Acid Trip
world class rendez-vous
Come join the
Vermont’s viperHouse reunite after a decade apart
in downtown
BY D AN BO L L E S
Montreal!
T
3,000 from 30 artists
countries
10 days
of great music
650
performances Some of this year’s highlights:
k.d. lang
TONY & The Siss Boom Bang BENNETT
SEVEN DAYS
06.08.11-06.15.11
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
Opening Act: THE BELLE BRIGADE
JUNE 27 PLACE DES ARTS
NIKKI YANOFSKY
JULY 1 PLACE DES ARTS
ET L’ORCHESTRE MÉTROPOLITAIN
DANIEL LANOIS’ BLACK DUB
Directed by MÉLANIE LÉONARD
Opening Act: LEIF VOLLEBEKK
JULY 2 PLACE DES ARTS
he year was 2001. The first film in the Harry Potter series was the year’s top-grossing movie, narrowly edging out the first installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Time Warner merged with America Online. A Republican senator, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, shifted the balance of power by becoming an Independent. John Lee Hooker, George Harrison, Dale Earnhardt and Ken Kesey died. A tragedy on a bright September morning changed the country forever. And somewhere in upstate New York — Syracuse? — viperHouse unceremoniously played their final show, ending the group’s run as one of Vermont’s most successful and innovative ensembles of the era. A decade later, viperHouse are back, playing a reunion show this Thursday as part of the 2011 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. The band formed in 1995 under the watch of composer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Chorney, who has, since viperHouse’s demise, gone on to lead a number of other local groups and earn international renown for his contributions to Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera Hadestown. At the time, Chorney had been playing saxophone with another Vermont combo, the So-Called Jazz Quintet, but was looking for a new outlet. “I had this idea to put together a big band,” says Chorney. Indeed, viperHouse’s original lineup boasted as many as 10 members. It reads like the roster of an all-star band: keyboardist Ray Paczkowski (Trey Anastasio Band); vocalist and flute player Heloise Williams (Heloise & the Savoir Faire); guitarist Brett Hughes (Chrome Cowboys, Ramble Dove); bassist Rob Morse (Vorcza, yoUSAy Placate); and drummer Phil Carr, trumpeter Brian Boyes, violinist Karen Quinn, percussionist PJ Davidian and trombonist Dan Mallach. The band was also multigenerational — its youngest member was Morse at 17, its oldest, Carr, then 40. “The big thing was to find people whose chemistry I felt would work together,” says Chorney. He describes the local music scene in the mid- to late 1990s as saturated with jam bands and jazz-funk hybrid acts, neither of which particularly excited him. “A lot of what was going on in the scene in Burlington at the time was under this umbrella of acid jazz,” Chorney says. “I wasn’t interested in that at all, really. But I saw it
JULY 4 PLACE DES ARTS
The most
amazing guitar boutique ever! montrealguitarshow.com
montreal jazz fest.com
36 FEATURE
JAZZ ACCOMMODATION PACKAGES More than 20 lodging establishments (from youth hostels to five-star hotels) have enlisted establishments, please visit montrealjazzfest.com/packages to book your stay now!
MUSIC