On Stage (Extra): A ‘Phishy’ connection between performers

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times

Over the next few days, two talented female artists who share an unusual link will be performing in Philadelphia.

The link is the band Phish and the artists are Natalie Cressman and Holly Bowling.

Cressman, who will be performing on March 25 at the Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, 610-649-8389, www.ardmoremusic.com), is a songwriter, trombone player and a vocalist with a crystalline voice.

Steadily evolving in many directions, the 25-year-old Cressman has already put down deep roots in several overlapping scenes.

A prodigiously-talented New York City-based trombonist, she’s spent the past seven years touring the jam band circuit as a horn player and vocalist with Phish’s Trey Anastasio (and recently played with Phish at Madison Square Garden).

Deeply versed in Latin jazz, post-bop, pop, and Brazilian music, she tapped the interlaced traditions on her first two solo albums, 2012’s “Unfolding” and 2014’s “Turn the Sea.” Her new EP five-song EP “Traces” reveals her latest evolution — a sleek electronica-laced sound with dance-floor elements.

“I recorded ‘Traces’ about a year-and-a-half ago,” said Cressman, during a phone interview Wednesday from her home in Brooklyn, New York.

“It was very much a layered process which was very new for me. In the past, most of my recording was done live in the studio. This time, I layered the elements one-by-one. It was a long process. But, it was nice to not have the pressure of working in a studio with deadlines. I was interested in the way other production techniques changed the mood of a song.

“I was also working on an album with Mike Bono. We recorded the music for that album in fall 2015. With only the two of us, it took less time. We turned that one around in under a year.”

Cressman came from a very musical family.

“My mom Sandy Cressman is a singer who has worked a lot with Brazilian music,” said Cressman. “My dad Jeff Cressman is a trombonist who plays jazz, fusion and Latin. He played in Carlos Santana’s band for 16 years.

“I grew up in the Bay Area and studied music in high school at the School of the Arts in San Francisco. Then, I came to New York to go to college at the Manhattan School of Music, where I majored in jazz trombone performance.”

Jeff Cressman was with the Carlos Santana Band from 2000-2016. In addition to his work with Santana, he has recorded and toured with such diverse artists as Don Cherry, Trey Anastasio Band, Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, the Charlie Hunter Trio, Tito Puente, Sheila E., Jon Jang and the Pan Asian Arkestra.

It was through him that his daughter landed the gig with the Trey Anastasio Band.

“My dad was unable to do a tour with TAB in 2009 and he recommended me to Trey,” said Cressman. “Trey was concerned that I was only 18 and had never toured before. But, he gave me the opportunity and it worked out well.

“Having improv music in my DNA was helpful. You have to have it in your ear and be very adaptable. It made it easy for me to adapt to jam band music. I just had to work on developing a more aggressive tone.”

Anastasio said, “I was instantly floored by how melodically and naturally she played and sang. Natalie is the rarest of musicians. Born into a musical family and raised in a home filled with the sounds of Brazilian music, jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, musicality is in her DNA.”

Cressman’s music career is filled with diversity — playing salsa with Uruguayan percussionist Edgardo Cambon e Orquesta Candela, Latin jazz with Pete Escovedo’s Latin Jazz Orchestra, world music with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, and globally-inspired avant-garde jazz with multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum.

Cressman and her parents recently were in Brazil and were able to perform together there – and to immerse themselves in the Brazilian music style known as frevo.

“We were in Recife, Brazil,” said Cressman. “Spok, who is one of the premier frevo musicians with his band Spok Frevo Orchestra, invited me to go to Brazil to experience carnival,” said Cressman. “I had performed with him before at Lincoln Center in New York.

“It was a pleasure to go to Brazil and be exposed to that style of music. Frevo is found only in the area around Recife. It’s really amazing music and so is the dancing they do to frevo with colorful outfits and umbrellas. I was there for two weeks at the end of February.

“Now, I’m back and doing a few dates of my own. After this, I’ll be going on the road with Trey. The TAB will be on tour from April through July.”

Video link for Natalie Cressman — https://youtu.be/FMKhiIAdZN4.

The show in Ardmore, which also features Splintered Sunlight, will start at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $13 general admission and $20 reserved.

