Chandler Travis Three-O
Eastham, Massachusetts, United States
Music
Press
"The song structures are never predictable, the melodies are as involved as they are unforgettable, and the arrangements are mapless safaris into the pop unknown. It all adds up to a work of pop art that is beautiful, bewildering, and bewitching."
-Ed Bumgardner, Winston Salem Journal (NC) - Winston Salem Journal
"...uniformly terrific. What makes this such a gem is the attitude -optimistic, bittersweet, and generally content. This record goes down as well in the morning as it does at midnight; it's grown-up music by a grown-up iconoclast."
-Paul Rapp, Metroland (Albany, NY) - Metroland
"...quirky, ballad-centered masterworks that aren't afraid to be earnestly romantic and shamelessly melancholy while still eliciting the wry smile."
-Gordon MacLachlan, Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA) - Valley Advocate
"The irreverent guitarist, singer, and composer Travis, who lives on Cape Cod and has been known to perform barefoot and in his pajamas, makes a rare New York City appearance with a slightly scaled-down version of his big band. Travis has been in show biz for nearly four decades. For years, beginning in the seventies, he co-led the musical act that opened for George Carlin on his tours. His other band, the Incredible Casuals, got its start in the eighties and is a fixture on the New England music scene. He’s gearing up for a long night of playful original songs that mix mind-bending wordplay with Dixieland jazz, shimmering rock, and horn-fuelled R. & B." - New Yorker
"...a musical maverick with brains and a wicked sense of irony. He comes across as a less addled Tom Waits, but no less intriguing."
-Ken Capobianco, Boston Tab
- Boston Tab
"...effortless...a born jazz singer."
-Rick Shefchik, St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch (MN) - St. Paul Pioneer Dispatch
“Dixieland romps, twisted Mardi Gras marches, sweaty 60’s rock, smoky torch songs, and occasional novelties that sound somewhere between Randy Newman and They Might Be Giants, all with hilariously offbeat lyrics. The world would be a better place if Travis would only visit more often.”
- Sam Hurwitt, San Francisco Express - San Francisco Express
"He's a true New England eccentric, a master of daft power pop, and a loose, encyclopedic conceptualist who's pals with NRBQ, and admired by Elvis Costello, the Young Fresh Fellows, and George Carlin..."
-Rob Tannenbaum, Village Voice (NYC) - Village Voice
"Chandler Travis is a valuable commodity in a marketplace that has us listening to the same old same old."
-Patty Larkin, the Cape Codder - Cape Codder
Discography
An album with Travis, Shook, & the Club Wow; 7 or 8 with the Incredible Casuals; twenty or thirty solo and with the Philharmonic, most recently 2010's "The Chandler Travis Philharmonic Blows"... One of these days I'll make a list...
Photos
Bio
The CT Three-O is the brand new portable version, led by Chandler Travis (founding member of Travis Shook and the Club Wow, the Incredible Casuals, and the Chandler Travis Philharmonic (the world's only alternative dixieland and omnipop band), who toured with George Carlin and NRBQ for decades (they both appear on various albums)...
Chandler also appeared on TV on Dick Cavett, the Tonight Show, and the Midnight Special; and performed at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the Stanley in Pittsburg, Pine Knob outside of Detroit, the Music Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston, Tipitina's in New Orleans, Slim's and the Great American Music Hall in SF, and Max's Kansas City, CBGB's, and Carnegie Hall in NYC (as a result of appearing at the latter, has stopped practicing completely); not to mention the Wellfleet Beachcomber in Wellfleet, MA.
The Chandler Travis Three-O,like most things in life,started by mistake,as a result of Chandler having a hard time finding rooms large enough to house his nine-piece Chandler Travis Philharmonic. In 2009 or so, a couple of small, friendly bars opened on Cape Cod (the first being the Harvest Wine Gallery in Dennis) that asked Chandler about doing something with just another person or two, which wasnt at all the direction hed been going in.
These offers coincided happily with the arrivals in the Philharmonic of string bassist John Clark and jack of all trades (but especially saxophonist, keyboardist, and clarinetist) Berke McKelvey. Chandler had dabbled in smaller formats before, but in Clark and McKelvey he suddenly had two extremely talented and enthusiastic players who shared his passion for detailing,arranging,and rehearsing. Both played beautifully on his recent solo album, 2009's well received After She Left, which turned out to be sort of a petri dish version of the live group to come, and with the frequent addition of vocalist and longtime supporter Fred Boak, aka The Valet (for what good is a Three-o with only three people?), the Three-O was born.
At least two unexpected surprises followed: it gradually became evident that the Three-O could play just about anything the full version of the band could play, once they put in the time to adjust the arrangements, plus a few things it couldnt; and it immediately became evident that audiences responded to the tighter focus in a delightful way, clearly picking up on the songwriting, which has always been at the heart of the matter in all of Chandlers bands, in a way they didnt when confronted with all the many distinctive personalities and riotous pageantry of the full CTP or the hell-bent-on-filling-the-dance-floor high energy of his other band, the Incredible Casuals. The vast simplification seemed to engage people in a disarming and unassuming way, quieter and more direct. Lo and behold: yet another branch was born!
The Three-O is currently putting the finishing touches on a new album that should see the light of day in winter of 2012.
(NOTE: No videos here, but plenty on youtube.com, both solo, Three-O
(for instance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrMXis5gNc4
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoODdREbXGc
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unb6G-vdQgo
and
with the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, the Incredible Casuals, and the Catbirds.)
Links
