By Waldo L. Jaquith
08/24/01

Most music is fairly easily classified. Some can be put into boxes more easily: pop, rock, folk, blues, and so on. The majority of the remaining music can be cross-categorized without much difficulty: folk-rock, pop-rock, progressive rock, etc. Dave Matthews Band, for example, is generally known as jazz-influenced rock. (Some will argue that, with Everyday, they moved into the pop-rock genre, but that's a different topic entirely.) This is a system that works out well for artists and listeners alike; listeners can judge potential interest prior to hearing the band.

Of course, there are always the bands that wish to be everything to everybody, claiming to be "roots rock with a swing influences and R&B stylings," but that generally amounts to grandstanding. Nevertheless, the current categorization system is a good and useful one, most people will agree.

And then there's Thompson D'earth's Mercury. This is the kind of album that most reviewers numbly declare to be "jazz," or, at best, toss up their hands and classify as "experimental." But to generalize in this way would be to ignore Jamal Millner's low-key jazz-styled guitar on "Moment by Moment," Carter Beauford's funk-based drumming, Dawn Thompson's poetic lyrics and the orchestral washes of songs like "ATCG/Call Back The Time." Dawn Thompson and John D'earth, the husband-and-wife team that created Mercury, have such diverse musical backgrounds that few would dare claim they're attempting to be everything to everybody. It seems entirely possible that Mercury is simply the newest evolution of jazz, and Thompson D'earth is on the leading edge.

In typically Charlottesvillian fashion, the pair released the eight-song album in April without bothering to approach a label, enlist a big-name producer, gather investors, or do anything that one might normally expect to accompany such an effort. Like the rest of their releases, Mercury involves no promotion or major financial considerations. This is because Thompson and D'earth produce world-class music in roughly the same manner that plants produce oxygen: it's a byproduct of their existence. This is a happy situation, given that they are the source of life for an entire musical ecosystem. A certain aura of magic accompanies the duo and their work, one that permits them to gather up performers who pool their talents in the hope that the album will be a success and thus all will profit. And they don't gather just any performers.

The listing of the Mercury's contributors reads like a Virginia music fan's dream team: Carter Beauford, Robert Jospé, Dave Matthews, Pete Spaar, Jamal Millner, Howard Curtis, Wells Hanley and Bobby Read all appear on the disc. Beauford's contribution is far from brief: his crisp, strong drumming forms the backbone of the album. Beauford has several solos on the album, though all are so well-integrated into the songs that they avoid the showboating quality that so often plagues drum solos. It would be impossible to over-emphasize the creativity and strength of Beauford's performance on Mercury. It's that good.

Guitarist Jamal Millner (Tim Reynolds' TR3, Peter Griesar's Supertanker, Corey Harris' 5x5) shows remarkable restraint throughout the album, leaving a strong impression of terrific power and talent. Millner recently made a guest appearance with Dave Matthews Band, playing guitar with the group during their 08/01/01 show at Hershey Park. "This guy," describes John D'earth, "was my first choice to do this creative music that we do. He is totally unique on the guitar and as a musician. There's just nobody like him. He is so much a part of this music that we're trying to create."

Dave Matthews appears on just one song: lead vocals for a cover of The Police's "Darkness." The lyrics are ideal for Matthews, given his relentless fame:

Instead of worrying about my clothes,
I could be someone that nobody knows,
I wish I never woke up this morning,
Life was easy when it was boring.

D'earth, as always, provides his world-renowned trumpet, and Thompson lends her vocals, which were first popularized among Dave Matthews Band fans through her work with Code Magenta. But Thompson and D'earth provide much more than horn and singing. They are the commonality between all of the contributing musicians, and the centerpiece for the album, despite their relatively low-key appearances. D'earth's work with Dave Matthews Band (his arrangements for the 02/14/95 and 02/15/95 Dave Matthews Band shows with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and his string compositions and arrangements for "Halloween" and "The Stone" on Before These Crowded Streets) and the couple's extensive work with the band have no doubt primed them to take advantage of Matthews' and Beauford's talents. D'earth has worked closely with Jospé, Spaar, Millner and Reed for many years, most notably through his work with various incarnations of the John D'earth Thursday Night Miller's Band. Thousands of performances have given the group collaborative and improvisational abilities that border on ESP.

D'earth's 1998 release, Live at Miller's, showed what a truly outstanding jazz group can do live when they're at their very best. Mercury shows what virtually the same group can do in the studio, led by not one, but two musical geniuses. Always intelligent, often lively, occasionally downright exciting, Mercury is the very definition of an inspired work.

Oddly, Thompson and D'earth make it clear that this album isn't done just yet.

"Both of us feel like Mercury is really a work in progress for us," says Thompson, "that we have just kind of scratched the surface. We really kind of got the gist of it, but we're still scratching the surface. Mercury represents kind of the onset of the next phase of this music."

They intend to have a release party in early autumn - a party held off so that they could release an updated version of the album, the result of further production work by Thompson, D'earth, and producer Greg Howard. A Mercury Version 1.1, of sorts. Unorthodox? Of course. That's Thompson D'earth.

nancies.org | August 24, 2001