Other upcoming shows at the Ardmore Music Hall are Will Power – Tower of Power Tribute on March 26 and Galway Guild with special guest The Whiskey Trail Band on March 29.

Holly Bowling, who will headline a show on March 28 at the World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com), is a university-educated pianist who began playing classical piano at the age of five.

There is one thing that sets Bowling apart from other classically-trained musicians. That one thing is Bowling’s devotion to the legendary rock band Phish.

Having attended over 300 shows by the Burlington-based quartet, she became obsessed by their famous rendition of “Tweezer” from Lake Tahoe on July 31, 2013.

It led Holly to transcribe this 37-minute improvisational masterpiece note-for-note and arrange it for solo piano. The process, both painstaking and fulfilling, inspired her to transform other Phish songs and well-known live jams into solo piano interpretations.

Holly’s breathtaking renditions of Phish classics like “It’s Ice,” “The Squirming Coil” and “Harry Hood” serve not only as a tribute to the modern-day kings of jam, but stand on their own as fully developed classical pieces.

“I grew up in Michigan and New Hampshire,” said Bowling, during a phone interview last week from a tour stop in Roanoke, Virginia. “I moved to San Francisco in 2003 and haven’t left.

“I started playing piano when I was five. I learned by the Suzuki Method which is mostly training by ear. I started with piano recitals and later entered into competitions.

“I had dual interests in piano – classical and pop. That had been a thread through all my life. When I was young, my parents took me to a Little Feat concert and exposed me to the Grateful Dead. As I got older, I ran around the country seeing shows.

“My parents listened to the Dead but not to Phish. A friend turned me on to Phish when I was in high school. The first time I got to see them was in New York City in 2002 at Madison Square Garden. I’ve been a huge fan ever since.”

The seeds of her current obsession had been planted.

“Four years ago, there was a clear moment when things clicked and it all came together,” said Bowling. “I went to see Phish play a show in Lake Tahoe

“They did a 37-minute version of ‘Tweezer.’ The improv just struck me. It was very well-developed. I went home and wrote it out – note-for-note – and arranged it for piano. That inspired me to do an album.”

The past year has seen Bowling expand her repertoire into the realm of the Grateful Dead, including an “Eyes of the World” based on the band’s 1974 performance at Freedom Hall.

Using classical piano technique to reinterpret these legendary jam bands, Bowling’s live performances infuse new with old – tradition with surreal. Texture, nuance, and a gift for dexterous high-wire improvisation are her trademarks.

“My live show is a mix of my arrangements of Phish music and Grateful Dead music,” said Bowling. “I play a lot of stuff that didn’t make it to my albums.”

In the 1970s, there was a popular television show called “Bowling for Dollars.” Now, it’s 2017 and time for “Bowling for Phish” – and fans are getting hooked.

Video link for Holly Bowling – https://youtu.be/RH6bpTZ1hTI.

The show at the World Café Live will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 day of show.

On March 29, the World Café Live will present another female music act from the San Francisco Bay area that has covered songs by the Grateful Dead – especially a critically-acclaimed rendition of the Dead’s composition “Bird Song.”

The group is the T Sisters — Chloe Tietjen, Rachel Tietjen and Erika Tietjen.

The T Sisters are a genuine sister singing group based out of Oakland, California. The group’s subtle throwback aesthetic calls to mind classic trios from the past such as the Andrews Sisters.

With influences spanning folk, country, gospel, klezmer and early-90’s R&B, each sister brings a unique vocal and lyrical style to a sound that is at once modern and timeless.

The T Sisters embody harmony. It’s in their blood, bones, and history. Erika, Rachel and Chloe have been singing and writing music together since childhood, and the lifetime of practice shows.

“We grew up in Berkeley and did a lot of performing arts camps,” said Erika Tietjen, during a phone interview last week from her home in Oakland, California.

“We always sang casually at home. Our dad Ramsey Tietjen is a great musician – and a great singer-songwriter. I learned to play guitar when I was in high school and college but we didn’t start playing instruments in earnest until after we left college.

“Chloe and Rachel are twins and I was born 20 months earlier. We all went to different colleges. Chloe went to University of California Santa Cruz. Rachel went to MICA and I went to Amherst. I graduated in 2007 and then went to study in Russia for a year after graduating.

