The University of Idaho Argonaut

The local band Cadenza Collective plays at Bucer's Pub Friday evening. The band includes Nevin Chettri, left, Erik Blume, second to left, Andrew Rose, second to right, and Jack Lee. Photo by Jake Barber/Argonaut Photo Editor.

Over the tops of lattes and beers a dozen conversations shot around the crowd of about 30 people at Bucer’s Pub on
Friday night.

While some were consumed in their rowdy weekend talk, many were content to sit back, relax and absorb the smooth melodies Cadenza Collective was pouring out from under a single blue spot light at the front of
the pub.

Cadenza Collective is a four-piece Moscow jazz band made up of University of Idaho music majors. The members are Navin Chettri (drums), Erik Blume (sax), Andrew Rose (bass) and Jack Lee (guitar).

While the band members are all active in jazz projects through the university, they hope to maintain the creative impartiality of Cadenza by keeping it independent.

“We could sign up for credits, but we just want to do our own thing on our own time,” Blume said. “We all do other ensembles, and this is kind of our one unassociated project.”

Cadenza Collective has only recently started playing in Moscow with its current members. The band is a long-time project for Chettri, who moved to the U.S. for the first time when he started school at UI last fall.

Chettri, a native of Nepal, started the band in his home country and has since re-started it with Moscow musicians that he met through the university music program.

“We were called Cadenza and we started calling it ‘Collective’ because so many musicians would come and go. It gave us that space,” Chettri said.

The band believes that its appeal comes from cultural exposure as musicians.

“The thing I really like about this group is that we always try to do something that hasn’t always been done,” Rose said. “We try to incorporate a lot of world beats and other influences.”

Such influences can be detected in Chettri’s minute-long wincing drum solos. The improvised bursts can be stylistically intriguing, revealing a nearly Latin taste.

While the group takes the time to explore the musical realm outside of typical American club jazz, they are also transitionally tight.

“A lot of people don’t think about it when they’re in a band — that they really need to listen to each other — and the guys do a great job of that,” said Lee, who played his first show with Cadenza on Friday.

Chettri said he has personally recorded four or five CDs and produced many other originals.

“I like any kind of music, as long as it has something to say and it moves me and has some reality to it,” Chettri said. “Whether it’s rock or punk or jazz or other music, I don’t care.”

Chettri is also involved as a director for an annual jazz festival in Katmandu, Nepal and will be traveling there in October to participate. The event brings in artists from France, Cuba, Brazil and England among other countries.

The first Katmandu festival was in 2002, after Chettri traveled to a jazz event in Australia. He said that he was inspired by the energy.

The current Cadenza lineup has been playing together since December 2007, minus the group’s original trumpet player. In February, the group won the college combo competition in the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. Cadenza has no immediate plans for the 2008 Festival.

“The Hampton Festival seems far away right now,” Blume said.

Blume, a fifth-year senior, was invited into Cadenza through a chance meeting with Chettri, who overheard him practicing last fall. Since then, the group has snowballed members, and each one has became increasingly involved with the overall Cadenza project. This summer, Blume traveled to Nepal with Chettri to play with some of Cadenza’s older, more distant members.

Since the band started, it has not played outside of Moscow but has performed at banquets, festivals and several Main street venues, including One World Cafe and Bucer’s.

“There’s definitely a future for Cadenza. Once we’re out of college, we’re all going to be doing music professionally,” Chettri said.
In the meantime, the members are more focused on school than Cadenza’s professional aspirations.

“We’re just trying to build a crowd in Moscow,” Rose said. “It’s hard for this kind of music to reach people sometimes because it’s a little different than what they’re used to, but once they come to accept it they seem to like it.”