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62 MUSIC
SEVEN DAYS
07.23.14-07.30.14
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
Power Trip
while touring with Dumpstaphunk. “He destroys the guitar, and his voice is like an angel.” She adds that Edgar is the “silent killer.” “You have no idea what’s coming,” she says of her talented bassist. “I’m so blessed and honored to be in this band.” Catching up with the Nth Power’s Nikki Glaspie As one of the most in-demand drumB Y K .C. W HI T EL EY mers today, Glaspie can play any style of music, but she claims funk as her foundation and first love. That’s evident in he Nth Power has Vermont of Toubab Krewe. Now touring behind the band’s bombastic grooves. roots in guitarist/vocal- a recently released debut EP, Basic “My mission is to have funk recogist Nick Cassarino, and Minimum Skills Test, the band will head- nized worldwide,” she says. “Without might not exist were it not line the Manifestivus music festival this funk, there’d be no disco, no hip-hop. for another Vermont expat, Jennifer Saturday, July 26, in Cabot. What I like to show is versatility. I’m a Assigning the band to a single genre is funk musician who can play other styles Hartswick. But the band arose in New Orleans and its mastermind is acclaimed restricting, but, in and keep it funky.” drummer Nikki Glaspie, who also plays the jam tradition, Glaspie grew up in Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. Glaspie the Nth Power are in Maryland and had come off a five-year run as Beyoncé’s clearly grounded North Carolina in drummer when she joined up with in funk, jazz and a religious family. Cassarino in 2012, then the guitarist for soul. When these She says she individuals the Jennifer Hartswick Band. Glaspie five soaked up gospel sat in on a gig with the JHB at the New play together, their in church. By age NIK K I GL AS P IE Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and collective musical 8, she was a recbrought along her pals Nigel Hall on force field has the ognized talent and vocals and keys and Nate Edgar on bass. power to uplift and transform. While became the church’s drummer, playing By the end of the show, they knew they Glaspie is the bandleader, she’s quick to alongside her mother on keyboards. credit Cassarino, the front man and one were on to something. Glaspie moved to Boston in 2001 to The four Ns — Nikki, Nick, Nigel of the finest young jazz guitarists ever study at the Berklee College of Music and Nate; hence the Nth Power — soon to call Vermont home, with helping to and soon made a name for herself at rounded out their explosive, multicul- define the band’s sound. Wally’s Café, a jazz club. There she “Nick is a genius,” Glaspie says in a proved herself and formed lasting retural funk with the addition of West African percussionist Weedie Braimah recent phone interview from the road lationships with musicians including
T
THAT’S HOW I RECHARGE, BY PLAYING THE MUSIC I LOVE WITH
THE PEOPLE I LOVE.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL WEINTRAUB
The Nth Power
CeeLo Green, Dave Fiuczynski, State Radio and Meshell Ndegeocello, among others. “That’s where everything started for me, pretty much where I learned everything,” Glaspie says of her tenure in Boston. She credits her time with perfectionist Beyoncé for learning the skills and work ethic it takes to manage a band successfully. Everyone in the Nth Power has a role, but Glaspie welcomes hers as the leader. “You can delegate certain things, but you’ve still got to make sure they’re done properly,” she explains. “I do things right.” Glaspie’s positive energy and upbeat attitude are infectious. When asked how she sustains that spirit, she replies, “I don’t have a choice. I’ve decided this is how I’m going to be. You can get sucked into a vortex, or you can decide to be the light in the world. I dispel negative energy with positive,” Glaspie says. “That’s how I recharge, by playing the music I love with the people I love.” That’s evident to anyone who experiences the Nth Power’s buoyant fusion of funk, jazz, gospel and soul. Their music flows from one genre to another, without a superfluous note or riff, into a harmonious sound that’s imaginative, passionate and fresh. Listening to the music, you get a sense that it’s never quite the same as they’ve played it before. This is original live music. “There’s spirit swirling all around us, we’re in touch with that,” Glaspie says. “We all believe in different things, but we all believe in something that’s more important than the physical realm.” Metaphysical musings aside, the Nth Power understand they’re still bound to the same earthly plane as the rest of us. But something of the divine just might pass through their music to the crowd, and perhaps spark some good through the power of the groove. “There are so many horrible things going on in the world,” Glaspie says. “If you focus on that, it’ll kill you; you lose faith in mankind. We’re trying to restore faith. That’s our only hope.”
INFO The Nth Power play Saturday, July 26, at the Manifestivus “La Fiesta Loca” in Cabot. Weekend-long festival, $60; Saturday day pass, $50. manifestivus.com
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