“They graduated in 2008. So, we all finished our programs at the same time. Then, when we started making music together, it was original music theater stuff. A little while later, it evolved into singer-songwriter stuff.

“We did our first EP in 2011 with Mike Marshall as the co-producer. Our dad played guitar and piano on the EP. Our first full-length ‘Kindred Lines’ came out in 2014 and was produced by Laurie Lewis.”

The T Sisters’ sophomore studio album “T Sisters,” which was released in October 2016, features 10 songs that are inspired by  the American folk tradition and, at the same time, embody a fresh and contemporary sound with inflections of pop, R&B/soul and country.

“We recorded the new album in San Francisco and Los Angeles,” said Tietjen. “We did the instrumentals in the Bay Area and the vocals in L.A. We used our band and co-produced it with engineer Cian Riordan.”

The three sisters’ inventive songwriting is supported by their own acoustic instrumentation as well as upright bass (Steve Height), mandolin/guitar (Andrew Allen Fahlander), and drums (Marlon Aldana). Their sound represents a continuum of music from traditional to pop influences — from moments of no-frills a cappella to swells of energetic Americana.

“We write separately and arrange together,” said Tietjen. “A lot of people after listening to our music remark how being sisters creates great vocal harmonies. We create a three-headed sound.”

Video link for T Sisters – https://youtu.be/p7KdjZIIv2Y.

The show, which has Lily Mae as the opener, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.

It had been quite a while since Minus the Bear released an album. That all changed on March 3 when the Seattle-based band released a brand-new disc called “VOIDS.”

Minus the Bear’s long-time fans were elated by the news and were made even happier when the veteran quartet announced a 29-date spring tour across North America – a tour that brings the band to the area on March 25 for a show at Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, 215-232-2100, www.utphilly.com).

The line-up for Minus the Bear is Jake Snider (vocals, guitar), Dave Knudson (guitar), Cory Murchy (bass guitar), and Alex Rose (synthesizers, vocals).

“The new album came out at the beginning of the month,” said Murchy, during a phone interview Wednesday from a tour stop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“We’re a couple weeks into the tour and feeling good about it. We’re doing six of seven new songs. We’re still massaging some things. The tour will be out for almost two months and then we head back to Seattle on April 15.”

Over the course of the band’s 15-year career, the members of Minus the Bear have carved out their own unique musical world. They’ve borrowed components from a wide array of genres – proto-punk, dance music, hip-hop, prog rock and R&B.

Throughout the first decade of the band’s existence, every new album offered a new musical approach, as seen in the idiosyncratic fretboard gymnastics of “Highly Refined Pirates,” the glitchy loops of “Menos el Oso,” and the modernized Fripp-inspired wizardry of “Planet of Ice.”

On the group’s sixth album “VOIDS,” Minus the Bear started with a blank slate. Then, the musicians inadvertently found themselves applying the same starting-from-scratch strategies that fueled their initial creative process.

“We started recording ‘VOIDS’ last March in Seattle,” said Murchy. “There were a couple different studios in town that we used. We went into the studio with about 40 things – pieces in various stages and done-ness.

“We had quite a bit of ideas to pick from. We pared it down and made some lists. Then, we put some other tunes in there. The album’s vibe started presenting itself halfway through. This was working and this was making sense.

“Ultimately, what kept it all together was to see it all the way through. At times, it was difficult to see the end game but that kind of propelled things for inspiration on their own.

“Jake and Alex write the lyrics and Dave writes the music. I don’t do any of the actual writing. I just provide the bottom.”

“VOIDS” was produced by Sam Bell, who is known for his work with The Cribs, Weezer, Bloc Party, and Two Door Cinema Club.

“This was our first time working with Sam Bell,” said Murchy. “He was the producer and engineer. It provided whole new opportunities to work in ways we never had before.

“Having his ear and voice made a difference. He gave us the confidence to try different things. He was really instrumental in the sound of the record.

“Sam didn’t know any of us. We’ve been doing Minus The Bear with this core for 15 years so it’s hard for anyone to move in – but Sam did.

“He’s become a friend. We really love the guy. His vibe was right. He had been living in Athens, Georgia but he just moved here to Seattle because he like sit so much.”

Fifteen years is a long time for a band to stray together and still have three-fourths of its original line-up.

