Album livens jazz scene while giving genre credit
 Media Credit: Courtesy of Vision Management Rich Brown of Dapp Theory.
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by Kate Crofts
Daily Lobo
Too often jazz is played for effect rather than experience - good soulful jazz to get someone in the mood or smooth mellow jazz to appease claustrophobics in elevators.
Renowned jazz sensation Dapp Theory will perform at the Outpost Performance Space Monday at 7:30 p.m. The band's latest creation, Y'all Just Don't Know, refutes the stereotype that jazz should be background music. It's ineffectual for creating a seductive mood because your date will be more interested in the music than in you, and you will never hear anything this compelling in an elevator.
The recording marks the definitive progression of front man Andy Milne's career and brings jazz forward into the new millennium.
Canadian-born Milne began his musical career with an honors degree in music from York University. Preliminary recordings were moderately successful for the pianist/vocalist/composer, but it was the formation of Dapp Theory in 1998 that gave Milne the vehicle for pursuing his true artistic passion.
"I wanted to use it to tell passionate stories, promote peace and inspire collective responsibility toward uplifting the human spiritual condition," Milne said in a biography at www.andymilne.com.
Collaborating with Grégoire Maret on harmonica, Sean Rickman on drums, Rich Brown on electric bass and featuring folk-rock legend Bruce Crockburn as lead vocalist, Milne produced a blend of avant-garde elements, free jazz and hip-hop.
In the lyrics, Milne truly fulfills his ambition and conveys powerful messages, poetic images and satirical social commentaries.
Milne's classical jazz influences are demonstrated in tracks like "Everywhere Dance" and the cover of Dizzy Gillespie's "Con Alma." On other tracks, traditional jazz is compromised for a more compelling concoction of risqué lyrics and fitting compositions. This modernized jazz infuses rap interludes in "Bermuda Triangle" and bold social commentary in "Bad Air."
In "Bad Air," Milne's criticisms of the justice system are supplied by Crockburn's throaty cries:
"Judge said to the hooker/ 'can you come out to play?/ I've been condemning people all day long/ that's how I get paid/ my dreams are full of criminals frolicking about/ open up the window, let the bad air out."
Y'all Just Don't Know is an album teeming with varied musical experiences. Eclectic influences breathe new life into a musical genre formerly exiled to the oldies section of the music store.
Most of all, Dapp Theory's movement provides the possibility for further growth and exciting progressions. Just where will these progressions lead? Y'all just don't know.
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