Oteil and the Peacemakers come to the Big Easy in Portland

I can’t exactly remember the first time I heard the name Oteil Burbridge. I’d say it was not long after I was born. It seems like anytime someone brings up the subject of jazz, my dad mentions Oteil. However, I do remember the first time the name became important to me personally.

I was beginning my fourth grade year in elementary school and was facing quite possibly the most important decision of my young life: What instrument would I choose to study? I was in the process of deciding when my music teacher approached me with a fateful offer: Since I was so tall compared to my classmates, perhaps I would like to pick up the bass guitar.

My mother, a flautist, disapproved of the idea, but my father felt differently. I can’t remember his words exactly, but they went something like, “Oh, man! I used to play with this guy Oteil Burbridge back in high school…” I picked up a bass guitar the next day and I haven’t put it down.

Since my dad first introduced me to Oteil’s playing with a taped rehearsal of their high school jazz group, UXB (Un-Exploded Bomb), I’ve played and replayed every Oteil album I could find. I continue to marvel at his playing. Burbridge is one of the few bassists I know who uses a six-string bass to play chords on many of his songs, and he’s the only bassist I know who uses scat-singing to accent his jazzy, technical solos. As my love of the instrument grew, so did my desire to pump my dad for information. What was Oteil like? Was he always that good?

I heard the stories from my dad about how he and Oteil used to play together in the jazz clubs around Washington D.C., but only recently were his stories confirmed, when I gave Oteil a call myself.

“Who? Nooo, get out!” Burbridge said at the mention of my father’s name. “We sure have done some gigs together. I was probably 16 or 17. I guess your dad was a little older. We were playing some jazz gigs together. That’s how I met Greg. He was playing with Ron Sutton, a great alto sax player. I was always really intimidated by all those jazz guys, but man, that was a great time in my life.”

My dad eventually packed up his drums, but Oteil still hasn’t put down his bass guitar, and he’s been putting it to great use. A drummer since age 5, Burbridge first picked up his brother’s bass when he was 14 years old. His father, a jazz aficionado and flautist, turned him on to jazz. “My dad was a fanatic, man. He had one of the most amazing jazz collections ever,” Burbridge said. Despite his immediate attraction to jazz, Burbridge has stayed away from acoustic bass—so popular for the older, standard jazz tunes. “I’d rather play drums than upright, if I was to do a gig on a different instrument,” he said. “You can pick up the electric bass really without any instruction, but for upright there’s techniques that go back like probably to the 1700s or something like that.” Oteil still plays drums regularly, and has even sat in with the Allman Brothers Band to beat the skins.

Burbridge’s first big gigs were during a period he calls his “grad school” years with Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, an experimental jazz-rock group that stemmed from a weekly jam session in Atlanta and eventually produced several albums. After Allen Woody left the Allman Brothers to pursue a different musical path, Burbridge took his place. He has enjoyed the experience immensely. “I started with the Allman Brothers Band about 10 years back, which is depressing because it makes me feel old,” Burbridge laughs. “It’s been a great ride though, a lot of wonder.”

In 2000, Burbridge started Oteil and the Peacemakers, based out of Birmingham, Alabama. They’ve since released three full albums of music that even Burbridge has a hard time classifying. “I don’t think they have created a genre for what we are yet,” he said. “People put us in with jam bands, which is fine, but I don’t think it exists yet. I wanted to mix old soul music and gospel music and all eras of jazz going back to the ’30s. That’s kind of what I’m hearing.”

The Peacemakers will make a rare appearance in the New England area to showcase their eclectic mix of songs and sounds on July 17, at the Big Easy music club in Portland, Maine. Tickets are $11 and are available at Bull Moose Music. For more information visit www.bigeasyportland.com.

Burbridge says he’s currently working on songs for a new album, but he has not yet found the time to sit down and start recording them. “I’m always touring, it seems like. I guess I’ve been touring for the last 26 years!” he joked during a brief respite between shows. As the phone reception started to disintegrate and intermittently cut out various parts of speech, Oteil managed to squeeze in one last request: “Make sure to tell your dad I said hi!”