RSS
Home
Darrius Willrich - Triple Door
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Darrius Willrich - Triple Door, Seattle April 29
by Heather Lanier
Last night I went with a friend to Darrius Willrich's cd release show for his newest offering, "Can't Get Enough" at Seattle's gorgeous Triple Door. I love the Triple Door, the sound and menu never fail to impress. I do wish they had a little bit of a dance floor somewhere...
Willrich opened the show with "Wild In Me" off of the new cd, and I was immediately really impressed with Gary Smith's solid and immaculate bass playing. The drummer, Donny Goodman also really caught my attention with his very funky and interesting playing. The rhythm section here was just really good. They settled into the second number after a great alto sax solo by Art Brown.
Willrich calls his sound Sweet Urban Soul, and brings to the table a degree in jazz piano and a rich background in nearly every aspect of making music, from instrumentalist to leader, producer to recording artist. He has excellent backing up there with him, including Thaddeus Turner (Maktub), whose playing has always impressed me. His style is heavily influenced by Stevie Wonder and Prince, with the vocals leaning heavily towards the Stevie Wonder side. It was a solid set of totally original material in classic horn filled R&B style.
The whole horn section, Art Brown, Scott Brown, and Aaron Jenkins looked like they were having a really good time, and there was plenty of room for them. Thaddeus, Gary Smith, and the horn section combined well and the trade offs on lead were smooth and tactful. Darrius's lyrics are interesting and beyond the normal blandness that can be found. He very rarely sang a straight note, leaning heavily on "outside" scales. With a band that good, and as rich a voice as he has, I would have liked him to play it a little straighter with the vocals.
Midway through the set he had Geoffrey Castle on violin and Bernie Jacobs on flute out there for a couple of songs instead of the horn players, and I was amazed by the blistering violin solo Castle performed.
It was a really solid mix of long-time quality players up there, and they have good, crashing grooves a lot of the time, but there is a real shortage of hooks. Strong soul music is built on hooks, and his lyrics are sweet. The grooves, too, are great but without musical hooks to make the songs catchy and interesting. The slowest numbers were the most powerful, bringing out the strengths in Willrich's voice and piano playing. His voice has a lot of emotional power when the vocals are more constrained.
I really enjoyed the show, and hope Willrich continues to grow as a songwriter and performer.
More info: darriuswillrich.com/music/
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
