The Nice Guy Trio

Anyone for a petit soupçon of Left Bank sidewalk buskers? This ragtag band of street poets would sound at home under a Montmartre streetlamp. Daniel Fabricant’s susurrant bass, Rob Reich’s apache dancer squeeze-box and Darren Johnston’s half-valve circus trumpet saunter through cobbled rambling see-saw ditties, mascara-ed and striking poses for a post-Godard film.

Mais, un moment! Charles Mingus’ “Fables of Faubus” sidles in on pedal steel, the horn growls, the bass talks baguette-fresh (as if to Dolphy’s alto). Ornette Coleman’s “Folk Tale” (cartoonish but sinister by way of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka) waltzes in on harsh dissonance. A Balkan gypsy dance (cocek, not in 9/8 but 4/4) tips its cocked hat to klezmer, and a closing calypso goes island-hopping. Zut alors, what covers!

Other bagatelles in the Nice Guys’ kit-bag lure in fellow pied pipers like Ben Goldberg (slinky clarinet on “See Ya”) and Sameer Gupta (popping tablas on “Off The Grid”) to form a Punch and Judy pit band. Half a star for chutzpah. Chacun á son goo-goo.

-Fred Bouchard

3.5 stars - Downbeat Magazine

Darren Johnston has been voted a "Rising Star" in the 2009 Down Beat Critics Poll. - Down Beat Magazine - Critics Poll

Darren Johnston has been named one of the "25 Trumpeters of the Future" by the Down Beat Magazine. - Down Beat Magazine

It's obvious just from this trio's composition—trumpet, accordion, and bass—that something new is going on. It's also clear that to fully appreciate this boundary-busting CD, you must let go of your usual musical signposts. Even a taste for the wildest of free jazz won't prepare you for this music, since it's far too thoughtfully conceived and constructed. If you must have some category to file this under, try "Italian film music" (think Cinema Paradiso (1988) or Federico Fellini's more benign and bemused moments), or even, "cartoon soundtrack" (think Pink Panther (1963), with its satirical private-eye motifs and lighthearted jazz ). But more than cognitive flexibility, the full enjoyment of this CD requires a well-developed sense of humor, with a special fondness for the ironic and the droll.
Aside from being fun, Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio contains world-class playing, which, according to the press release, is "steeped in jazz" while "drawing from klezmer, blues, funk, calypso, country, Balkan, and Hindustani music." Leader Darren Johnston—a 2009 "rising star" on trumpet, according to the annual Down Beat critics poll—has a clear, warm tone, impressive chops, and compelling ideas, and his swinging interplay with tabla player Sameer Gupta on "Apples" is one of the CD's many highlights. Classy bassist Daniel Fabricant and accordionist Rob Reich complete this empathetic trio. [Note: this is not your grandfather's accordion.]

This 57-minute set features nine band originals together with gleeful arrangements of a tune by Charles Mingus ("Fables of Faubus") and one by Ornette Coleman ("Folk Tale"). (The latter occasionally sounds like a demented practice session, which Coleman might well have approved.) The whimsical, changeable mood of this CD is telegraphed by its cinematic first track, Reich's "The Balancing Act," where things go from poignant ballad to comical march, and Fabricant occasionally impersonates a tuba. "Woeful" begins as wistfully as its title would predict, then opens into jubilant clarinet and trumpet solos and some fine, fast walking by composer Fabricant; it's essentially a miniature symphony, complete with short, separate movements. Every composition is melodic and memorable, with a tendency to stick in one's head long after the last note has faded away. It's also impossible to sit still while listening to "Unicycle Cocek."

"No matter what style we're coming from and referencing, we have our own way of playing together," says Johnston. "We can go anywhere and still sound like us." And this is a good thing, too, since their sound is full of heart, imagination, and wit.



Track listing: The Balancing Act; Apples; Simple Life; Fables of Faubus; Woeful; See Ya; Folk Tale; Unicycle Cocek; Amy's Day; Off the Grid; Ducci Calypso.

