St. Louis-based band 3 Central headlines next weekend’s Front Street Music Festival, an annual block party and jazz music celebration hosted by Jazz UpFront in downtown Bloomington.
Delta blues band Mississippi Heat, of Chicago, shares top billing for the all-day festival that also includes sets by Madra and Reggie Thomas, 4 of the Flow, Front Street Collective, Olivia Wexler Band and more.
Brothers Russell and Everett Moore play saxophone and drums, respectively, in 3 Central plus someone who Russell Moore calls their “brother from another mother,” Ken Anderson on keys.
It all started with a few wedding gigs in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
“One day, I went to Ken and said, 'Hey man, let’s start a band,” Russell Moore said. “Ken apprehensively said, OK.’”
“Apprehensively, because I love the creative side of music,” said Anderson, who produces 3 Central’s albums in addition to performing. “Not that I don’t like performance, but my favorite part of music is the creative side of it. I was focused on that.”
Everett, the younger of the Moore brothers, said it’s been seamless.
“It goes pretty much like peanut butter and jelly,” he said. “Milk and cereal. To put it in simplest terms, it’s been a joy. I love it.”
‘Inspirational Smooth Jazz’
Two new singles, Always You and 22 West, show 3 Central’s rangy influences: jazz, R&B, soul, funk, gospel and pop, to name a few. The band describes its style as “inspirational smooth jazz,” harkening to the cross-over genre dominating the radio waves in the ‘80s, ‘90s and into the 2000s, when smooth jazz generally petered out — until its resurgence within newly-coined Yacht Rock revivals across the streaming universe.
King among smooth jazz kings was saxophonist Kenny G, whose 75 million record sales list him among the best-selling artists of all time. Smooth jazz hit radio play far before Kenny G came on the scene, with Grover Washington Jr., George Benson, Chuck Mangione, Bobby Caldwell and David Sanborn among the first crossover artists to move jazz musicianship toward easy listening and light R&B.
“The inspiration comes from a healing standpoint,” said Russell Moore. “One thing about music — it is pure. When it reaches that heart, there are grown men that have walked up to me and said, ‘Man, when you start playing, I start crying.’ So, I know it is reaching what it should reach.”
Despite its wild popularity, earning smooth jazz artists celebrity status, the praise was not universal. Many were accused of selling out by critics and fellow musicians. But nobody could deny their musicianship.
“The criticism of the genre probably started from some of the purists who said it’s not jazz as we knew it when people like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker were coming up,” Anderson said. “But music evolves. It’s not that old of a genre, really.”
“Smooth jazz style has never taken away from the true roots of jazz,” added Everett Moore. “Music has a way of lifting a spirit. It has a way of transcending. You cannot speak the language, but you understand the music.”
3 Central headlines the Front Street Music Festival on Saturday, Aug. 17, along Front Street in downtown Bloomington. Entrance is free. jazzupfront.com.
