Band Of The Week

Adele and the Matts

Band members, instruments and day jobs:

Adele Fournet, piano and vocals. Composer and anthropologist by day, musician by night.

Matt Todd, percussion. Recording artist by day, percussionist by night.

Matt Lewis, bass guitar. Musician by day, secret agent by night.

Band born: August 2008

Type of music: Jazz, jazz fusion, pop

Originals or covers? We play a mixture of covers and originals. Right now we are on a big Thelonious Monk kick, so a majority of the standards we cover are by Monk with the occasional Horace Silver. We got started by doing covers of The Bad Plus, an awesome avant garde jazz trio originating out of Minneapolis, so we still cover their stuff. Adele just graduated with a degree in composition from The New College of Florida in May, so the remainder of the tunes are her originals.

Sounds like: The Bad Plus

Songwriter’s muse: Michele Foucault, feminism, institution-itus, heartbreak

Influences: The Bad Plus, Monk, Ravel, Mike Markaverich, Tori Amos

Accomplishments: Our biggest accomplishment has probably been learning some of those Bad Plus numbers, which provide a different challenge to each instrumentalist. We are also just very happy to be playing for Fayettevillians, who always seem to enjoy our sets.

What kind of crowd do you draw? Our music really ranges the musical gamut, so our listeners tend to have a variety of tastes and musical backgrounds. There is something in our set for the traditional jazz aficionado, the lover of funk and even a straight up Rush fan (our favorite Bad Plus cover is probably “Tom Sawyer”). We also love it when people dance. Dancers welcome!

When and where do you practice? We practice at Adele’s place whenever we need to get ready for a show.

Any albums? We are in the process of recording our first album, which should be done by early spring. Hopefully we will have a shorter EP ready by this fall.

Total number of tattoos and piercings: We consistently wear temporary tattoos to our gigs and are known to give them out to the audience as trivia prizes.

Back stage ritual: Dancing around the disco ball that we also consistently bring to gigs.

Funniest or strangest thing that ever happened during a performance: Someone decided to come on stage at Wasabi in June and sing the lyrics to Tom Sawyer as we did a funky jazz cover of it.

Plans: Our plans are to play as many gigs as possible over the next few months as we are recording our album. Adele is leaving in March, 2010 to live in Peru for a year to study female rock instrumentalists in Lima with a Fulbright scholarship, so the band might make a Latin American tour next summer before returning to Fayetteville the following year.

Goals: To get the accents right on “Rhythm-a-ning” by the end of the month and produce a sweet album.

New Projects: Adele is also working on her solo album right now, which should also be available by early spring.

Dream act to open for: The Bad Plus, Tori Amos, St. Vincent

Last CD purchased: Music from SEAMUS: the society for electro-acoustic music in the united states

Most played song/s on your iPod? “Ravel Quartet in F Major”

Web site: www.myspace.com/adeleandthematts

Upcoming shows and tours:

Oct. 16 Teatro Scarpino

Oct. 25 Fayetteville Public Library

Nov. 13 Teatro Scarpino