10 QUESTIONS
with CHUCK LAMB

The former "Dry Jack" keyboard wiz has taken his music from KC to the mountains of Colorado... with a few interesting stops in between.


JAM: For our readers who may not recall, Dry Jack was a very popular jazz "fusion" band (for lack of a better term) in Kansas City in the late '70s. Who was in the group and how did it get started?

Chuck Lamb

CL: Dry Jack reinvented itself many times. The first "jazz-improvising" Dry Jack actually got a nine month gig at Ralph Gaines' Steakhouse at Union Station in '76. We were all in our jazz diapers then. The core of that band -- my brother Rich on bass and John Margolis on drums -- survived long enough to find Rod Fleeman on guitar. Rod's spaceship had just landed. Yes, he is an alien. You can't take 76 brilliant choruses on "Donna Lee" and not be from another planet. The band really took off with Rod.

JAM: Would you care to explain where the name "Dry Jack" came from?

CL: Let's face it, it's a bad name. It's a "so bad it's good" kinda
name. We even had a contest to rename the band. None of the names were as bad, so we kept Dry Jack. As far as explaining the name... Are children allowed to read this magazine?

JAM: The group went on to enjoy national prominence on the Inner City record label. How did that association come about?

CL: Record companies were a lot friendlier back then. You could send them a basement recording -- which we did -- and someone at the label would do something utterly unique compared to today: they'd listen to it! Inner City really dug what they termed "the Midwestern Fusion Sound." ...Like that of another KC whippersnapper we all know and love.

JAM: What kinds of opportunities did that exposure make possible?

CL: We could ask for really cool stuff for the backstage dressing room! Unfortunately, none of us had any business chops. And I just wanted to practice and write music. So, our drummer became our businessman. We'd do a great concert, and then he'd book us for a week at the Ding-a-Ling lounge. I still feel the impact that band made, however. I just got an order for "Whale City" and "Magical Elements" over the internet. Talk about worlds colliding!

JAM: After Dry Jack, what came next for you?

CL: Toward the end of the 'Jacks', I was starting to hear some different directions, with more focus on bigger forms for improvising and less on super-structured pieces. And right around the same time, Rod went back to his home planet and I met my soul lifemate, Theano. She's such an incredible musician/composer/vocalist! We put a band together that leaned in that new direction, and we've been leaning ever since.

JAM: What brought the two of you together?

CL: At the same time that I was looking for less structure in my music, I was looking for more structure in my life. Living in upstate New York I kept hearing about this incredible singer from New York City. She finally came up to do a gig with mutual friends and I went to the gig. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And seeing! She was improvising over changes like they were playtoys and... wait a minute: she is incredibly beautiful, too! We started writing
music together within a few weeks. And so we continue.

JAM: For some it would be risky co-leading a band with a mate. How do you and Theano make things work?

CL: It's amazing how incredibly connected we are. We think and say the same stuff so much, I've often thought that we should be in one body and save money on food and clothes. I feel so lucky to have found her. Being a musician is such a bizarre existence that to be able to share the insanity together gives it a much needed lightness.

JAM: How would you describe your music?

CL: Satan Death Rock with a Ragtime feel... Actually, that question has always been tricky, even since the Dry Jack days. Our music does a lot of shape shifting. The influences are musically historical and deeply spiritual. The labels that are put on music are always open to interpretation. "World Music" fits. But, it's all sound. You choose.

JAM: The Colorado chapter of your musical career has certainly been a rewarding one. Of the many CDs you and Theano have released, one was named "Best Self-produced Release" by the Rocky Mountain News in 1994, Theano was named best jazz musician in Denver's Westword Arts Weekly in '93, and you both have received positive mention in Down Beat, Billboard, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. What it is about the Rocky Mountains that is so conducive to creativity? Is it something in that clear Colorado air?

CL: It's important to keep the mechanism clear. We're always hiking with our dogs and breathing in the stuff that keeps us juiced, alive and present. There ain't nothing like the air and water and sky and stars at 12,000 feet.

JAM: One more question. We happen to know that you are an avid skier. What do music and skiing have in common?

CL: The answer to that question involves an ancient secret. The singing ski monks of Tibet sang about it thousands of years ago, and it has been reincarnated into many beings ever since. The last being to truly know this secret lives among you in KC. For the answer, seek out The Master himself: Paul Smith.

For information about Theano and Chuck Lamb's new CD of jazz standards, "Renditions," as well as such previous releases as "As Above So Below," "On a Road One Way" and "The Gathering," email cclamb@cobeach.net or visit the web site at www.global.indiego.com.


© 2000 Mike Metheny



RETURN TO DECEMBER/JANUARY 2001 MAIN INDEX


© Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors 1996-2001. All rights reserved.