The instrumental quintet ulu first made a name for itself in the New York City of the late 90s. The group formed in 1996 when keyboard player Scott Chasolen, bassist Justin Wallace and drummer Dave Hoffman drew in guitarist Luca Benedetti (via a Village Voice ad), who then invited his friend Aaron Gardner (sax/flute) to join. This version of ulu released a self-titled debut in 1998 followed by a live album that captured the band’s 11/19/99 performance at Wetlands Preserve, the final appearance by Benedetti. ulu then continued with its core four until Hoffman and Wallace departed in 2002, while Chasolen and Gardner welcomed additional members and toured through 2004.
In early September, the original lineup will reunite for three shows. ulu will appear at two festivals (Backwoods Pondfest on September 9 and Meeting of The Minds on September 10), followed by a performance at Brooklyn Bowl on September 11. The Brooklyn Bowl show offers a nod to the group’s Wetlands days, not only because Bowl owner Peter Shapiro also owned Wetlands during ulu’s heyday, but also because ulu will joined on the bill by a reunited Fat Mama. These two groups performed together at the club on multiple occasions, including a memorable ulu Vs. Fata Mama evening the featured ring card girls and memorable music as well.
ulu’s Scott Chasolen talks about the bands development and the path to reunion in the conversation that follows.
What led to the reunion? Who initiated it?
It all began when I started digging through boxes of cassettes, minidiscs and DATs of old ulu shows sometime in 2009. Back when we were touring heavily, I was the one obsessed with archiving and recording the band every night. After about a year’s worth of recent work transferring these shows to MP3, there’s a fairly deep library of pretty much every gig we ever did up until 2002.
Whenever I would stumble on a gem of a show, I would send it to Dave Hoffman and we would geek out over some of the musical things…“Oh man, check out this groove you played” or “The clav through the Leslie sounds sick” or whatever. It was actually quite nostalgic and took us both on a time traveling listening adventure.
Sometime during the archive revival project, some of the old Wetlands gang (Chris Zahn, Jake Szufnarowski) asked me if ulu would ever consider playing again, and at the time the answer was a solid never. But after listening to so much of our music, and rehashing all the years we spent on the road together, Dave and I started to seriously consider the possibility of an ulu reunion and the answer changed from a solid never to a strong maybe.
Who was the last man in and how hard was it to convince him to join?
The last man in was our guitarist, Luca Benedetti but he was not the hardest to convince…
The bulk of ulu’s touring was done as a quartet, and the band never had a guitar player after Luca left in 1999. So the big question was, if we do this, should we be a quartet or a quintet?
It seemed to be the right occasion to summon the original lineup back together. With the exception of one short set in 2004, we have not played in this formation since 11/19/99, which became the Live at Wetlands album.
The hardest to convince was actually Justin Wallace, the bassist.
Have the five of you rehearsed yet? If so can you talk about the experience, if not, what do you anticipate it will all go down?
We have been getting together regularly for a couple of months now. Everyone has branched out in very different musical directions over the years, so it’s interesting to see how that diversity creates a new chemistry for the band. That’s what always made ulu exciting to me…a union of diverse influences.
It kind of feels like an old pair of your favorite jeans. They may not fit perfectly anymore, and there may be a hole or two, but they’re comfortable as hell and strangely familiar.
The Brooklyn Bowl show will harken back to Wetlands days with Fat Mama also on the bill. What are your memories of those shows, including the ulu vs Fat Mama night?
Anyone who was around New York City in the late 90’s knows that it was the golden age of the jamband. Wetlands was a magical place where incredible things happened. Whether you were onstage until sunrise or in the audience, it didn’t matter. The air was electric.
ulu and Fat Mama played a lot together, but 2/25/00 was a monumental night at wetlands. it was the first show ever with “interlocking sets”…it was a battle of the bands, a 5 round fight to the finish where the music never stopped. The stage was completely littered with equipment—two drum sets, a massive keyboard rig resembling the space shuttle cockpit,stacks of amps…In fact both bands’ gear was all up there at once.
ulu played the first set. Then towards the end, members of Fat Mama began appearing on stage one by one until both bands were playing together. Then one by one, members of ulu began disappearing until only Fat Mama was left to play their own set. Then, same story again and again all night long until one super-colossal mega-improv set with both bands finished off the epic battle…Only, it wasn’t a battle at all, it was a special night of intense music shared between friends, onstage and off.
We hope to have a similar experience at Brooklyn Bowl…
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