Highly improvised music can sometimes be cerebral or academic, sometimes jarring and discordant. The Everyone Orchestra makes music that is almost completely improvised, with the help of cues and guidance from a conductor and bandleader, but it’s seriously groovy.
Although, depending on the night, the ever-changing line-up of jam band veterans might sound like a bluegrass band or a fusion outfit as well. Bandleader and founder Matt Butler comes from a family of classical musicians, and he went on to start a hard-touring jam band called Jambay. Butler has always been interested in pushing the music to new places, so after his last band wound down, he decided to see how far he could take the group-improv concept. The answer is pretty far.
Using dry erase boards, getting audience involvement and sometimes mapping out loose chord changes, Butler sets the rotating group of players loose and all kinds of things happen. Butler likes to call the endeavor a game of group composition, comparing the high-level interaction to a type of sport and likening his role as director to that of both coach and referee. He’ll adjust the dynamics, push up or down the volume drastically, bring certain players in and have others sit out for a bit to catch their breath. One thing Butler has a taste for is contrast, and he gets to highlight that in new ways with Everyone Orchestra. This is one of those rare free-form groups where the true fans know they have no real idea what to expect.
The Everyone Orchestra plays Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 8 p.m. $22 to $25. toadsplace.com and 203-624-8623.
