EVENING SKY – A COOL CONVERSATION WITH JOE POTENZA
By Ralph Beauchamp
Evening Sky is a four piece ensemble based out of New England. Their music is full of bold grooves and audacious vibes. Evening Sky is hard to pin down. Their sound embraces a heady brew of musical genres. Underling their jazz roots, Evening Sky venture far and wide. Some songs fit in well with the Americana spirit while others swell with a swampy spark. The band is comprised of Chris Brooke (Pedal Steel), Gino Rosati (Guitar), Joe Potenza (Bass) and Eric Hastings (Drums). Evening Sky have released 10 albums and a series of singles.
Evening Sky‘s musicianship is both stellar and fiercely unique. Every track has a life and breathe of its own. Another cool aspect of the band is their “Plus One” series where they invite a guest musician or vocalist to join them in the studio. The end results have been tremendous. Evening Sky has partnered with such notables as Tish Adams, Leland Brown, Eden Casteel, saxophonist Ben Shaw and Italian guitarist and composer Mino Lanzieri. Evening Sky is a captivating cavalcade that will surely usher you down a spiral of aural euphoria.
Bassist Joe Potenza was kind enough to sit with AMP for this cool conversation.
AMP: Can you give our readers a brief history of the band?
JOE: I’d played with each of the other three guys (drummer Eric Hastings, guitarist Gino Rosati, pedal steed guitarist Chris Brooks) individually; most often with Gino. He contacted me after playing with Chris at a session and REALLY wanted to do something. I suggested Eric for drums – the most eclectic and open-minded drummer I could think of.
We met to play at Eric’s studio a few times, not sure of what material might work for the ensemble. We tried out a bunch of jazz / rootsy / blues / rock covers & gradually found a sound. Gino brought in a couple of compositions and off we went. During the pandemic we’d meet up in masks at Eric’s studio for the only playing there was to be had. Writing, experimenting and recording followed..
AMP: Your sound blends a myriad of genres including jazz and Americana. How do you navigate mixing these distinct entities into your own musical identity?
JOE: At first, we threw everything against the wall to see what would stick. Everyone brought their own background: Eric played jazz, grew up on 80s & 90s rock and loves drummers from New Orleans; Chris lived on the West Coast in the late 60s, touring with the pop singer Oliver (‘Good Morning Starshine’) and plays jazz guitar as well as pedal steel; Gino’s a jazzer but loves Robin Trower & Led Zep; I’ve played a slew of jazz & blues gigs and love the music of the Band, Little Feat & the Allman Brothers. All of this (and more) finds its way into the writing/arranging process as well as our choice of covers.
AMP: What are some of the recurring themes or subjects you find yourselves drawn to in your songwriting?
JOE: Room for improvisation; grooves, but not always the most obvious ones; pieces that sound like SONGS; leaving space in the compositions; very few bass solos; LISTENING and paying attention to the ensemble sound.
AMP: Also, Can you walk us through your songwriting process?
JOE: Gino is the principal composer although Eric has brought in a handful of cool ideas lately. (Chris has a great tune in our book and has arranged several medleys of cover songs for us to play). Often a piece will start as a raw idea – a chord progression, a melody, a groove, and the writer will bring it to a rehearsal for everyone to play around with.
We record every rehearsal so we can keep track of what we develop. Sometimes Gino will come in with a handful of fully formed pieces & we’ll get to work on them. We’ll try playing them on gigs. When the tunes start to sound like us and we feel comfortable with them we’ll record them.
AMP: Your “Plus One” series of releases are quite inventive. How were they conceived?
JOE: Our first recording featured a bunch of guest singers doing songs we liked. Then we did an arrangement of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” with five guests each doing a verse as spoken word! Then we started spitballing ideas for collaborations – singers Tish Adams, Eden Casteel, Michelle Hill, Leland Brown – all from very different backgrounds and each one bringing out a different side of the band.
Saxophonist Ben Shaw brought in some of his compositions for an album and also participated in an EP recording with trumpeter Carl Gergard (four of Gino’s tunes). Next came recordings with saxophonist John McKenna and harmonica man Ralph Rosen. We’ll be releasing albums featuring the playing and composing of two different jazz guitarists from Italy – Mino Lanzieri and Lorenzo Cominoli. We like collaborating!!!
AMP: Staying on topic, is there a current artist you would love to add to your “Plus One” catalogue?
JOE: I’d love to do something with Duke Robillard. He digs what we do and he’s one of the most eclectic and open-minded bluesmen around. It’d be fun to do something with Mark Cutler. We’ve done a couple of live shows with singer-songwriter Grace Goodrich, and we want to get that collaboration recorded soon!
AMP: What’s the band’s internal energy like?
JOE: Very collaborative, very focused on the ensemble sound. Gino’s compositions, Chris’ sonic contributions, Eric’s sense of groove, dynamics and space all contribute both to the development of the songs and to the live performances in a very significant way.
AMP: Describe your favorite performance and what made it memorable?
JOE: We’ve played a couple of times at Mechanics Hall in Worcester in collaboration with WICN, the jazz station there. It was great to have our music presented well, to have a bunch of people LISTENING (and requesting certain pieces the second time around!) at a point where the band was starting to hit its stride. Another great one was a date at Chan’s when we were joined by two great singers – Tish Adams and Eden Casteel. Very different approaches and styles; great collaborators. Made for an interesting night of music. Wish there were more folks in the audience……
AMP: Does the band try to stay current with the trends in the music industry and how do you approach the use of social media?
JOE: We’re not young cats and we don’t pretend to be. We do what we do while trying to use social media effectively. There’s a website, a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a Bandcamp page with all our recordings. Probably could do more but….
AMP: What’s next for Evening Sky?
JOE: Three recordings are getting ready for release – the two with Mino Lanzieri and with Lorenzo Cominoli and a new quartet recording of all original music. What we really want is to find some sort of representation for shows outside of Rhode Island. We need someone to get us into venues that are appropriate – listening spaces, art spaces, small black box theaters, jazz clubs, festivals, wineries. We’re ready but we can’t do that by ourselves.
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