Feb. 3: Organically Good Trio kicks off the ‘Discovery Series’ at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club

PORTSMOUTH, NH – It’s a fact that there’s a ton of talented bands and musicians from around the New England region. Choose between New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and you’re bound to find at least a couple great acts that you’re going to be a fan of. With this in mind, Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth is starting their “Discovery Series.” It takes place every Monday night at the establishment while showcasing local talent. Boston funky reggae organ groove masters Organically Good Trio are going to be kicking off the series on February 3 at 7 p.m.

I had a talk with keyboardist Wolstencroft about how the band started, a major reggae punk band that he’s also a member of and his thoughts on performing at Jimmy’s.

Jimmy’s Jazz Club

135 Congress Street, Portsmouth

Rob Duguay: The Organically Good Trio mixes together elements of funk, jazz, soul and boogaloo ‘60s music together to create a really cool sound. When you, Tommy Benedetti and Van Gordon Martin got together for this, what was your main vision for this project? What made you guys want to do this blending of different styles?

Paul Wolstencroft: It sort of took shape over time and It wasn’t really a band at first. I started my organ career playing soul jazz with Melvin Sparks and that’s where I really learned how to do it. In addition to that, my favorite keyboard reggae artist was Jackie Mittoo. He was an amazing Jamaican organ player whose music was different from regular reggae. He sort of took the grooves and soloed over the top a little bit, which I really liked, and I love those old Studio One reggae groups.

I would do a lot of organ gigs with a lot of different people and in order to know the material, I would just play these simple grooves. It would either be one of these Jackie Mittoo grooves or a similar reggae groove while also involving soul jazz and stuff. Van Gordon Martin and I did a lot of brunches together after he came in to learn all the songs, and I told him that we should get Tommy Benedetti. He’s the best reggae drummer that we know in town and we wanted to make this a group. At that point, I was already calling it the “Organically Good Trio” for every gig, but we could make this a real band with a real album.

We’re all three really solid reggae people who also know soul jazz, so we got this project going and took it from there. We explored various gigs, what worked and what didn’t, and we sort of honed it down. There’s a halfway mix between that soul jazz sound and the reggae sound.

RD: I definitely got that combination from listening to your music. You’re also in the California reggae punk act Slightly Stoopid, which has been around forever. When it comes to being in both that band and in the Organically Good Trio, are there any major adjustments that you have to make between both acts when it comes to playing with each of them? I know in the Organically Good Trio, it’s more of you leading a band where in Slightly Stoopid you’re more of a sideman, so is that the main thing?

PW: In Slightly Stoopid, I have to do my part, which is me playing the keyboards how I want them, but I want it to fit in with what they’re doing. I don’t want it to interfere with what’s going on, so I don’t do a lot of solos, which is the difference. I don’t play bass in that band, but some of the grooves come from the same place. The grooves that Slightly Stoopid does are taken from old Jamaican grooves that I know backwards and forwards, so there’s a lot of similarity in that respect. In Organically Good Trio, I can branch out, take some solos, do singing and stuff like that while in Slightly Stoopid I play my role like a left halfback in soccer.

I stick to my side of the field and I make sure that I take care of what’s good there, so it’s a little bit of a difference in freedom. Slightly Stoopid is super enjoyable and super fun for me and it’s right up my alley as far as the grooves and music goes.

RD: I can imagine, especially with all the energy Slightly Stoopid has when they perform live. The Organically Good Trio’s latest release is a live record that was done at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When it came to the making of it, what was the preparation you guys had going into the performance? Was it more of a spur of the moment thing where right before the show you asked the sound guy to record the whole thing or was it more planned out?

PW: We didn’t have a plan, honestly. Every once in a while, we record the shows and I think at that particular Lizard Lounge show, the guy at the board said he could multitrack it, so we were like,”Cool.” We had three hours of stuff, so we decided that it would be great to make a live album, but it wasn’t really that planned. Same with “Live at the Brooklyn Bowl”, we just decided to record the show and put it out as a record if everyone liked it, so we didn’t do a ton of preparation. We just played it like a regular gig and it turned into a nice album.

RD: From checking it out, I have to agree. What are your thoughts on playing at Jimmy’s for this new Monday night “Discovery Series” they have going on?

PW: I’m really looking forward to it because I’ve spoken to a bunch of people who’ve told me that the place is great, they love it, the sound is good and the people are good. I’ve never been there, so I’m really excited to get up there and try it out. This is a great way for us to start this series and we’re so psyched to be a part of it, get up there and get our foot in the door of that club. From what I’ve seen on the calendar, there’s a lot of soul jazz and a lot of jazz going on. A lot of our friends play there, so it should be perfect for us.

RD: It’s a great room that’s right in the heart of Portsmouth. After this upcoming show, what are the Organically Good Trio’s plans for the rest of the year? Do you have any plans for a studio record to follow up the live release?

PW: Our most recent studio album is a dub album called “Lunar Dub”, and this year we’re going to be releasing the second half of that record called “Solar Dub”. That’s the big plan on the recording side of things and we gig all the way up until the end of spring, and then I turn into a Slightly Stoopid guy and I leave for a few months. We try to get everything done at some point between October and May, that’s sort of our time schedule. One of the big things that we’re looking forward to is that we’re playing a reggae festival in the U.S. Virgin Islands, so we’re flying out to St. John to play with Shwayze and a few other bands.

We’re looking forward to doing that since we haven’t done a lot of traveling. We mostly stick to within three or four hours of Boston.