Music Seen
Erdasa
by Michael Poliskey
Ersada is a smooth jazz trio that has been playing together for only eight months. Sara Goldenthal and David Clarke have been playing for two years, but when bassist Eric Davis heard the two play at The Custom House in Rockland he asked if he could bring his instrument in. "It was a really nice fit, so he kept coming."
The ephemeral sounding band name, Erdasa, which is pronounced Er-day-sah, is not really a word at all. It's a combination of the first two letters of each band members name. That would be Eric Davis, David Clarke, and Sara Goldenthal. "None of us are hugely into naming bands," asserts Goldenthal. "So actually Dave came up with that clever name. It has a nice, kind of, off the tongue kind of sound."
Erdasa's demo CD features seven popular jazz standards including Jimmy Van Heusen's It Could Happen to You, Burt Bacharach's, The Look of Love and Cole Porter's All or Nothing At All. The first few haunting chords of Richard Rogers' My Funny Valentine will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. That's even before Goldenthal starts to sing. The songs and performances imbue the spirit of jazz and can take you to a darkened nightclub with soft, subtle lighting and the sound of martinis being shaken, not stirred.
The aforementioned haunting chords are played by David Clarke. He dances through all seven songs nimbly like the musician he is, which is an excellent one. His playing greatly compliments Goldenthal's silky singing. Clarke's lead guitar breaks dance their way in and out of each songs complex jazz chord progression so Goldenthal can knock you out over and over again. Upright bass player Eric Davis keeps the bottom end thumping and supports his bandmates in Erdasa safe and secure.
Sara Goldenthal's voice sounds like it has been polished through years of performing, which can't be more true. As a child, Goldenthal found influences, ironically enough, from '70s television variety musical shows. Ironic because she doesn't even own a TV. Zoom, Brady Bunch, and Free To Be You and Me were the beginning musical inspiration was to be found.
"I've been singing since I can remember. I use to sing at family parties; I have a twin sister, and we would make up little skits and act. I have an extended cast of siblings, but I grew up with two boys and another girl, and we used to fancy ourselves like the Brady Bunch." Marcia Brady has nothing on Goldenthal's pipes.
Inspiration comes from all around, and Goldenthal found a communinty where there was no choice but to be inspired. "When I was 15 I moved to Freedom, Maine. It's really a pocket of artists, teachers and musicians. Waldo County is really like a mecca, as far as I'm concerned, of incredibly talented people. Also because it's really rural. People have to rely on themselves to be entertained. Everybody I knew played an instrument."
Goldenthal, who has a degree in Philosophy and Comparitive Religion from The University of Maine, found inspiration again from her surroundings. "Along the way to getting that degree, I took this great History of Jazz class with Jay Bregman, who is this unbelievable character. I was really into beat literature in my early 20s; Kerouac, Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and he [Bregman] was a huge beat fan. He actually had known Alan Ginsberg [and] Kerouac; grew up in Brooklyn, was a New York intellectual jazz guy. I took his class and was really enamoured by jazz, and also the connection with jazz and beat literature."
The demo was recorded by Bob Colwell in Hallowell in only a few hours. The bane of all recording is to be sick on recording day. The sore throat and headache that Goldenthal had did not lessen the quality of the demo at all. "I like this demo because it's really relaxed. We're really happy with it."
The three members of Erdasa have found a niche in life that suites them - lucky for us. To hear Erdasa you can go to their website at www.erdasa.com. There you will be able to listen to their music and get all of their updated dates for their gigs.
last updated 06.27.07