Tom Chess and the Lovedogs stopped by the WYSO studios before their show at The Foundry Theater. They play a unique style of Maqam by utilizing techniques and improvisation taken from the jazz movement.
Tom Chess explained the musical concept behind the group,"Arabic music has a huge tradition of improvisation in it, and they use a certain type of system called Maqam. I'm also influenced by American music- I played electric guitar for many years. So, we are utilizing techniques and improvisational ideas from the jazz movement to the Macomb proper."
Chess has a long history of performing in this style of music, including in the Big Apple, "I was playing at an Iranian cafe in New York City for a number of years and apparently it was named after a much older cafe that is in Tehran, that you know, during the democratic period was a big hub for intellectuals, free thinking, and expression. So when they opened it in New York, I guess they wanted to honor that. And so during my time playing there, I was meeting a lot of people and experiencing all the different types of influences that came through."
By combining all these types of music and improvisation together you reach a place that is beyond written music. Chess said, "So we have these things as kind of jumping off points and references, but what we really want to do, and what you'll hear, is us just getting into places where we really aren't sure, we don't know where we are, and that's where the magic happens."
Catch Tom Chess and the Lovedogs at the Foundry Theater on March 21st from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
