local music: Myra Flynn and Spark... what makes you dance?

Yes, I actually left the house without my keyboards the other night. Heather and I went to Nectar’s to hear Myra Flynn and her band, Spark. We danced and danced.

Now, I don’t usually get excited about cover bands (they did play 3 originals), but it is so rare that I go out and hear a band that compells me to dance. Her repertoire was right on the money: lots of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu tunes. Nobody else does that around here, and soulfully to boot.

What is it that makes people dance? Well, some people like familiarity— lets get this one out of the way first. As a composer and performer of original music, this phenomenon really pisses me off. You can be playing the solidest, soulfullest, grooviest music there is, and some asshole will want to hear Zeppelin or Barry Manilow or something so that he can dance. And yet it occurs to me that my enthusiasm for Myra’s performance was encouraged by the fact that Heather and I often stay up late dancing in our living room to Jill Scott. I love Jill Scott.

But a poor performance of Jill’s tunes would probably just annoy me. Myra really nailed it.

Another important part of good dance music is a solid groove. The bass and drums have to be fairly repetitive. It helps if the bass is big. Andy Suits was on drums, and he gets it. He plays drumset with D’moja, and often plays for African dance classes. This repetitive idea is kind of afro-centric. I don’t know the bass player’s name, but he had a solid link with the drums despite his showy excursions up to the “treble” zone. The keyboardist is Andy Thatniceguyfrommontpelier. That’s not really his last name, but he sounds great. He plays one of those Nord Electros with all the convincing Rhodes, Hammond, and Clavinet patches.

I have a great time dancing at contra dances… but is that actually good dance music? I think maybe it’s kind of square. I had a blast dancing to the Black Sea Quartet when Heather and I first met… and they’re likely to play in some weird time signatures: 15/16, stuff like that. I remember some fun mosh pits when I was a teenager. But at the moment, I’m not interested in anything that doesn’t have the funky, round, spiritual, sexy groove induced by repetitive bass and drums. And dotted quarter notes. Add a good singer and I’m hooked.