Village Soup Times Article: Erdasa: In a mellow tone By Shanna McNair ROCKLAND (Sep 12): On the beaten path of Rockland's main drag, there's a café and dinner place laid out shotgun style -- an urban hangout, with its casual, hip atmosphere, reminiscent of a big city vibe. Market on Main has the metropolitan earmarks: massive picture glass windows looking out onto traffic, a slew of skinny, metal tabletops and bold art hung under tall ceilings - it's the kind place you might go to hear local talent in say, New York City. The local talent is there. Any Thursday evening you can sit and sip wine or coffee, dine and drift into the mellow tones of Erdasa, a Maine jazz trio. The group plays modern jazz standards, swing, blues and some Latin numbers. Sara Goldenthal is the group's vocalist, Eric Davis plays stand-up bass and David Clarke is on electric guitar. The setting is intimate; you can feel the bassist and the deep, wide-open voice resonating up through the floorboards of the restaurant, better known as M.O.M. The three musicians share a low-slung music stand and are set up in the window under M.O.M.'s logo, with its giant floating leek, painted on the glass behind them. From six to eight, you can listen to the group travel seamlessly through their sultry songbook as the sun goes down around them.
								Sara Goldenthal sings sweet and low.
				Starting off with a swishy, smoky ballad, "Black Coffee," by Sonny Burke, the group throws an intense blue mood. The audience is from as far away as Philadelphia -- they came in to "hear Sara sing again" and delight when she makes the rounds between sets, saying hello. Goldenthal, as dreamy and beautiful as the old melodies, sings with a face full of emotion, lost in the music. She never just belts it out; there is an important tension in how she handles a melody. It's a classic approach, just bending things here and there while paying attention to the original. Goldenthal might come at a note from over the mark and then slide into it, or dance around the note with vocal trills and loops, but her subtle phrasing is key. "They're such good songs - the music and words are just transporting," Goldenthal said. She doesn't expect to do the songs, which are all ballads, "better" than the jazz greats who made them famous in the first place. But she does make them her own. She keeps the intonations low with her natural range and gives the melodies a lush mellowness that makes for a kind of controlled, Ella Fitzgerald-style love ballad. Such greats as "Summertime" by George Gershwin and Debose Heyward and "Willow Weep for Me" by Ann Ronell are drawn out slow and pensive.
						Eric Davis on bass. (Photo by Shanna McNair)
				Though most of the songs Goldenthal sings are about heartbreak, they are infused with warmth. The band is having a conversation; nobody is trying to strut or show off. The rule of thumb is, the slower the tune, the harder it is to sing or fill up with notes and these three make it seem effortless. Clarke noted that "it might be easier" if the group had a drummer, so that there wouldn't be so much space to fill. "You wouldn't have to constantly be playing notes," Clarke said. Davis said that having a drummer would cause too much of a framework and be "too restrictive." The two agreed. The way Erdasa is now, a drummer would have to fade into simple brushwork with an occasional hard hit. The three feel like a rhythm section already, with the vocals intertwining. Clarke riffs effortlessly on his electric with both a superb sense of rhythm and playfulness. His work is clean and spontaneous. Davis' walking bassline is gentle and intuitive. Each player merges into the trio sound so well that you nearly forget they are independent of one another.
							David Clarke plays with subtlety and emotion.
				The smooth sailing of Erdasa's jazzwork is a romantic sketch of the past, done a new way -- and well at that. The trio fused into its signature mood about nine months ago and now has its first demo out. Visit www.erdasa.com for more details on upcoming events. Based in Camden, Shanna McNair can be reached at 207-236-8468 or by e-mail at smcnair@villagesoup.com. This story first appeared in the Sept. 17, 2003 edition of the Village Soup Times
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