“A big reason for our longevity is communication,” said Murchy. “We’ve spent a lot of time together at various times in our lives. You can’t manufacture the kind of love we have for each other.

“At the end of the day, we’re brothers and we’ll always love each other. We have something really special together and it’s awesome.”

Suicide Squeeze Records released “VOIDS” on March 3, 2017 on CD, LP, and cassette. Nick Steinhardt designed the artwork and layout for all formats. The first pressing of the album is available on 5,000 copies of splatter colored vinyl and 5,000 copies of 180-gram black vinyl. The LP jacket features PMS inks, a die-cut cover with a printed inner sleeve and contains a download code. The cassette version is limited to 500 copies and includes a download code as well.

Video link for Minus the Bear – https://youtu.be/ZdPpFpB4NYo.

The show at Union Transfer, which has Beach Slang and Bayonne as the opening acts, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25.

Other upcoming shows at Union Transfer are Foxygen with Gabriella Cohen on March 26, Vince Staples and Kilo Kish on March 27, Hippo Campus and Magic City Hippies on March 28, and SOHN and William Doyle on March 29.

There is another band coming to play an area concert this week with an even better record for longevity.

Enter Shikari, which is headlining a March 26 show at the Theatre of the Living Arts (334 South Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1011, http://www.lnphilly.com), was formed in 1999 and still has three of the four original members.

Rou Reynolds (lead vocals, programming, synthesizer, keyboards, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, trumpet, percussion), Chris Batten (bass, vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Rob Rolfe (drums, percussion, backing vocals) have been in the band ever since it began 17 years ago in St. Albans, England. Liam “Rory” Clewlow (lead guitar, vocals, percussion) joined in 2003.

“We have the same four members for a long time,” said Reynolds, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from a tour stop in Boston, Massachusetts.

“For me, a band is a band because it’s a collection of characters and musicians. We’re not a pop band that relies on our popularity. What helped us is that we’re all down to earth. We don’t piss each other off. We all just enjoy what we do and each of us has the best interests of the band at heart.”

The tour that brings Enter Shikari to Philly is the North American Leg of the “Take to The Skies 10th Anniversary” shows.

“As a band, we relentlessly try to progress,” said Reynolds. “We thought that it would be nice for a few months to look back.”

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of Enter Shikari’s debut album “Take to the Skies.” It was recorded in Reading, England by the band when the band members were still in their teens and made on a budget of “not very much at all.”

“Take to the Skies” was released on March 19, 2007 and six days later reached Number 4 in the U.K. Official Album Charts. It contained re-recordings of many of the songs that had featured on the demo EPs and singles that were released prior to the release of the album.

The album went on to sell 140,000-plus copies in the U.K. alone, and in a very short space of time, took Enter Shikari from a young band touring the small/ medium-sized clubs of the U.K. to big venues and festival main stages worldwide.

“We’re celebrating the 10^th anniversary of ‘Take to the Skies’ but we’re not really playing the album start-to-finish,” said Reynolds. “We’re throwing a few other tracks in there.

“We are playing the songs the way they were recorded. We didn’t want to change anything because it encapsulated that era. It’s all about playing a lot of songs again after not playing them for eight or nine years.

“At the same time, there are a few of the singles from the album that have been staples in our live shows all along – songs like ‘Sorry, You’re Not a Winner’ and ‘Mothership.’”

The band is taking time out from work on its fifth album to perform a handful of shows worldwide over the space of a couple of months to celebrate the anniversary of “Take to The Skies.”

Large shows in the U.K (including the three-city Slam Dunk Festival) and Russia (including a headlining concert at the 8,000-capacity Moscow Stadium) have already been announced.

“The new album is coming along pretty good,” said Reynolds. “We’re going back into the studio soon. Hopefully, it will be out by the end of this year. The thing that’s coming to the surface at the moment is that there is more of an effort to concentrate on simplicity.

“I’m the main songwriter of the band and there will be more singing and less screaming. I much prefer singing these days. I think I’ve been improving with each album. My vocal range is a lot bigger with this album. Lyrically, the state of the world is a topic to be addressed.”

Video link for Enter Shikari – https://youtu.be/1qCpoH4VO9Y.

The all-ages show at the TLA, which has As an Ocean and Your Persona, as the opening acts, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16.