In Motion Collective

Expect a gyrating crowd when San Diego’s jazz-, funk- and Afrobeat-fueled In Motion Trio+2 (IMTPT) plays Friday at downtown’s all-ages Dizzy’s Culy Warehouse. (This is the old Dizzy's, across from Petco Park, fyi, not the newer Dizzy's in the san Diego Wine & Culinary Center across from the San Diego Convention Center)

The quintet’s Nov. 26 gig at the same venue drew a packed house of fans, whose ages largely mirrored those of the band’s young members (which range from 17 to 21).

“It was a whole different crowd than we usually get. There were girls at the front screaming, like it was a Beatles’ concert!” said longtime Dizzy’s honcho Chuck Perrin, who is happily bringing IMTPT back for a show Friday with two like-minded Brooklyn bands, Zongo Junction and Turkuaz.

Friday’s show is part of a 10-city California trek by IMTPT, which returns here for a Jan. 15 show at UCSD’s Ché Cafe. The tour, which promotes the group’s robust debut album, “The Barefoot Race,” takes advantage of the fact saxophonist/flutist Joe Harrison, 20, is home on winter break from Boston, where he is a first-year jazz guitar student at the Berklee College of Music.

Drummer/banjo-player Jeff Wilson and keyboardist-percussionist Evan Penza, both 20, now live in Santa Cruz, where they are members of two bluegrass-oriented bands. Dillon Casey, 21, studies jazz and classical guitar at San Diego State University, while bassist Tim McNalley, 17, is a senior at San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas. All five are San Diego natives and Harrison and Casey first earned attention as members of the San Diego Music awards-winning rock band the New Archaic.

“The nice thing is the chemistry between us is so good that when we get back together to play, we snap right into doing it,” said Harrison, who was 15 when he became lead guitarist in the seminal Orange County punk-rock band The Adolescents (whose other members are, on average, at least 25 years older than him).

IMTPT began in 2007 as the Jeff Wilson Trio, with the goal of playing completely improvised music. Harrison joined last year, followed by Penza this summer (which is when the band added “Plus Two” to its moniker). IMTPT’s influences range from Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and jazzy jam-band favorites Medeski, Martin & Wood to hard-bop trumpeter Lee Morgan, funk-jazz trio Soulive and French composer Claude Debussy. But IMTPT brings a fresh attitude to its music, which combines empathetic precision and freewheeling adventure.

“We’re all multi-instrumentalists who love playing different styles,” said Wilson, whose main gig in Santa Cruz is drumming in the jam-band Birdhouse. “In one song, we might quote Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footprints’ and something by Stravinsky. We all have huge record collections and we all dig pretty deep.”

--George Varga - San Diego Night & Day

Expect a gyrating crowd when San Diego’s jazz-, funk- and Afrobeat-fueled In Motion Trio+2 (IMTPT) plays Friday at downtown’s all-ages Dizzy’s Culy Warehouse. (This is the old Dizzy's, across from Petco Park, fyi, not the newer Dizzy's in the san Diego Wine & Culinary Center across from the San Diego Convention Center)

The quintet’s Nov. 26 gig at the same venue drew a packed house of fans, whose ages largely mirrored those of the band’s young members (which range from 17 to 21).

“It was a whole different crowd than we usually get. There were girls at the front screaming, like it was a Beatles’ concert!” said longtime Dizzy’s honcho Chuck Perrin, who is happily bringing IMTPT back for a show Friday with two like-minded Brooklyn bands, Zongo Junction and Turkuaz.

Friday’s show is part of a 10-city California trek by IMTPT, which returns here for a Jan. 15 show at UCSD’s Ché Cafe. The tour, which promotes the group’s robust debut album, “The Barefoot Race,” takes advantage of the fact saxophonist/flutist Joe Harrison, 20, is home on winter break from Boston, where he is a first-year jazz guitar student at the Berklee College of Music.

Drummer/banjo-player Jeff Wilson and keyboardist-percussionist Evan Penza, both 20, now live in Santa Cruz, where they are members of two bluegrass-oriented bands. Dillon Casey, 21, studies jazz and classical guitar at San Diego State University, while bassist Tim McNalley, 17, is a senior at San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas. All five are San Diego natives and Harrison and Casey first earned attention as members of the San Diego Music awards-winning rock band the New Archaic.

“The nice thing is the chemistry between us is so good that when we get back together to play, we snap right into doing it,” said Harrison, who was 15 when he became lead guitarist in the seminal Orange County punk-rock band The Adolescents (whose other members are, on average, at least 25 years older than him).

IMTPT began in 2007 as the Jeff Wilson Trio, with the goal of playing completely improvised music. Harrison joined last year, followed by Penza this summer (which is when the band added “Plus Two” to its moniker). IMTPT’s influences range from Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and jazzy jam-band favorites Medeski, Martin & Wood to hard-bop trumpeter Lee Morgan, funk-jazz trio Soulive and French composer Claude Debussy. But IMTPT brings a fresh attitude to its music, which combines empathetic precision and freewheeling adventure.

“We’re all multi-instrumentalists who love playing different styles,” said Wilson, whose main gig in Santa Cruz is drumming in the jam-band Birdhouse. “In one song, we might quote Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footprints’ and something by Stravinsky. We all have huge record collections and we all dig pretty deep.”

--George Varga - San Diego Night & Day