Those who have experienced New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival can attest that on most nights the music can keep going for longer than you can. So, when Joe Russo’s Almost Dead wrapped up night two of its three-night stand at The Fillmore on Saturday, May 3rd, fans flooded the streets of Crescent City looking for the next musical adventure. While grooving jazz and fiery funk emanated from seemingly every doorway in town, over at the Toulouse Theatre something unusual was happening as drummer Joe Russo staged an exploratory performance with his instrumental Selcouth Quartet.
Comprised of Russo, frequent collaborator Stuart Bogie (saxophone, clarinet), JRAD alternate bassist Jon Shaw, and Jonathon Goldberger (guitar), the group did some impressive marketing earlier that evening when Bogie, Shaw, and Goldberger joined JRAD for much of its second set. Inside the Toulouse Theatre just after 2 a.m., the vibe had shifted away from the high-intensity Grateful Dead interpretations Joe Russo’s Almost Dead pounds out on a nightly basis. Instead, Selcouth Quartet featured a different kind of dynamic interplay between the four musicians who also came together for the purposes of improvisation—though of a much different style.
Related: What The Hell Is Joe Russo’s Selcouth Quartet?
The Selcouth Quartet was originally set to make its debut opening for Mickey Hart‘s newly reactivated Planet Drum at The Capitol Theatre at a show that was ultimately canceled. Rather than scrapping a good idea, the quartet decamped to the northern tip of Iceland to record its self-titled debut album. Selcouth Quartet oscillates between loose, avant jazz improvisations and trancelike meditations. Even the individual tracks themselves, which run anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes in length, can jump wildly from one style to the next as states of instrumental bliss jolt awake with Russo’s ferocious drumming and wild tempo changes in “Unlimited Light” or Goldberger comes alive with “Maggot Brain”-style soloing on “Before We’re Sunken”.
Those oscillations translated smoothly from studio to stage. The show started off light and trance-y, but just when things seemed their most docile, Russo would burst through with crashes of cymbals and snares, bringing his bandmates along with him. The 95-minute, single-set show was a consistent kinetic catapult that fluctuated from ambient soundscapes to traditional(ish) jazz to stormy psych-rock. Bogie and Russo’s years-long chemistry was on full display as Stuart cycled from saxophone to clarinet to keyboard to define whichever textures were taking shape. As the clock inched toward 4 a.m., the captains went down with the ship as Russo’s thunderous rhythms and Goldberger’s fuzzed-out doom guitar sent the encore rendition of “Before We’re Sunken” down into the sludge to close out the show.
This performance by the Selcouth Quartet in New Orleans was part of Live For Live Music and GMP Live’s 2024 Fest by Nite series during Jazz Fest. Learn more about Joe Russo’s Selcouth Quartet here. The band’s next show is on June 2nd at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, with tickets available here along with a full list of tour dates.