Tayko Jones Brings Garage Jazz to the Matthews

Grunge, rock and punk were the music that first made him want to keep playing for the rest of his life. The saxophone eventually became the instrument where he found his own voice, but those earlier sounds never really left.

Tayko Jones gives him a place to use both.

The four-piece band comes to the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish Friday, Oct. 9, for a Black Hills release show supporting its self-titled debut album. Shotwell plays saxophone alongside Mark Romanowski on guitar and bass, Jon Bakken on bass and cello, and Christian DeJongh on drums.

The band calls what they make “Garage Jazz,” a phrase Romanowski came up with when the usual genre labels stopped being particularly useful.

“Whenever you do a new project, especially with people from such different musical backgrounds, and you try to do something different, it’s really hard to categorize it,” Shotwell said. “I think Mark’s description is fitting for sure.”

The name catches both halves of what Shotwell was trying to build.

The songs draw from the grunge, rock and punk he grew up with, but the musicians approach those songs with the freedom of a jazz group. Structures remain recognizable. A tune might move through verses and choruses, A and B sections, or something closer to the form of a jazz standard. Inside those boundaries, very little is required to stay the same.

“Every time we play a song it will be different,” Shotwell said. “That’s the ‘jazz’ part of the music.”

A Band Built for These Four Musicians

Tayko Jones has been playing together as a project for about two years, but Shotwell says the album was already part of the idea when he assembled the band.

More importantly, he wasn’t simply looking for a guitarist, bassist and drummer, he wanted these three. Shotwell and Romanowski had already worked together on several projects, and Romanowski’s guitar playing had a sound Shotwell knew he wanted in the new music.

After getting to know Bakken, Shotwell became interested in what he describes as his musical spirit and his tendency to approach things differently. Bakken moves between bass and cello in Tayko Jones, adding another set of textures to a group that already resists easy categorization.

DeJongh brought another element Shotwell had specifically been looking for.

“Christian’s drumming is snappy and adventurous, and I was drawn to his unique beats and improvisations on the drums,” he said.

The lineup was so central to the idea that Shotwell says the songs probably would have changed if one of the three had turned him down.

“When I asked the other three to do this project I had a record in mind, but it only would have worked with these three with me,” Shotwell said. “If any of them had said no I likely would have started coming up with new ideas.”

He was already making sketches of songs with Romanowski, Bakken and DeJongh in mind. As they began playing those ideas together, the band’s sound started determining what the music became.

Returning to the Garage

For Shotwell, the project also opened a door back into the music he played before jazz became such a large part of his life.

“I grew up playing in garage bands,” he said. “I played bass in most of them, and that music is what really made me want to do this the rest of my life.”

The saxophone offered something different.

“I always loved the saxophone, and it was always the instrument I could be most expressive with,” he said. “It allows my voice to come out.”

Tayko Jones puts those two histories in the same room.

“This project lets me live in both of those places, and it really lets me play in a very honest way.”

That combination also helps explain why “Garage Jazz” works better as a description than trying to place the band neatly inside rock or jazz.

Shotwell sees an obvious connection for listeners who grew up with music from the 1980s and ’90s, but the band retains the improvisational side of jazz, where the musicians are listening to one another and changing the music while it is happening.

Shotwell has written the band’s material so far, although the group has recently started experimenting with a piece DeJongh wrote several years ago. Sometimes Shotwell arrives with a complete composition, other times he brings a fragment and lets the band pull on it.

“My big thing is if there is an idea we should try it, no matter what, but leave room for it to change,” he said.

That includes ideas that don’t work the first time.

“Mistakes are most welcome, as they will spark new ideas.”

Capturing One Version

That approach followed Tayko Jones into the studio. The debut album was recorded live, with the four musicians playing together rather than building each song piece by piece, each take was different.

The band listened back and selected the performances they thought worked best, leaving the record as a document of what happened during those particular takes rather than a definitive version of how the songs are supposed to sound.

“The album captures the true ‘in the moment’ nature of jazz music, but definitely holds a sound that is much different than a traditional jazz album,” Shotwell said.

Even he hesitates to decide exactly how much of it should be called jazz.

“I’m not sure you could call it jazz, though the more I learn about jazz the less idea I have of how to define it.”

The record is currently streaming through Bandcamp, a platform Shotwell chose in part because listeners can purchase music directly and a larger portion of those sales reaches independent artists.

“There are great artists on there, independent and nationally known big-name artists,” he said. “It’s a great way to support people who want to keep making stuff.”

Listeners can hear and purchase the self-titled Tayko Jones album at joelshotwell.bandcamp.com.

What Happens at the Matthews Won’t Happen Again

Friday’s Spearfish show will include the songs from the album along with new material the band has been developing.

Anyone who learns the record before the concert shouldn’t expect to hear it reproduced note for note. The songs will retain the same basic moods and structures, but the performance depends on what the four musicians hear from each other once they begin playing.

“The venue, the audience, the time of day… they all contribute to what’s going to happen musically,” Shotwell said.