When the sun sets, Butcher Brown beams

On tour for their expansive Solar Music release, the five-piece, Richmond-raised collective played a cosmic 2-hour set at le poisson rouge in New York City on October 18.

Concert review by Bari Bossis

Copyright: ©John Welch, 2023

Eclectic is a default descriptor for the Richmond, Virginia cultivated jazz collective Butcher Brown. The quintet notably cut its teeth on the scene in 2013, releasing several EPs under its own imprint, building a reputation for the elasticity of their sound and performances. The following year, Butcher Brown’s rhythm section (including the group’s former guitarist, Keith Askey) backed GRAMMY® award-winning multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton on his 2014 record Numbers, a diversion for the trumpet titan, who mostly played Fender Rhodes throughout. The funk-flushed foray, with its abstract, leaderless format, elevated Butcher Brown’s stature on the map in the world of progressive Black American Music and remains a notable, conceptual excursion in Payton’s discography. Months later, the release of All Purpose Music continued the expansion of Butcher Brown’s fanbase between hip-hop heads, jazz nerds, and beyond; a path adjacent to the route of fellow RVA talent D’Angelo. Now, nearly a decade later, a more evocative alternative to the moniker “eclectic” is the title of the group’s far-reaching new album, Solar Music.

The band brought that new cosmic collection, along with older examples of its expansive sound, to Le Poisson Rouge this past Wednesday as it begins to conclude the first leg of the Solar Music World Tour. Bolstered by trumpeter, saxophonist, and MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney at the helm, Devonne Harris, aka DJ Harrison, on keys, Corey Fonville on drums, Andrew Randazzo on bass, and Morgan Burrs on guitar, Butcher Brown delivered a two-hour-long set with tunes old and new and arrangements both original and in-homage.

The quintet ardently defines its brand and sonic influences in hybrid terms, synthesizing elements from R&B to funk, fusion to folk, house to hip-hop, soul to country, a dash of rock, and a little more of everything in between. Yet since its earliest brews of that dynamic sound, Butcher Brown can’t seem to be described without ‘jazz’. 

Music distributors and playlist curators frequently label the group’s output as such. Spotify, for example, supports the discovery of Butcher Brown via playlists like “State of Jazz,” “Jazz-Funk,” “Lowkey,” “Lounge Jazz,” and “Orbit,” the lattermost perhaps capturing Butcher Brown best as it sets off to explore a “genre-bending universe centered” around the trending term ‘jazz’.

Though the group gets plenty of handpicked love from digital service provider playlists, that might not be the optimal way to experience Butcher Brown for the first time. Band members, notably bassist Andrew Randazzo, have publicly declared the group’s affinity for top-down album listening. In an interview with KCSB, he expressed his hope that Solar Music would be approached like a movie: “You don’t just want to watch a single scene. Though a single scene in a movie might be so amazing you may want to watch it over and over, you still have to watch the whole thing.”

Whether one hears Butcher Brown recorded or live, the group’s format sharply upholds that reverence for long-form performances, a custom that often appears adrift in the streaming era. Despite the length of Solar Music’s tracks—which average at around two minutes each—the 20-track batch blurs those lines between traditional song and album structures. It’s difficult and thrilling to tell when a new song or idea starts and ends. The band, now ten years strong, prides itself in its ability to progress and evolve, so creating shorter tracks disguised as one large listening session is as much of an illusion as it is a protracted, multi-sensory drama.

Reeling in fans with its ‘90s hip-hop throwback style, last year’s feel-good hit track “Liquid Light” floated close to the top of Wednesday’s setlist, providing early insight that the performance would not exclusively include Solar Music tunes, but instead, everything under the sun. Highlighted by the psychedelic musings of Harrison and Burrs, the group etched a funk treatment of Jimi Hendrix’s “Have You Ever Been To (Electric Ladyland)”. This tossed the audience into a cozy, familiar mood felt later again on a salute to post-bop pioneer Roy Ayers’ lesser-known “This Side Of Sunshine.” Acknowledging inspiration is essential for the band, and that includes rallying fans. On multiple occasions, Tennishu implored audience members to introduce themselves afterward: “We want to know you, too!”

An almost 5-minute solo from Morgan Burrs transported the audience back to the evening’s origins on a second installment of “Around For a While,” the same Solar Music track the group opened with. That pseudo-finale would have been too symmetrical of an end for a band so resourceful. Instead, warped effects dialed up on “It Was Me,” and Tennishu weaved closing thanks through lyrics steeped in affirmation and self-love.

I entered Le Poisson Rouge that evening while the sun set, which creeps earlier and earlier into the day as winter nears. Alone, I landed in a perfect pocket close to the stage. Over the course of the evening, I noticed a woman in front of me mobilize her standing neighbors into a synchronized sway. I found myself participating anonymously from behind and abandoning the surrounding dance along with the backbeat. I wanted to join the action but in my own style. It was intuitive, and it was a result of immersing myself alone at a show more ambitious and bright than the sunlight I said goodbye to a few hours prior. By pausing, I was playing my own changes. In a dark, crowded Manhattan basement, Butcher Brown catalyzed that change for everyone as they played light through sound. 

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