The Buskers

Artist Information

Biography

The Buskers have been digging among the roots of popular music since they met at an acoustic open mic in a cellar dive in New Hampshire in 1993.

With more or less old school instruments led by the genre-blurring violinist KZ Sommer, they tap the street music tradition for which they are named, then go much further, with serious musicianship, a sense of humor, and energy to burn. Their kitchen sink repertoire ignores boundaries between jazz, folk and rock. Their sound is defined only by deep respect for the craft of songwriting and arranging, and a shared love for the inventive possibilities of improvisation.

KayZee Sommer has studied with artists as diverse as latin jazz maestro Eddie Palmieri and the Turtle Island String Quartet, played for years with the swing band Sweet, Hot & Sassy, and runs an acoustic music camp in New Hampshire every September. Self-taught jazz pianist (and bassist and accordionist) Craig Jaster has played with a variety of jazz artists, including Delfeayo Marsalis, Tiger Okoshi and the late Big Joe Burrell. Guitarist Paul Hubert has performed extensively in New England as a solo artist on classical guitar and as a singer/songwriter.

The Buskers have toured and recorded with several great freelance drummers, including Tim Gilmore, Paul Knowles, Gary Gemmiti and Kyle Crane.

Instrumentation

Kyle Tupper on drums - Drums, Piano

Discography

CDs: Spank That Tambourine! (2009), Ray's Vacation (2004), The Buskers, (1999). Tracks are available for sale via itunes and cdbaby on the band website. The Buskers have gotten airplay on New England folk radio programming, North Country Public Radio, Albany and Lake Placid radio.

Links

• Fiddleheads Acoustic Music Camp

Audio

• Juliet
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• It's Gonna Rain, It's Gonna Pour
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• Ray's Vacation
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• Free Range Duck
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• It Could Have Been Worse
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Lyrics

• It's Gonna Rain, It's Gonna Pour
• World Weary Soul
• Put The Fiddles Down, Boys
• Call Me A Fool

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Café Spotlight by John Berbridge [+ Show ]
  

  8/4/07—The Buskers traveled a long way for this evening of superlatives. Two of the band members liv...8/4/07—The Buskers traveled a long way for this evening of superlatives. Two of the band members live on the St. Lawrence Coast but two others live in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. The Buskers are: Paul Hubert on guitar and vocals; Kathy Sommer on vocals, mandolin, and perky, plaintive, powerful violin; diminutive dynamo Craig Jaster on piano, accordion, 3?4-size upright bass, and vocals; and drummer Paul Knowles, a percussionist of rare taste and style. The Buskers are a spunky, energetic, fabulously talented quartet. They played soft jazz, swing, folk-jazz, jazz-funk, a bit of zydeco, and even some quasi-reggae. Ray Charles, Fats Waller, and George Gershwin are prominent names on the Buskers’ playlist, but they performed plenty of their own tunes as well. See this band if you get a chance. I’d even call them luminescent. As well as versatile, passionate, and funny.
  
  

• The Buskers Are No Cookie-Cutter Group [+ Show ]
  

  12/9/99 A busker is "a street musician or public entertainer, especially one who solicits money dur...12/9/99 A busker is "a street musician or public entertainer, especially one who solicits money during a performance." As for the band known as The Buskers, they give this definition: One woman with a mean violin (Kathy Zimpfer) and two guys who have been on the frayed edges of the state's music scene since 1993."
  
  Vocalist Craig Jaster's interpretation of buskers is "foolhardy souls who who play for pennies in parks and subway stations. But we don't play on the streets much; it's way too cold most of the year in New Hampshire." Instead, these busekrs are about sophisticated musicianship with a folk sensibility and a variety of acoustic instruments. "Our secret recipe is to subject audiences to a (musical) gumbo of cajun, celtic, swing and jazz standards, sexy Brazilian instumentals and silly Tex-Mex polkas as well as new spins on old pop hits--whenever we're not playing our original material. The lyrics to their Cd, "The Buskers," are comliments of Craig Jaster, who describes himself as a "hard cappuccino-drinking, balding frontman."
  
  The Buskers' grassroots folk sensibility is firmly rooted in the granite State...but the most unusual thing about this CD is the clever mix of adding fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and recorder to the guitar, bass, keyboard and drums for a distinctive country contra sound that is uniquely their own. The music has pep; the lyrics have punch. There is no doubt about it, this combination of seasoned musicians results in a one-of-a-kind CD. L9unge lizard cookie-cutter music this is not.
  
  The Buskers have represented New Hampshire at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, MA and have aired on New Hampshire Public Radio and on radio station WNEC. They have performed at venues that include The Pressroom in Portsmouth, NH; and Canterbury Shaker Village as well as coffeehosues, gazebos and schools throughout the state.

• Dave Colburn
  

  Sexy... romantic... a tour de force of original material, with a nod to tradition...

Setlist

It depends on the venue. They are always changing their set lists…huge repertoire; more than they can ever hope to play at one show. In an opera house/concert setting, they might start off with a voodoo/gumbo cover of the old Appalachian tune “Shady Grove,” with three-part harmony, competing solos from violin and piano; and go from there. They play mostly from their own catalog (75%?), plus folk/pop, jazz and roots, with some covers of standards by the likes of Fats Waller or Louis Jordan, roots rock interpretations of Cajun or New Orleans or traditional fiddle tunes, and maybe something by Ray Charles-–plus spontaneous storytelling interruptions and talking to the audience.

Or they can just play background jazz instrumentals all night (code name: T.B.B. "Tasteful Beyond Belief."). Generous to a fault, they have even once in a while played Ye Olde Requestes like "Proud Mary," (but not "The Devil Went Down To Georgia").

Basic Requirements

Calendar