| I happened upon your music
early this year when you opened for the Wailers. Your music
is a culmination of spirit and energy that is quite rare.
. . Listening to you guys play is like meditating on a mountain
or playing in your favorite sand dune. I have seen a lot of
shows and my taste for music crosses all lines. I have got
to say your C. D. release party was one of the best shows
I have ever seen. I have never been that satisfied listening
to music. Thanks and keep it up!
By: Vanessa E. Wells
If thoughtful, soulful great music is what you are looking for,
you will find it at a Chad Jasmine show! A gem of a performer
and a gem of a band! Chad Jasmine connects with audiences the
way every artist strives to. He passes out fresh fruit and proclaims
his love for everyone in the room, but the true connection comes
from Jasmine reaching deep into his heart and soul and laying
it out in the music for everyone one to hear. The crowd at Sapphire
in February loved what they saw, and wanted more. After the
band finished, the crowd demanded more. From jazzy VH1 friendly
pop to the tightest rendition of The Beatles I am The Walrus
heard since its recording, the music was all over the genre
spectrum. His band's instrumentation and abilities are phenomenal,
and is praised by fans and Jasmine himself.
By: Unkown from Orlando
I just wanted to say the Freebird party was great. Alive and
Well and Living in Jacksonville sounds great its nice to have
the show captured live and Paul did some good work. I love hearing
Greg sing, what fun that is... Thanks for the music and memories...
they are all great Question is where can I tell people to get
their own copy, and let me hear mine (you know those people)...
By: beaudrum
Hey Chad, What's up? I live in Chicago but I saw your show in
Jax on August 26th last year at that Hotel. I just wanted to
let you know how much you've inspired me and how fantastic that
show was. After the show I spoke to you shortly and bought both
of the CD's you had available:"Reality Changes" &
"Music 4 Continuous Love". I listen to both constantly.
I can't get enough. I have turned on so many friends to your
music since I returned at the end of August last year. Oh yeah,
and your phrase "Keep It Warm" has been a huge motivation
in my life. Thanks for writing such fantastic music.
By: Scotty B
All that Jas’: Musician / performance artist Chad Jasmine
steps over all the boundaries with his striking, controversial
musical observations. It’s do or die for devilish solo
artist – Enter Chad Jasmine’s edgy reality at your
own risk “Chad Jasmine – singer-songwriter / saxophonist
/ guitarist – epitomizes seduction with a jagged edge.
If you want to get into his head and understand what drives
this wild-eyed, 6-foot-6 alpha-macho performer with the spiked
Mephistopheles goatee, don’t go alone. And be sure to
take weapons, and / or his favorite book, These Lovers Fled
Away by Howard Spring. Then maybe you’ll understand the
paradox of this Jacksonville-based peace-love / punk, psychedelic
rock & roller. He’s an artist who ignites the stage
with dervish drama by stepping irreverently over the boundaries
and propriety of political correctness. For example, along with
his complex arrangements, three-part harmonies, and instrumentation
of devil-funked grooves that transition into sweet and moody
N.Y.C. jazz or Hammond organ – and guitar - heavy alternative
rock, he elicits a sort of sanctified intimacy with the audience
at the opening of every show. “It breaks down the barrier
between performance and audience,” says Jasmine of the
practice that began back in his California days with his one-man
shows and his former band, National Peoples’ Gang. That’s
when he perfected the ambience and cinema of light, sound and
performance art. “My approach is to artistically deliver
things that are enlightening as well as disgusting. It’s
just as important to make people feel on the edge… uplifted,”
says Jasmine. Inspired and edgy certainly describes his recent
self-produced 74-minute release, Music Four Fucking, a queasy,
languid, looped, acid-jazz groove, woven together by a homeless,
back-alley trumpet. It was a creative process Jasmine describes
as “liberating”. The title is just one example of
how it his controversialness is often misunderstood. “In
my opinion, it’s not really vulgar or shocking. It’s
the way people talk,” offers Jasmine. But the way people
talk won’t ever get him airplay, according to some critics.
“I don’t care. You have to go with your first inspiration,
your first vision,” he responds. Then there’s the
often-requested song “I Held on to Your Face,” which
may seen to be a love song but it is really about an abusive
relationship. “{It is} about some guy holding onto this
lover’s face so they can’t get away. It’s
disturbing, but issues like that have to be brought up,”
says Jasmine. “I Don’t Do Shit is another one people
think is funny, but is really about social responsibility,”
Says Jasmine. “If they see people in the street, they
won’t help. They’re into themselves instead of extending
themselves. People think it’s funny because they’re
afraid.” But Jasmine doesn’t have time to worry
about how people interpret his music. He continues to focus
on composing and playing, and self-propelling his band –
Greg Isabelle (drums, cymbals), Scott Borland (guitar), Marcus
Parsley (trumpet), Kip Kolb (keys), Christ Gibbs (bass) –
with integrity. That is also why he’s not currently courting
any labels and is more interested in getting his music into
the hands of people who are looking for something new. “I’d
enjoy having some help,” admits Jasmine. “{But the
labels} are not searching for new music. They are trying to
hold onto their jobs.” Meanwhile, he operates in the do-it-yourself
mode, booking tours and recording on his independent label,
Parlay Records. In addition to three other releases, a new double
live album, Alive and Well and Living in Jacksonville (A live
documentary of his new work), and the 13 track CD upsidedownandbackwards
produced in his Florida Room are now available. Regardless of
the outcome of his prolific career, Jasmine is still just about
his art: Music is “crazy, fascinating. It’s what
wakes me up in the morning. I can’t quit. I’ll do
it until I die.”
