Andy Nevala, above, performs piano during the Michael Brothers Trio recital. The trio only plays jazz music. The Michael Brothers Trio has been playing for a number of years, and has ventured to multiple states to record in the studios.
Nathaniel Callaway/The Lion’s Roar
Michael Brothers is the founder and CEO of Girod Records and currently plays in a group called The Michael Brothers Jazz Trio. His co-members are pianist Andy Nevala and bassists Jeff Carswell and Chris Kozak. For their past performance, he performed with Nevala and Kozak.
The recital was held in the Pottle Music Hall on Mar. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the recital hall. The group played many of their original songs from their upcoming album and Brothers shared how the group originally came together and the making of their new album.
“Believe it or not, it actually started as a joke,” said Brothers. “Andy and I were in Florida working on a regional theatre production for a friend of ours and we were messing around in the pit one day. I was kind of playing around with this New Orleans street beat thing and the bass player just kind of joined in. This particular album is called ‘Three Times Two.’ There are eight tracks on the album, four with one bass player and the other four with Chris. The other bass player lives in Miami, but we were just goofing off, and what developed out of goofing off was the original track, ‘Life in the Fast Lane.’ We got about ten minutes into it when we went ‘Hey, we should really try and do something with this.’”
The process involved in making “Three Times Two” took a little over a year, with many trips to different studios and even more work being put in by the band.
“So, at the beginning of the summer of 2015, we spent two different times that summer in a studio in Miami when we got the first part of the album done,” said Brothers. “And then we went over twice over last summer and last fall to a studio in Birmingham, Alabama and that’s when we finished. Then Andy and I just went back last week and finished the vixen.”
Brothers stated that it was both business and pleasure for him and that because of his job, he gets to have a bit of both.
“I actually own a record label, and when this album comes out, it’ll be the fifth release on the label,” said Brothers. “So I mean, it is a business venture, but at the same time it’s a pleasurable business venture. This is what I do for a living.”
Brothers originally got into the jazz scene when he was much younger attributing his parents for his first inspiration to perform in the art.
“I don’t know if this story is exactly true, but my parents tell a story that when I was a child they had gone to see a jazz performance in Lake Tahoe,” said Brothers. “But they couldn’t get a babysitter at the hotel they were staying at so they had to take me to the show along with them. I think I would have been about two or three. We sat down front, and apparently, I saw the drummer playing. This was the early sixties, so at that point, they had the whole big band on stage, you know the strings, piano, all that just a really classic thing for that time and apparently I just went home and started banging all over anything and everything in sight.”
Brothers also said that their album, “Three Times Two,” will be released around the end of October or at the latest, because of business issues and the Christmas season, by the beginning of 2018.
Michael Brothers, right, has two percussion degrees and forty plus years of experience. Chris Kozak, left, simultaneously plays the bass and cello during performances. Brothers performs both leisurely and professionally with his other two band members, Kozak and Andy Nevala.
Nathaniel Callaway/The Lion’s Roar
The band is preparing to release an album. Michael Brothers, far right, owns a record label. Their album “Three Times Two” will be released under his label. The trio’s album is expected by October, but may not arrive before 2018. The delay would be for business reasons. Brothers stated that he wished it could be released sooner.
Nathaniel Callaway/The Lion’s Roar