PittsburghLIVE.com - Dapp Theory blends jazz, hip-hop

Andy Milne insists there isn't any marketing strategy behind his band's blend of jazz and hip-hop: It's just the way things have worked out.

"People have to try stuff in order to make their work unfold," he says of the way his Dapp Theory puts together music that is shaped by jazz, but flavored with hip-hop, rock and rap vocals.

They will bring that collection to The Shadow Lounge in East Liberty on Friday for a second visit to Pittsburgh.

"There's a lot of music out there," the keyboardist says. "You just have to listen to it."

Milne says he wasn't trying to shape a hip-hop-jazz band when he began putting together Dapp Theory in 1999. But the personnel created a sound and an energy that started taking it that way.

"I sort of heard the beginning of things then," he says. "It just sort of starts coming out from deeper sensibilities and how you read what you play."

The name slides out the same way, he says. It has no real meaning but is "so simple I can't explain it. It is about the way people interact, a sense of community, of evolution through refinement."

The band is made up of Milne, drummer-vocalist Sean Richman, bassist Rich Brown and harmonica player Gregoire Maret. Its current album, "Y'all Just Don't Know," features rap-tinged tunes such as "Everywhere Dance" but then moves to Dizzy Gillespie's classic, "Con Alma."

Milne admits some listeners don't understand the band's reason for such a blend, but says that doesn't happen often enough to make the effort seem unwise. Rather, he says, most audience members seem to like the attempt.

That has led to a work schedule busy enough to keep the four musicians concentrating on Dapp Theory rather than other jobs like Milne's appearances with sax player Ravi Coltrane.

The band recently did a two-week stay at a club in San Francisco, a "residency," as Milne calls it, that gave the four colleagues time to concentrate on their music rather than performing other chores.

"There's so much time and energy spent on travel," he says, "it's hard just getting down to the music."

He looks at storied days in the past when musicians would have long stays like that at clubs. That helped give now-legendary musicians like Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker the kind of support that led to ground-breaking music.

"Back it the day, they did this all the time," he says. "We don't aspire to play the music they played, but it's good to get a chance to work this way."

Bob Karlovits can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or (412) 320 7852.