Chandler Travis Philharmonic – Kate Gould Park Bandstand, Chatham – July 12, 2017
Anyone who thinks they can categorize Travis’s music is delusional. The selection of blurbs on his web site each sum up his wacky indescribability in different ways, all of them true. My favorite: “The world would be a better place if Travis would only visit more often”. And he has assembled a crew of players who buy into the vision, presenting it with self-assured chops. The size of his ensemble varies according to the nature of the gig; for this one we got the mid-size sextet. Most of the gig was up on the bandstand, but they also descended to walk into the crowd for a few “al fresco” numbers. I loved the song about being a bass drum pedal, with vocal sound effects by basso Boak.
Chandler Travis
Berke McKelvey
Sam Wood
John Clark
Kami Lyle
Fred Boak