Down Beat, November 1986

T Lavitz
A New Fusion
By Bill Milkowski

As a member of the now-defunct (ne้ Dixie) Dregs, T Lavitz admits that he felt dwarfed compositionally next to guitarist, bandleader, and principal composer Steve Morse. "That was definitely Steve's group. Everybody had a job, and his was writing the music," says T (no period, please). "I was writing some music then, but I wasn't seriously pursuing it. Steve was coming up with such good tunes, I didn't even present my music. I just put my ego aside."

Now the keyboardist is stepping out on his own. His first solo album, Storytime, on the Passport Jazz label, features eight T originals, including one collaboration with his ex-boss Morse. It has a decidedly different feel than Dregs music, as Lavitz explains.

"I don't want to try to compete with the Dregs. I'd like to break away from that, and this album is a good step because I'm not relying on a guitar lead. I really don't want to compete with the rock-heavy edge that we had. I don't want to get into this kind of complicated techno-rock stuff. That was the Dregs. And Steve has picked up where he left off with that, playing more guitar-oriented things on his solo albums and writing the same type of difficult music. Sort of like electric chamber music. Which is cool. I play on Steve's records and listen to them and I think they're incredible. But what I'm trying to do is a little bit different-the Dregs meet David Sandborn, or something."

It's fusion-jazz without the pyrotechnics. A bit earthier than Chick Corea's Elektric Band but not nearly as earthy as Keith Jarrett's acoustic improvisations. The emphasis here is on melody and feel. And even though such technically adept players as bassist Jeff Berlin, drummer Rod Morgenstein (formerly of the Dregs), and bassist Steve Tischer appear on the album, it's far from being just another vehicle for flaunting chops.

"I really want people to hear the compositions," says T. "People who aren't into long, drawn-out solos will like this album because there aren't but one or two on the whole record. I'm pushing the compositional aspect because the older I get the more I realize that what people are drawn to-everyone from young kids to oldsters-is melody. And if you've got strong melodies, there's something to remember and they're gonna like it."

He's quick to add that Storytime is definitely not "hot tub jazz. Sure, people come home from a hard day and they want to be soothed. That's what has created a market for all this so-called New Age stuff that's popped up in the past couple of years. There's too many people doing it now, and I'm trying to create my own voice. Plus, I pride myself in having some technique. I mean, I can play. And from what I've heard, there's really no playing at all on that New Age stuff."

It's somehow ironic that a guy who never set out to be a jazz musician winds up on a label that flaunts that very word in its title. Yes, T can swing and make the changes, but he wasn't born gifted. He had to work hard at it. "I didn't know much about jazz when I walked into the University of Miami after graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy, where the emphasis was on classical. I actually played sax in the wind ensemble at Interlochen, and on my own time I listened to groups like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I was your basic long-haired hippie type. I didn't know from jazz. But when I enrolled at Miami, I really thought I was good. I had all this classical training, and I thought I knew about jazz because I had listened to Wes Montgomery records a bit. So I walked into the University and there's Pat Metheny, Steve Morse, Mark Egan, Jaco Pastorius, Hiram Bullock, Andy West, Danny Gottlieb, Will Lee, Rod Morgenstein-and these guys were already playing as good then as they do now. It really blew my mind. It was a humbling experience, to say the least. Right then and there I told myself, 'You gotta work on you time. You gotta learn all these funny little harmonies.' So I spent four years down there doing just that."

T had two very influential teachers at the University of Miami who showed him the way. One was Vince Lawrence Maggio, a Bill Evans-type acoustic player, and the other was a renegade named Ron Miller, who T calls "a Joe Zawinul kind of guy." As he recalls, "Vince was teaching me about extensions and voicings and the proper approach to jazz. And Ronnie would be whispering in my ear about all these weird tentative harmonies. So basically, I learned how to play from Vince and learned a lot of theory from Ronnie."

But he never graduated. In his last semester, T got the call from the Dixie Dregs. "They were one of my favorite groups at the time. They already had two records out on the Capricorn label, so they were legendary around campus. They used to perform concerts at the University and just floor everybody, including the teachers. They were like a cross between the Allman Brothers and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, with a bit of Aaron Copland and Handel thrown in. So when they said, 'Let's go,' I went."

He adds with a laugh, "They figured, 'We can get some young, hot guy from the University of Miami who is willing to jump in the back of a truck and drive 300 miles a day to make $200 a week.' And that's really all they were making at the time. They weren't being unfair or anything. And there I was, begging for the abuse of the road. I could've stayed in school, graduated and then come to New York or Los Angeles, waving a degree and saying, 'Hey, hey, hire me.' But, of course, it's not necessarily that way at all. So while I regret not getting a degree after coming to close, I'm still glad I went with them. I had the experience of a lifetime with the Dregs. And I learned so much from Steve and the other guys about musicality and professionalism. They were a class project all the way."

T joined the Dregs on New Year's Eve, 1979. He did all the touring with them for the group's third release and subsequently appeared on the last three Dregs albums-Dregs Of The Earth, Unsung Heroes, and Industry Standard, the latter produced by Eddy (Yes, EL&P) Offord. In fact, it was Offord who induced T to put together a demo for some solo project down the road.

