The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, a Seattle-based group that creates a blend of jazz and soul, is about to embark on its first nationwide tour.

The Daily Orange spoke with frontman Delvon Lamarr to discuss the band’s formation, its influences and what the group members are excited to eat on tour. The trio will perform at Funk ‘n Waffles on South Clinton Street on Thursday.
The Daily Orange: How would you describe yourself to people who’ve never heard your music?

Delvon Lamarr: We have a really big kind of soul and soul-jazz feel to us. So, people into the old Motown … things like that, like Otis Redding. Kind of the Stax, not Motown but Stax Records. Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Otis Redding, The Meters. We still have a new-school feel to us as well, people like Soulive and The New Mastersounds. We cross a lot of spectrums.

The D.O.: Could you talk about your new album?

 D.L.: The album itself is a reissue. We self-released it a couple of years ago. When we recorded that album, we didn’t plan on recording. We got a message from a studio engineer buddy of ours asking if we wanted to record. So, we went to the studio and a lot of the songs were figured out there.

We were playing a weekly gig at this club in Seattle called The Royal Room, where we would just jam and create things on the spot. When we got to the studio some of these songs weren’t even finished, and we finished them once we got to the studio. It kind of blossomed from there.

The D.O.: Is improvisation a big aspect of your music, then?

 D.L.: It is. It’s the jazz aspect of what we do. It has a strong soul feel as kind of the predominant thing that stands up, but it’s all improvisational. It has the same jazz format with melodies and improvised solos.

The D.O.: As a group, how has your sound evolved?

D.L.: The songs are the same, but we have a certain (spontaneity) to our playing. We were just talking about it the other day while listening to the album. Between me and Jimmy James, we have such a musical chemistry, and our musical backgrounds — the stuff we grew up listening to — is pretty much identical.

Sometimes we’ll be playing a tune, and he’ll break off and start playing something familiar mid-song. I’m always listening, so I hear what he’s doing and I jump right in, and David McGraw jumps right in it. We can take one song, change it into another and change it back into the same song. We never know what we are going to do, it just happens.

The D.O.: How did you get started playing the keys?

D.L.: Actually, I started off playing trumpet and drums. I’ve been playing (those) probably since the seventh grade. I didn’t start playing the organ until I was about 22 or 23. … I got a call to play drums in this organ trio, and it was the first time I had seen anybody play the organ outside of the pastor’s wife at church. So when I started, I listened to the organ player and thought, “This is dope.” I had never heard anything like it.

We had been playing for a year about once a week, and one day a drummer comes in and sits in on drums. I asked if I could play the organ, and we played some blues. I played as if I had played the organ forever, foot pedals and all. I pretty much learned organ by watching.

The D.O.: How would you describe your live shows?

D.L.: Our live shows are heartfelt, they are intense. … It’s pretty much every emotion you can possibly have. We got the soul for the souls, we got the jazz for the jazzers, we got the rock ‘n’ roll for the rock ‘n’ rollers. We appeal to pretty much every demographic. We’ve played rock clubs, jazz clubs, and the response is the same. They dig.

The D.O.: How did the trio form?

D.L.: The trio was actually formed by my wife, Amy Novo. I’d been playing on the scene in Seattle for a long time, with different bands and stuff. For one reason or another, even though they were really good bands, they just fell apart. People go off and do things in other bands, nobody was really committed. … My wife got tired of me complaining about these not going anywhere. She told me, “You get the musicians in the room, and I’ll do everything else.”

That’s how it formed. She did all the work. We just wrote music and played it. All of our success so far is her.

The D.O.: Are there any cities you look forward to visiting?

 D.L.: All of them. Like I said, I’ve never been anywhere. All this stuff is new to me, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the differences between cities. One thing I’m really excited to do is eat. I’m not a big boy, but I can put them away, I’ll tell you that. Every city and state has their food item they are known for, and that’s one of the things I’m looking forward to. I want to find what each city is known for and find the best place everyone is talking about, and I got to try it at least once. Music ain’t even the most exciting part — the food is right now.

Published on April 16, 2018 at 9:16 pm

Contact Tighe: tgugerty@syr.edu