Open Interest Band Review Fusion Lounge in Green Bay, WI

By TJ
June 24, 2010
Tonight was almost a classic setting for some jazz: dark, rainy and in downtown Green Bay. Just the way the street lights reflected off the street and the sound of the cold rain and water being swished away by the tires of the cars passing by felt like jazz. The idle machines waiting their turn lifted a fog into the night as I headed into Chefusion on the corner of intersection. I made my way up the stairs to the cocktail lounge that was as dramatically lit as the streets outside. Chefusion has an air of class and sophistication that is reflected in the atmosphere as well in the type of live music they host. Performing tonight was the local band Open Interest. I ordered my favorite cocktail and made it a point to get a table by the large window so that I could look down at the street and watch the cars passing below, a view I much enjoyed thoughout the night. Open Interest got situated on their set, A contemporary Jazz quartet, tonight Open Interest was sporting a guest musician on trumpet for some occasional pieces.

Musically this is a great band to relax to and muse over, but I came away with the overall vibe of being disappointed. Not by the music or the band at all; it was more or less my expectations of the performance visually. I personally like to be able to see musicians perform especially when they are as good as the guys in Open Interest. What little I could see was aided only by the light coming from some neon sign outside. I understand a low lit dramatic atmosphere, and really enjoy it at Chefusion, but a couple of well placed colored lights could have made this performance ten times more visually enjoyable and still held true to the comfortable low lights. So I had the window, street traffic and the rain to keep me visually occupied while Open Interest had my ears tuned in. The thing that stands out the most to me about this band is that even though they have an overall relaxing and contemporary set, they can break out of it with some high energy funk and some really good swing time. I was most impressed by Greg Pagel's keyboards, specifically when it comes down to his creative choice of tones like: Rhodes piano, clavi, piano and even some analog synthesizer like sounds. Greg can easily keep it cool on the keys while John Salerno holds down the melodies on the sax, but toss Greg the lead and you are about to hear some runs you have probably never heard before. Greg has a loose style that allows him to tackle some adventurous scales and creative tone and pitch shaping. John Salerno plays the saxophone and flute handling a majority of the melodic leads, while John's sound and technique was studio accurate, there was little play between him and the other musicians and the melodic approach was more clinical than soulful. Craig Hanke on the electric bass has some solid funk grooves and tone, playing smoothly on the line of what may be technically flashy but never over doing it.

Terry Lattoni on the drum kit was tight in the funk and swing grooves, his range of sensitivity is astonishing between hard bop, funk and some of the more subdued pieces like "Goodnight Julia." In all, my disappointed vibe was all on me. I have seen Open Interest at many of the local festivals and have been blown away. They are a great mix of extremely talented, capable and experienced musicians that play a wide variety of original music along with variations and classic standards. The patrons at Chefusion enjoyed Open interest as well but I got the sense that it was enjoyed as high quality background music as the chatter never stopped once the band began playing. And for me it was the soundtrack to my rainy night window view of the intersection of Dousman and N Broadway. You can check out Open Interest's website here.

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