All yesterday I was listening to a CD by a hot new band, Without the Alps, in their first album Without the Alps: Live! Although this family band promotes themselves as a jazz group, they also showed themselves competent to move through the popular genres, everything from country to soft rock and oldies.
The lead singer (Mary) shines forth with brilliant and energized performances. Her enthusiasm and virtuosity is matched by both the piano (Kevin) and percussion (Sarah). One brother (Brian) might be called the strings section of the band with his multi-faceted talent in playing guitar, bass, and upright bass, while another sibling (Matt) plays plays even more instruments, though his real talent was as one of the band's lead singers. The newest member of the band (Jeff) appears prominently in his singing role. The two youngest brothers (Andrew and John Paul) steal the stage one with his saxophone debut and the other singing with an off-the-scale 20x cuteness factor.
One of the great joys of this album is the energy surging through these young musicians. Sometimes it seems as though there is too much energy and the music is rushed. We shall see if the subsequent performances tempers the youthful virtuosity with a more measured meter.
The sound technicians and mixers are to be complimented for their talent in preparing a first CD off from a live performance. It is high quality for a home studio production, and they were able to capture some of the live and lively banter of the concert.
The band's next concert will be held on March 17, in Austin. It will be a dance with an evening full of the hits of swing, jazz, and big band, and a bonus set of Irish tunes in honor of St Patrick's day. (Tickets and more information available by leaving a comment or contacting withoutthealps@gmail.com)
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