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Bo-Wee

“Major Tom” gets MAJOR reworking in Trio tribute

FROM THE THIN WHITE DUKE TO ZIGGY STARDUST, DAVID Bowie has had more artistic incarnations than most 20 people. And yet people continue to take inspiration from his expansive catalog and to try to take it in even further directions.
Among the latest (and potentially most diverse) of these artists is the Brooklyn-based jazz combo Wee Trio (www.weetrio.com) who will bring music from their new Bowie tribute Ashes To Ashes - A David Bowie Intraspective to The Lily Pad in Cambridge (www.lilypad. com) on February 11.
“The name was kind of a play on words,” explains the Trio’s James Westfall, noting that the nominal inspiration came both from the Nintendo Wii (which hit stores around the time the band hit its first gig) and the fact that they were able to fit their large instruments (a bass, drums, and a vibraphone) into one of the band member’s small cars.
As they offer a combination of sounds that is almost as novel and expansive as Bowie himself. It makes sense, then, that they tried to capture the Bowie catalog on their new album.
“David Bowie is an artist that is always evolving and always changing with the times,” Westfall observes. “His music breaks genres from folk to punk to rock to electronica….Artistically, this is something that we strive for individually.” As jazz is a similarly- evolving art form the two coincide and support each other well. “Though he isn’t a jazz musician per se,” Westfall notes, “he is an artist that inspires us.” Even so, he emphasizes that, as they are a trio rooted in jazz, they bring a jazz sense to Bowie’s rock and pop proclivities.
“As an acoustic vibraphone trio we want to play the music while still staying rooted to the music that influences us day to day,” Westfall says. “Naturally because we are well studied in jazz music our interpretations on Bowie will naturally have a jazz spin on it and will be heavily improvised.”
Having downloaded the entire Bowie catalog (Legally, Westfall notes), the Trio pored over Bowie’s scores of compositions, looking for those that would be done the most justice by their unique combination of sounds. “We each listened to the records and chose four of our favorite songs and transcribed them,” Westfall recalls. “We narrowed down the songs to the best fitting songs for the group and slightly arranged each song while keeping true to the original spirit.”
Among the tracks that made the cut are “Battle For Britain” (from Earthling), “The Man Who Sold The World” (from The Man Who Sold The World), “Ashes to Ashes” (from Scary Monsters), “1984” (from Diamond Dogs) and “Sunday” (from Heathen).
As diverse and career-spanning as the tracks are, Westfall feels that he and his Wee companions have been able to bring new life to these seminal songs.
“We feel that covering another’s song is worthless unless one can make that song different than the original,” Westfall explains. “We don’t want to be a David Bowie Cover band. We want to show how this is all just music and not about genre.” Having already covered selections from the catalogs of Nirvana, Aphex Twin and Sufjan Stevens (as well as pages of great original material), the Bowie material is just the latest in the Trio’s evolving and expanding catalog of provocative performances.
“For us it’s about playing good music,” Westfall says, “whether that be Louis Armstrong, Beethoven, or David Bowie….
For the fans of Bowie, we hope to give them different renditions on their favorite songs. We hope that we can give jazz fans a deep respect for artists in other genres outside of jazz and classical and for them to recognize the brilliance in David Bowie.”