Groove family

Older and wiser, Foxtrot Zulu's
still jamming on the home front

by Don Fluckinger

It's the mark of a maturing scene when groups start tackling shorter, less geographically ambitious tours

because their members are getting married and having babies. Thus is the plight of the Providence-based septet Foxtrot Zulu -- and the jam-band thing in general, which has changed from a youth movement of the early-'90s H.O.R.D.E. Tour to the current scene, still buoyed by college students but populated by more and more 30-year-old graybeards.

Foxtrot Zulu have been around five years now. Bass player Brad Haas just became a father. Drummer Jeff Roberge has a baby on the way. Thankfully, those happy occasions haven't stopped the band from touring regionally on weekends, peddling their often fast, horn-oriented groove-rock in clubs from Washington, DC to Portland, Maine.

The band will swing by the Tammany Club this Friday and Saturday with shows doubling as benefits for the Worcester Homeless Veterans Shelter (patrons are asked to donate hygiene products), with sponsors E-Z Wider and Vermont's Magic Hat brewery (which will debut a new beer) on hand to distribute souvenirs.

"We've gone across the country a bunch of times, but now we're really starting to focus on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic -- really finding what's working and sticking with that," says Foxtrot Zulu's lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Nate Edmunds, who laughs when he pauses to count the friends he's seen get hitched already this year. "This summer, I went to something like eight or nine weddings. Everyone's just kind of growing up -- I guess it's better than hitting the funeral stage!"

Edmunds and lead guitarist Neal Jones have played together since junior high school, but the band came together on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, where they developed their sound and made a name for themselves on the jam-band circuit. While other bands on the circuit play far-out organic compositions and make no secret of following in the steps of Phish and the Grateful Dead, Foxtrot Zulu stick a little closer to their material's original melodic structures and consider themselves more straight-ahead rock with horns -- as in straight-ahead like Bruce Springsteen, one of Edmunds's idols. Add in the horn players' love of jazz and drummer Roberge's infatuation with trance music, and all this makes for an interesting stew of rhythmic influences.

"We do a good amount of modal jamming and stuff like that, but we tend to focus on the song more, focus on the lyrics and actual songs," says Edmunds, who also followed the Grateful Dead on tour back in Jerry's day. "But we have a lot of four- or five-minute songs that we use the horns in in different ways -- sometimes we use them as section work, but a lot more of the time it's as solo pieces -- I guess we just don't noodle as much as other bands."

"Foxtrot" and "Zulu" are military code for the letters F and Z. What was the band thinking when it picked the name? An homage to Frank Zappa? The military term "fire zone?" Edmunds says that those are the two most popular guesses, but the story is much less glamorous -- the choice was inspired by deadline pressure rather than cryptic symbolism.

"Actually, we were in a military finance class together, and we were required to learn the military alphabet," Edmunds says. "We had a gig, and it came down to the wire; we needed a name, and Foxtrot Zulu was our friend's [code] name . . . and I'm glad we stuck with it, because some of our other options were really bad."

Early last summer the band released their fourth CD, Foxtrot Zulu Live, their second for Phoenix Rising Records. It includes one new tune, "Tears Down Tracks," and expands some concert favorites such as "Maryanne" and "Equador," both of which clock in at more than 15 minutes. For jam-bands, capturing a live performance can be dangerous because shows and songs evolve from gig to gig -- so by the time a CD comes out, the band have moved on to new mutations of solo sections, and the songs barely resemble the snapshots caught on tape.

But just like a proud papa, Edmunds likes the new Foxtrot Zulu CD more than the other three, which were studio efforts. He says that making studio albums is such a repetitive process of going over all the layers and tracks that he can get tired of an album even before it comes out.

"My favorite way to record is live," he says. "I don't really like listening to our CDs, but [Foxtrot Zulu Live] I like, because every time I hear it, I hear something different I enjoy."

Foxtrot Zulu play the Tammany Club on October 6 and 7, at 10 p.m., with Pretty Cool Chair opening on October 6. Tickets are $8. Call 791-6550.