Personnel: Darren Johnson: trumpet; Rob Reich: accordion; Daniel Fabricant: bass; Sameer Gupta: tabla (2, 10); Ben Goldberg: clarinet (3, 5); Alex Kelly: cello (3); Dina Maccabee: violin (3); David Phillips: pedal steel guitar (4, 9); Aaron Keirbel: dumbek, assorted drums (8).
- All About Jazz, Dr. Judith Schlesinger

Give three imaginative artists a yearlong residency in a performance space, located in a breeding ground for creative music and the results hopefully will turn out to be something like Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio.
Canadian trumpeter Darren Johnston, now living in the Bay area of San Francisco, spent a year making music at the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission District with the aptly named Nice Guy Trio with accordionist Rob Reich and bassist Daniel Fabricant. Their experiments and exploration into music making, documented here, involved a revolving cast of collaborators and musical influences.

Like trumpeter Dave Douglas, Johnston feels no need to be anchored by the heaviness of the jazz canon working with Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, Rent Romus, and ROVA. Johnston's projects include United Brassworkers Front that plays everything from Bach to New Orleans marching music, and his own quintet that released the stellar disc The Edge Of The Forrest (Clean Feed, 2008).

Reich's accordion opens the disc with "The Balancing Act," found somewhere in a black & white film about Paris. With Johnston's trumpet swinging back and forth, it becomes clear that the hero will find love, lose love, and in the end walk off into the sunset with his girl. The trio plays music which trods somewhere between the chamber and the cabaret. With guest musicians added, their vision is achieved. Ben Golberg's clarinet, Alex Kelly's cello, and Dina Maccabee's violin augment the trio on "Simple Life," a sweet ballad that is plucked and bowed from naivety to simple beauty. The music is seemingly unadorned in its presentation, yet so intricate in its freedom of expression.

The trio adds tabla player Sameer Gupta on two tracks, "Off The Grid" and "Apples." Gupta's presence adds an urgency that is intercepted by Fabricant's bass and the very nimble playing of Johnston. When the band adds pedal steel guitarist David Phillips to the classic track "Fables For Faubus" the 'whimsy' of Charles Mingus' segregation is furthered by the theremin-like sound of Phillips and the cartoon take of the trio. Johnston's slurs deft, spry notes over the walking notes, that turn into a talking bass.

It isn't until the trio covers Ornette Coleman's "Folk Tale" that their mission in finally revealed. Like Coleman's music circa 1959-1961, the band makes the simple complex, and the impenetrable accessible. Extended techniques are palatable and pleasing and all things are right in the world. - All About Jazz, By Mark Corroto

Tuesday sees the release of the Nice Guy Trio’s debut album, “Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio.” Amid its jazzy harmonies and pleasant syncopation, you will hear an unusual-for-jazz sound, that of the accordion. That’s right, the Waistline Wurlitzer is featured prominently whenever the Bay Area-based trio of Daniel Johnston (trumpet), Rob Reich (accordion) and Daniel Fabricant (bass) get together.
The album itself offers a wide variety of compositional styles, featuring both originals and the band’s take on works by Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. As noted in the interview below, Johnston studied composition at Mills College and certainly brings those lessons to bear when it comes to Nice Guy music.

Question: The place to begin this is with the obvious observation that the accordion doesn't have a very prominent jazz profile. What was your initial reaction to the concept of forming a jazz group that featured accordion?

Johnston: Before starting the Nice Guy Trio, I'd spent a few years booking trio gigs with trumpet, bass and accordion. There are a small handful of really good accordionists in the Bay Area and, for my own selfish pleasure, I liked having a group that could play a blues followed by a Cocek, for example.
The first time what became the Nice Guy Trio played a show together, there was an immediate chemistry between us. There’s a playfulness musically that happens between the three of us that was there from the first tune we ever played together and that I think is very special. Rob is the perfect accordionist for this project because of his knowledge of early jazz and improvised music, as well as Klezmer, Balkan music and styles more traditionally associated with the instrument.
In the right hands, the accordion can be an entire orchestra. It can keep time, provide lush chords or single-line melodies. It can invoke the sounds of folk-music from many, many different cultures or the concert music of figures like Luciano Berio.

Question: In listening to the album, I was struck by the inventiveness in the originals and how they seem to fit the vibe set by compositions like the still-edgy "Fables of Faubus.” How do songs develop amid the three of you?