By: Sonja S. Mongar
For over a year I’ve been hearing about Chad Jasmine from
reliable sources who advised me to check out this songwriter
and enigmatic band leader. Finally, I was able to connect with
the CHAD JASMINE factor at the Comfort Inn Kokomo’s deck
last Sunday for the band’s second set.
It was an unusual venue for this group, which I’m sure
would have been more comfortable performing late at night
in a showcase club like the Freebird Café, than sweating
in the Mustang Sally milieu of a Beaches’ deck scene.
Still for Jasmine’s melon ceremony the scene fit perfectly.
It’s a sacred sharing of the sweet melon of love with
his audience. Given my Johnny-come-lately status in covering
Chad Jasmine, I was pleasantly surprised by Jasmine’s
intelligent songwriting and the group’s listenable presentation.
Jasmine’s music is eclectic, crossing over many musical
genres, without degenerating into the snitty screaming angst,
which has now been rendered cliché by every incompetent
garage band from hell.
Joining Jasmine on stage are exemplary cadre of seasoned
musicians, including Chad on lead vocals, guitar and saxophone,
Kip Kolb on keys, harmonica, and pennywhistle, Chris Gibbs
on bass, Rob El Diablo on Lead Guitar, and Brian Jenkins on
drums.
For the most part, Jasmine’s songs are melodic and
contain catchy hooks and grooves. Some songs even drift into
(dare I say) improvisational fusion, (zee “J”
word, rhymes with Chazz) but quickly recover their radical
pop sensibilities, so no one could utter the blasphemous J…,
now stricken from my personal lexicon because of its lame
ambiguity. In other words, Jasmine is hip enough to be square
and square enough to be hip, without losing his avant garde
edge.
Jasmine’s recognizable voice easily drifts into falsetto,
and sometimes sounds like a young Frank Sinatra on acid. “Fly
me to the moon,” Jasmine sings in his Sinatra voice.
For the Kokomo’s gig, Marcus Parsley was missing. Parsley
adds tasty solos on Jasmine’s latest album Alive and
Well and Living in Jacksonville, which is a two CD set recorded
live. It’s a great introduction to Jasmine’s surprisingly
accessible sound. “Just simple songs of peace and love,”
sings Jasmine Disc 1. One could say Chad Jasmine’s music
could be called Frank Zappa meets Steely Dan for the post
modern world, but as I always say, “comparisons are
odious.”
Remarkably, Jasmine’s potential fans could be drawn
from 15 to 100. Very few artists have come along who offer
such diverse appeal. Popular music is always generational,
(The Beatles equal Boomers) with each new generation thinking
they have invented the next Big Thing. But is cumulative.
Listening to Jasmine’s new CD I missed Parsley’s
exemplary trumpet playing at the group’s live gig.
The group exudes a certain antiestablishment zaniness of
Zappa’s contemporaries like Captain Beefheart. However,
they were yesterday, Jasmine is today, offering his take on
the ever changing world, which, like the universe is in flux.
Jasmine’s songs offer a healthy dose of cynicism, humor,
but also hope. It’s way beyond rage against the machine.
And, as I listen to Chad Jasmine’s Lonely Hearts Band
play, I think, “one day we wake up dead, and say, what
was it all about anyway.”
Oh, as the late actor Montgomery Clift said, “I was
lifed.” God, what a trip though! “Help me, help
me,” Jasmine sings trying to understand in his songwriting
consciousness the motivation for all our world’s ills
and evil. Then Jasmine laments “I don’t do sh..!,
saying that we are not doing enough to help change things
that we know are bad, like someone being abused on the street.
“I don’t do sh..! At this point in the live album,
Jasmine is expressing self-deprecation in the imagery of his
song. Again, Parsley’s trumpet comes in to give this
little anthem a jolt of horn power. Suddenly, the song segues
into Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused.
Jasmine’s music is full of thrilling surprises and
cool grooves which make it a stimulating listening experience.
He’s an artist too big for Jacksonville. As a day job,
Jasmine works as a massage therapist. Indeed, it’s always
wise to have a backup profession in the insecure music biz.
As Jasmine says in his song, space travel is like having your
face ripped off, but having no regrets. Words to ponder while
wondering what’s next in our crazy mixed up world.
Chad Jasmine could save popular music from its lethargy and
fragmentation. Jasmine offers something for everyone without
compromising his artistic integrity. For more on the Chad
Jasmine “movement” long-on to www.chadjasmine.net
or E-mail Chad at isthatgood@attbi.com. Chad records on Parlay
Records and his CD’s are available on-line. Contact
Parlay Records’ V.P. Feather (Heather Fanton) at ddvdesignstudio@attbi.com.
This cat is the real deal.
By: Rick Grant
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