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…
Will there be an any newer material? Or songs written after the original band parted ways?
The tunes will be straight up old school. Nothing new, nothing post Hoffman-Wallace.
Can you talk about the evolution of ulu over the years, the various other players who came into the fold and how the sound evolved?
The constant force in ulu from start to finish was me (keys) and Aaron Gardner (tenor saxophone, flute). So in one sense, those elements were consistently the same. It was the rhythm section that became a bit of a revolving door.
From 1996-99, the original lineup reigned. Chasolen, Gardner, Hoffman, Wallace and Benedetti. The 5 of us nurtured the band from an embryonic state and really grew some solid roots. Our sound was open and loose with a youthful energy, labeled “gumby textured squonk” by Richard Gehr of the Village Voice. Our songs were memorable and melodic, but mostly just vehicles for extended solos by each member. This formation played on the ulu (1998) and Live at Wetlands (2000) albums.
When Benedetti left in November of 1999, the remaining quartet toured endlessly for the next 2 1/2 years. We established a new identity as a tight, fearless giant of collective group improvisation. Our compositions matured along with our musicality, and we developed a raw, bombastic, groove-driven, funk/rock sensibility with an uncanny telepathic connection between us. We were unpredictable with no boundaries in our adolescence, and our shows were totally different from night to night. This formation played on What’s the Deal (2001).
In March 2002, Hoffman and Wallace departed, replaced by Jason Gardner (Aaron’s brother) and Dave Hertzberg, respectively. This transitional lineup lasted only a few months, without ever really establishing an identity of its own. It was a mere stepping stone for the next chapter, which would unfold with Josh Dion (drums) and Brian Killeen (bass) from September of 2002 until early 2004. The new quartet would shape the adulthood of ulu. Josh and Brian brought a completely different approach, and our chemistry evolved into a more refined, progressive jazz sound. Perhaps we lost some heart, but gained some intellect. Having two schooled players as the rhythm section allowed for a wider range of styles, and we showcased more technique and complexity within our writing and playing. This formation recorded Nerve (2003).
Josh Dion was replaced by Russ Kleiner, and we toured for another 6 months through the band’s elderhood before taking our last breath in August of 2004.
The original quintet reunited for one show a few months later, and the original quartet played one final time. ulu was then peacefully laid to rest after 8 years of unique instrumental music making. Until recently…
While many people know you from ulu, in the past few years you’ve focused on other projects, can you talk about these?
I’ve been writing songs since I was 16 years old, and entering the jazz world sort of took me away from that. Composing instrumental music is an entirely different art form. Towards the later years of ulu, I started writing songs with lyrics and vocals again, secretly in the back seat of our van while we toured, possibly as an act of rebellion., mostly as a fulfillment of passion. It’s definitely a challenge to be known as the keyboardist of ulu for one thing and try to progress as an artist into an entirely different thing. But to deny one’s true self is to deny the mere act of living.
Since 2002 my own music has evolved into a combination of both my singer/songwriterisms and my improv-jamming personalities. So you hear all sides of me as a musician. My band is a trio, called SC3, consisting of yours truly, Adam Minkoff on bass and josh Giunta on drums. These guys were once the rhythm section of the Boston based band Color and Talea.
Over the years I’ve released 4 albums – Solitude Speaks (2003), Woven (2005), Magnify (2007), and most recently Fracture (2010). Each album is pretty diverse and showcases whatever phase I was going through as a writer at the time.
Since 2006 I’ve been touring all over the world with The Machine, as well as playing with many other artists as a sideman in New York City.
How about the other original band members?
[Scott shares the following bios…]
Justin Wallace now works as a Digital Producer at Razorfish. In the years since ulu, Justin and his brother David Wallace started the English Department along with former Moonraker drummer Dan Mintzer. They toured nationally and released A History of Doubt in Japan and stateside. He has recorded and toured with Indian Classical Crossover phenom Falu as well as a number of recordings and tours with MC Chris, Kill The Alarm, The Pierces, Dimitri Ehrlcih and The Buck Ups. Justin Currently hones his musical production chops creating and producing music for Mercedes-Benz digital advertising. With twins due in December, Justin’s uke is about to see much more action than his bass.
Aaron Gardner migrated back to his roots in Milwaukee, WI and currently teaches at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music while performing regularly with De La Beuna, Willy Porter, and The Erotic Adventures of The Static Chicken.
David Hoffman has been working as the creative director of Shapiro Bernstein music publishing and serves as a music supervisor for many writers and composers, while raising his 2 children with his wife in Manhattan.
Luca Benedetti continued touring and recording in the U.S., Europe and Japan with numerous artists including Cuban Surf Rockers, The Cuban Cowboys, Soul/R&B artists Cooly’s Hot Box & Angela Johnson, and Alt-Bluegrass/Folk band, The Dang-it Bobbys . Currently, Luca is busy performing in his own electric, roots-infused groove project, Luca Benedetti’s Thermionics.
Do you anticipate additional dates for the original quintet beyond these?
Right now, we have these three shows and that is all. Our focus is on making them the best they can be and not looking beyond that.
