact, a capella, to open a concert of great roots music.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/06/2011 (5581 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s something quite special about voices joined in harmony, five to be exact, a capella, to open a concert of great roots music.

Members of the New-York-based Ollabelle set the tone for their jazz festival performances with a delightful rendition of You’re Going to Miss Me When I’m Gone.

Though they perform good covers of tunes such as Jesus Is On The Main Line and Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes, their best work comes from the pens of band members (all of whom are vocalists): Glenn Patscha (piano, keyboards), Amy Helm (mandolin), Byron Isaacs (bass), Fiona McBain (guitars) and Tony Leone (drums, guitar).

KEITH LEVIT / JAZZ WINNIPEG
Patscha (far left) and his Ollabelle bandmates delivered a fine performance at the West End Cultural Centre on Monday. — KEITH LEVIT / JAZZ WINNIPEG Patscha (far left) and his Ollabelle bandmates delivered a fine performance at the West End Cultural Centre on Monday.

Dirt Floor, a Patscha tune, and Record Needle, by Helm, gave the audience a taste of the band’s upcoming CD, Neon Blue Bird, due out Aug. 16. The band excels at rootsier material, but Needle let them rock out a bit, especially Patscha on piano, playing before a hometown jazz-fest audience for the first time without playing jazz.

Patscha, who left town as a teenager in the late ’80s to study and play jazz in New Orleans, has returned over the years leading jazz bands, but has repositioned himself after becoming disillusioned with the strictures of jazz.

The “new” Glenn Patscha, if one can call him that, is at ease as a performer, composer and member of this collective band.

The fine musicians first joined up at New York club gigs for beer and tips, and have become a band with the sensibilities of, say, the Grateful Dead, in terms of their harmonies, writing skills and blended roles.

For example, a fairly pregnant Helm took over the drums while Leone picked up a guitar and sang Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes, a Taj Mahal song that also appears on Neon Blue Bird (yes, she is the daughter of that other Helm drummer, Levon).

Ollabelle gave a nod to The Band and Bob Dylan with a version of Ain’t No More Cane, which featured a punchy piano solo by Patscha.

Despite being a cover, Ollabelle’s version of Down by the Riverside — with its almost-haunting refrain “Ain’t gonna study war no more” — was a gem, a clear example of the band’s collective singing talents.

So, yes, there is a life after jazz, and Glenn Patscha is living it large.

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca

Concert Review