Brad Faucher’s Thursday night jams known as Session 450 found the guitarist, as usual, doing a lot of funky stuff with his guitar. Bradford “Guitar” Faucher was also generous enough to share the spotlight with his three house band musicians and their guest players. Named Session 450 because it is held at Jocko’s Bar & Kitchen at 450 Moody Street in Waltham, the gathering allowed for some upscale jamming. The jam, or session, attracts some of the finest players on the scene. And that ain’t bad for a Thursday night.
The Session 450 regulars are organist Shinichi Otsu, drummer Nick Toscano, and bass guitar player Tim Foxx. The four players started their first set with some light faire, sustained organ chords from Otsu, deep and sweet, high-pitched cries from Faucher’s guitar. Faucher’s picked out breezy R&B style phrasing and juxtaposed them with Otsu’s juicy organ notes; Otsu puts an extra brightness in each ivory key he taps. The rhythm sections guys, Foxx and Toscano held the steady groove with thumping coordination. Together, the four of them put forth a cavalcade of notes.
Their second instrumental tune found saxophonist Bobby Faria blowing wavy, mellifluous melody lines. His sax complimented Faucher, and then things suddenly got frenetic, with the two sending fiery shards of notes out of their amps.
Guest lead vocalist Larry “L.T.” Terry came up to sing a few numbers. Terry went into “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. Terry’s vocal had the force and the finesse to work with Otsu’s classy piano tinkling and to sing over the walloping groove of the rhythm guys, finding a home amongst the familiar elegant melody. Terry segued into Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Me,” giving a loosey-goosey lyrical delivery, gliding through the song after finding a perfect space for his emotive, plaintive voice.
The Bobby Womack classic “A Woman’s Gotta Have It” found Otsu playing mysterious mischievous rhythms while Faucher sang in the blue eyed soul style. Faucher isn’t one of the rangiest singers, but he does have a deep, down soulful voice for a white boy from New Hampshire, and he gets the job done.
Faucher decided to dedicate his second set to some New Orleans blues. He sang “Blue Monday” with a purposefulness and soulfulness that many might not have known he had in him from just seeing him with other people’s bands. Assertive sax lines darted in, flavoring the song with the Big Easy style, loose and soulful. Here, Otsu gave his organ that jaunty, upbeat walking down Lafayette Street feeling that hints of spiritual uplift. It helped that the rhythm guys kept dropping dollops of chunky groove, the kind of oomph needed to move around that gumbo of sound that is New Orleans blues.
Later on, Faucher picked off some beauties, his simmering lead guitar notes spiraling upwards, launching them with subtle shifts in dynamics. His vocal was more subdued on “Caledonia,” a half-talking and half-singing character voice style. You could picture a dude strolling down Lafayette Street in 1950s New Orleans. Bobby Faria’s horn melody shadowing the guitar had a controlled blare that made you feel the impact of the music more with his self-restraint.
Larry L.T. Terry is a saxophonist as well as a lead vocalist, and he came up to form a dual sax line with Bobby Faria on “You’re My Woman.” There was true power and true art in those two horns blowing out melody lines in unison, and it forced Faucher to turn up the heat on his axe. The guitar man took his notes up really high and made them cry out in emotional expression. He just has a way of pulling a large, boisterous voicing out of his six string.
Another guest vocalist, Shikiboo(pronounced she-kee-boo) took to the microphone to sing “Just Be Thankful For What You Got.” She simply let her voice flow out of her, not employing a lot of technique, making it seem easy to let her voice glide. Cooing around Faucher’s phrasing was a nice touch she added and they sang in harmony on the chorus, a good match of tender feminine coos with rugged, scratchy masculine vocals.
At one point, the players took it down low, slow, and easy, arriving at a gentle, mellow, jamming, creating the light-hearted, floating feeling of cocktail lounge music, only with more subtle sophistication. If you listened closely, there where a lot of nice little notes going to a lot of place with a purposeful stride. Otsu lead the players here with eloquent tapping of his ivory keys.
Larry L.T. Terry came back into the picture, blowing his elegant sax melodies around the room like a missionary man passing around food to the needy. His sophisticated notes entwined themselves as his horn sailed them out into the room.
Bobby Faria came back up, this time to play guitar instead of sax. He held his own, pressing out a jazzy joyfulness, carefree guitar chords that were going somewhere with an energized pace. Then, Bobby Faria played concise, snappy guitar notes on the blues classic “Rock Me, Baby,” picking off a series of notes that had a hard surface that made you take notice, but with a precision that made them shine.
The rhythm section at that point was made up of drummer Tom Scotto and bass player Steve Oundo Wejuli. Scotto kept it hefty and steady while Oundo Wejuli took his low end notes for a walk around the block, briefly, when he went into a heavy duty phrasing thing.
Faucher came back to his microphone to sing a Johnny Guitar Watson tune. Here, Faucher turned in a morose, bluesy down to earth man on the street corner character voice. He also unleashed some nasty guitar licks that jumped out of his amp like they were on fire, giving off sparks with a screamy emotive touch. Next up, Faucher lead his troops into the New Orleans flavored “Ride The Pony,” with Faucher’s riffing sharp and clean, and loud, holding their own against the jumpy rhythmic twists from the bass and drums that marked this song.
Faucher’s jam night Session 450 has been around for almost two years. For people who live and or work anywhere near Waltham, it is likely the best played, most passionate music that they’re going to hear on a Thursday night. You also can’t go wrong having supper at Jaco’s Bar & Kitchen. They make the tastiest, zestiest, most flavorful bar food in the universe. No exaggeration.
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