THE VICTOR

Name: The Victor

Featured track: "New Year's Eve"

City of origin: Houston, Texas

Genre: Jazz meets hip-hop

In one sentence: "All of our influences from hip-hop, funk to soul and jazz find their way to the music," bassist and bandleader Victor Bernard told the Houston Press.

Why we chose them: Named one of Houston's "Must See Jazz Acts" in 2013, The Victor is just the kind of multi-faceted, dynamic jazz we want to hear during our last Friday of SXSW. Plus, getting to see the band at the revered Elephant Room is a treat we just can't pass up.

SXSW official showcase: Friday, March 14, 12:45 am at Elephant Room. - CultureMap Austin

With some 2,200 acts performing at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, the roster is too varied and too deep to serve as an indicator of where rock and pop is headed. But it’s rich with clues.

For example, SXSW says hip-hop is still a force. Next-generation performers on tap include 20-year-old Chance the Rapper; Future, likely to showcase material from “Honest,” his next album; genre-smasher Jeremiah Jae; Gee Watts, whose debut album “199x” arrives in early April; 21-year-old Young Thug; and YG, whose debut full-length disk “My Krazy Life” is out next week. As for hip-hop’s present: Kendrick Lamar is headlining an iTunes-sponsored show that also features ScHoolboy Q and Isaiah Rashad. Action Bronson, Fat Tony, Wiz Khalifa and Mobb Deep are slated to perform during the week, and veteran rapper Nas returns, topping a bill that includes the A$AP Mob and B.o.B., who will perform with a live band, according to the festival organizers. (The Nas show also includes the hip-hop-influenced jazz trio BadBadNotGood, the DJ and producer Flying Lotus, and bassist Thundercat.) Tomorrow night/Tonight, 50 Cent, who’s held back the release of his new albums “Animal Ambition” and “Street King Immortal” for years, will perform a showcase to be streamed via the mobile app Hang w/.

It may be that top commercial EDM artists are saving their energies for the mammoth Ultra Music Festival in Miami at the end of the month, but experimental electronic musicians are in ample supply at SXSW. Though capable of producing and spinning dance music, artists like bEEdEEgEE, Creep$ide, Lakim and Tom Trago resist pandering to banal tastes, while Kira Kira, Mr. Carmack, Rabit and Until the Ribbon Breaks and others push electronica to intriguing limits.

There’s very little high-gloss commercial country at SXSW, but the festival is presenting a slew of gifted country-influenced singer-songwriters, including Wendy Colonna; John Fullbright; Austin’s Shakey Graves; Jessica Lea Mayfield, whose new album “Make Me Head Sing” will be released next month; Parker Millsap, out supporting his new self-titled album; and Sturgill Simpson, whose 2013 album “High Mountain Top” is a gem. As for well-established singer-songwriters: Lucinda Williams is coming home to Austin, making four appearances. She may sprinkle new songs among her standards.

Jazz at SXSW? Depending on your definition, yes. Jazz artists playing the festival include guitarist Stanley Jordan; avant gardists Nymph; hip-hop influenced the Victor; prog fusionists the Hedvig Mollestad Trio; traditionalists the Kristian Terzic Band and Cettina Donato; ‘30s revivalists Jitterbug Vipers; and many more. It’s as if it’s dawned on the industry that young music fans may enjoy jazz if they can enter the world on their own terms.

It’s become axiomatic that the only artists who will profit from appearing at SXSW are those who’ve already broken through. Musicians likely to come out of the festival with added buzz include Charli XCX, the British pop singer; Eagulls, who are performing tracks from their new, roaring self-titled debut disk; Jungle, the London-based electronic funk ensemble; the adventurous R&B artist Kelela; Angel Olsen, whose new “Burn Your Fire for No Witness” is a sparse, intimate beauty; Lawrence Rothman, who floats his baritone voice over washes of moody electronic music; the old-school soul unit St. Paul and the Broken Bones; and the Strypes, a hard-rocking group from Ireland. - The Wall Street Journal

The first jazz band I ever heard live was Robert "Doc" Morgan's small jazz ensemble at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. I was a sophomore at HSPVA and a friend invited me to a show at the old Holman campus.
We had some jazz records at home - John Klemmer's Touch and The Crusaders' Those Southern Knights come to mind - but I'd never sat in an audience and witnessed the music unfold before me. It was a revelation.
Houston had a healthy jazz scene so I became a habitual show-goer. I followed Kirk Whalum, Everette Harp, Sebastian Whittaker, Herman Matthews, the late Dave Catney. I learned about Joe Sample - one of our town's greatest jazz musicians, who was almost literally under my nose all along, every time I dropped the needle onto "Keep That Same Old Feeling."

I found other music and strayed from live jazz, only venturing out to catch a national touring act here or there. In an effort to get that old feeling back --and, to keep on keeping it, as The Crusaders instructed all those years ago - I've surveyed some of Houston's current jazz artists to see what's exciting and fresh out there. I found two hard-working women bent on keeping some traditions alive and a pair of trios working to advance the notions of Houston jazz.

THE VICTOR

The first jazz artist I asked assured me "jazz is alive and well here in Houston."

That person was Victor Bernard, bassist and bandleader of The Victor. The group released "Live at The Compound," last summer, a three-song EP one fan referred to as "Blue Note meets hip-hop."

"We love to groove, man, to let it all hang out, but in an organic kind of way. All of our influences from hip-hop, funk to soul and jazz find their way to the music," Bernard said.

He and band mates Jarrell Campbell (drums) and Clayton Farris (keys) had a clear vision for what their music should sound like.


"Houston is becoming more diverse with the influx of the younger workforce that's coming from all over the globe to see what life is like in a big American city," Bernard explained. "Jarrell, Clay and I thought it was the perfect climate to introduce Houston to the very type of jazz we thought was missing from the equation, the type that would hopefully speak to all ages. Enter The Victor."
"Our compositions are more like templates. We know the changes and the basic structures, but we leave the number of bars open so we really have to listen and pay attention to each other, which is a lot of fun because you never know who or what will take the music in what direction," he said.

The band has performed at Jet Lounge, Bohemeo's, Athens Lounge and Super Happy Fun Land and looks to build on its foundation with future recordings and shows.

"The coolest thing is to see how the diversity in Houston is paying dividends on the once lukewarm music scene," Bernard said. "The diversity along with the influx of great people rooting here, coupled with the massive commercial and residential development inside the loop and downtown really has opened the mind of this great city. Houstonians are more adventurous and have come out to support our movement and in return have walked away refreshed and excited."
- Houston Press-Art Attack Section (Jesse Sendejas Jr.)