Jazz/Funk stylist Michael Parsons looks for a toehold
This article appeared in Jazz Steps San Francisco, December 2001
The 7:00 p.m. set for The Project, the five-piece San Francisco jazz/funk combo led by young organist Michael Parsons, starts out slowly. It’s Friday night at Rouge on Polk Street. The bar, while comfortable, is an odd convergence of art deco appointments and disco sensibility, complete with dark red walls, leather detailing, and ornate chandeliers.
The band is crowded onto a small stage in a side corner of the club and they break into the upbeat groove of Leon Spencer’s “First Gravy,” to a mostly empty room.
Still, a few tunes into this first set the musicians are warmed up—along with Parsons, the band is Steve Burke, guitar; Danny Grewen, trombone; Brandon Etzler, drums; and Mike Walti, bass, with trumpeter Jay Sanders and saxophonist Gabe Eaton sitting in on this night—the sound is fine, and solos begin to flow vibrantly across solid rhythm lines. The music coalesces into a joyful yet controlled jazz/funk current. At the reins is Parsons, straight-backed at his Roland VK 7 organ or tilting his head toward the keys while taking solos that feature frequent spaces and pointed, lyrical phrases. By the middle of the third set, the room is full.
The Project has been together for two years, and the 21-year-old Parsons is gaining a reputation in San Francisco as an exciting, inventive organist, giving Bay Area jazz fans the rare opportunity of following the growth of a skilled performer from the outset of his career. Most of Parson’s work these days comes as an organist with The Project, but his ultimate goal is to make a name as a jazz pianist. The Lodi, California, native is building on the foundation of his early classical piano training and an in-depth appreciation of his predecessors.
“Your progress as a musician should be charted as well as it can be within jazz history,” he says. “So I’m aware of my place as a player and of what I need to learn first. I’ve decided to focus on time and rhythm, but the only reason I’ve decided to do that is because of Duke Ellington.”
While The Project is often billed as a funk group, the line between funk and jazz quickly blurs, and The Project fits squarely within the tradition of 70’s groove purveyors like Lou Donaldson and Grant Green.
“That’s what we’re going for,” Parsons agrees, adding that he envisions introducing a jazz sensibility to his funk audiences. “It’s a question of accessibility and maybe opening people’s ears. I figure that if they have the patience to listen to an idea in funk, that might be a gateway to listening to an idea in jazz, something that might end up being a lot more profound. And our roots in funk are basically grooves that use the timing of swing. That’s what makes us candidates to be really good jazz players.”
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