Johnston: A lot of these songs were, in a way, written as a reaction to my time at Mills. I enjoyed my time there very much and, as was my intent when going there, I spent my time largely focusing on music that was more about texture and timbre than melody. I was less concerned with narrative in music and more concerned with static sound environments for the listener to be still within.
By the time I was finishing my degree, however, I desperately needed a change and began focusing on melody more than anything else. These songs, and the songs on my "Edge of the Forest" CD on Clean Feed, were mostly written with the melody first. I'd then harmonize the melodies and consider ways in which to develop them. This was an attempt to proliferate the one aesthetic principal that I think I was still working with that I'd acquired at Mills – the idea that everything in a piece of music should relate to, and be an organic outgrowth of, seeds of musical ideas which can usually be found in the first measure or two of a piece.
With the Clean Feed project, I extracted pieces of melody to create smaller sections for improvisers, while in the case of the Nice Guy book, I mostly just brought in "head-charts" and allowed the group to develop arrangements organically. It almost doesn't matter what piece of music we're playing, it will come out sounding like the composite of our individual voices. Daniel, our bass player, made the observation based on our recent show at Yoshi's that we're still approaching these compositions differently every time we play them, still arriving at new places. This is less a testament to the writing, than to the rapport we share when playing together.

Question: There was a CD-release performance last week at Yoshi's in San Francisco. How did that event go and what does it mean for a local jazz fan/performer to play under the Yoshi's banner?

Johnston: The Yoshi's show was a big success as far as I can tell. We had a great time, for sure. The sound was good and the turn-out was very encouraging. I think it's nice that Yoshi's is making more of an effort to support local talent these days. There are more forces encouraging musicians to leave the Bay Area than to stay. Clubs get in trouble for having live music without the proper permits, and the permits seem to be very difficult to acquire, while many of the more prestigious presenters seem to almost have a bias against local talent. We have some fantastic, creative and driven musicians here, but I know that many of those feel that they have to move to New York in order to come back here and have the better gigs, as "so and so from New York." Some of the best exceptions of that paradigm are Intersection for the Arts, the De Young Museum and now Yoshi's.

Question: You ar - Oakland Examiner

Who says nice guys finish last? The Nice Guy Trio takes three of the Bay Area's leading lights - trumpeter Darren Johnston, accordionist Rob Reich, and bassist Daniel Fabricant - and disproves that axiom with original music that offers an innovative take on jazz, klezmer, Carribbean music, and more. This year the group further displayed its flexibility in a "Nice Guys +1" residency at the Red Poppy Art House, where it collaborated with clarinetist Ben Goldberg, guitarist John Schott, and percussionist Sameer Gupta, among others. Wrapping up with a finale at the De Young Museum, the series pointed to a higher profile for these Guys in the months to come. - SF Weekly

#3 JazzWeek College Chart - 12/09
#47 JazzWeek Jazz Chart - 11/09-12/09

Live appearances on West Coast Live (NPR), KCSM, KPFA.

Musical interludes played on NPR's "All Things Considered", "Fresh Air", "Morning Edition" - Charts and airplay

Village voice critics poll awarded "Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio" and honorable mention in the 2009 critics poll.

By Francis Davis

"...High among my honorable mentions are two more debuts: Linda Oh's Entry (Linda Oh Music) and Chicago trumpeter Josh Berman's Old Idea (Delmark). Others: Ran Blake's Driftwoods (Tompkins Square), Ravi Coltrane's Blending Times (Savoy), Marty Ehrlich's Things Have Got to Change (Clean Feed), Steve Lehman's Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi), Nice Guy Trio's Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio (Porto Franco), Chris Potter's Ultrahang (ArtistShare), Radio I-Ching's No Wave Au Go-Go (Resonant), Roswell Rudd's Trombone Tribe (Sunnyside), and Matthew Shipp's Harmonic Disorder (Thirsty Ear). Rara Avis: Lucky Thompson's New York City, 1964�65 (Uptown). Vocal: McKay. Debut: Argue. Latin: Paquito Hechavarria's Frankly. Reissues: Ella Fitzgerald's Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Hip-O Select/Verve), Charles Tyler's Saga of the Outlaws (Nessa), and Eddie Harris and Ellis Marsalis's Homecoming (Elm)". - Village Voice, NYC