"When we worked on the last Dregs album Eddy said to me, 'You know, you really ought to record some of your jazz stuff.' So we went into a studio in Atlanta, where I was living at the time, and in a matter of days we laid down four tunes, two of which I liked enough to eventually include on my album."

Storytime is a much more personal statement than any of T's work with the Dregs. He favors the acoustic piano throughout, with touches of synthesizer here and there for coloring. He shows true blues feel on I'm Callin' You, co-written by former Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere (who currently plays with T in a side project called The Bluesbusters). And he flaunts some Herbie-esque chops on the sparse jazz trio tune Dumb Life. Yes, the boy can play.

"I love the acoustic piano," he says. "There's nothing like it. They can emulate pianos all day long, and they're getting pretty damn good at it. But there's still something about the resistance that your fingers feel on the keys and the whole piece of wooden furniture vibrating. I guess it's subtle because only musicians or aficionados seem to notice or care. But as far as I'm concerned, piano is the most powerful instrument. Not a loud one, but a strong one. I don't know how they'll ever replace it."

Though T does rely heavily on his acoustic piano on Storytime, he's not deluding himself into thinking he's the next McCoy Tyner. "This is the closest thing I've ever done to traditional jazz," he explains, "but I'm trying to do something a little bit different. I love jazz and acoustic piano trios and things like that, but I feel like there are already guys established in that genre. I mean, I'm not going to try and compete with McCoy. I'm just trying to highlight the acoustic piano with some synths on top. Like on the tune Between Coming And Going. I play an acoustic piano solo that I'm really proud of because it mixes up Herbie Hancock and Jerry Lee Lewis while these Oberheims are laying down a texture in the background. It's a different kind of fusion sound, and I think that's my niche-coming from rock & roll and really playing jazz, and meaning it."

Lavitz and like-minded musicians like Jeff Berlin, drummer Steve Smith (formerly of Journey, currently with Steps Ahead), and guitarist Scott Henderson (currently with Chick Corea's Elektric Band) are among that rare breed of young musicians who can play both jazz and rock with equal facility and conviction. Berlin, who put in some time with Pat Martino's hot, bopping quartet from the mid-'70s, had his solo debut on Passport Jazz last year with Champion. That fine fusion effort featured Lavitz, Berlin, Henderson and Smith playing together on five of the album's eight cuts.

"There's nothing worse than hearing rock guys trying to swing or jazz guys trying to rock out," sneers T. "And that might be what I admire most about those guys. They can swing. I mean, really swing. It's like an overly starched shirt if a rock guy tries to swing, that white feel of rushing the time. It's not happening, it's not musical. But these guys swing for real. And if they turn it up loud and wanna rock out, it sounds incredible. It's mindblowing. These guys don't have any boundaries. They want to cover it all."

Those four players-Lavitz, Henderson, Berlin, and Smith-actually recorded material for a possible album. "It's like the Passport Jazz All-Stars," explains T. "We put the band together for a music convention, and it sounded so good we decided to book a couple of nights at a club in Los Angeles. And we recorded the stuff with a mobile unit. We're considering the possibility of going into the studio and doing some additional music. But whatever does come down, it's going to sound great. We play really well together. There's a mutual admiration between all the players there."

Until that project gets under way, T will have his hands full with The Bluesbusters, who are currently touring the States on strength of their Landslide Records release, Accept No Substitute. It's a good-timey, bluesy band that allows Lavitz to get down on some gospelish piano feels. Very earthy, very much fun-like the reincarnation of Little Feat. Somewhere Lowell George must be smiling.

While The Bluesbusters are strictly a back-to-the-basics band, Lavitz does try to keep his hands in the ever-changing world of technology. At home, he works up ideas on his Commodore SX-64 computer, which is MIDI-ed to a sequencer made by a German company called Steinberg Research. "It's an unbelievable tool for composing," he says of the sequencer. "I actually bought the computer because of the sequencer program. You can use it to drive up to 16 keyboards. It's actually a 16-track digital MIDI recorder. So I take an interface right out of the computer and go MIDI into my keyboards, programming a sequence at a time. So maybe I'll run a sequence over and over until I come up with a good melody, then loop it or maybe get a whole song down and just file it away to play with it later. It's a great program, compatible with the Commodore, which is a fairly inexpensive unit. So I'm set."

Lavitz works with an Oberheim DMX drum machine at home on his demo tapes, though he'd never consider playing with one on-stage or using one on his albums. "I like the click track so you end up with the human element. That's so important. The drum machines sound real good, but there's no spontaneity at all. It just doesn't fit in with my music. But I guess I'm spoiled because I've had the opportunity to play with some great drummers like Rod Morgenstein, Andy Newmark, and Steve Smith. Who'd want to use a drum machine with those guys around?"

T does dabble in technology onstage with The Bluesbusters. He's not down on electronic hardware by any means, but he has set his priorities. "For me, the piano is the main instrument. Synthesizers are like the icing on the cake. They enhance it, they color the music. I own all that stuff, but the keyboard that I grab for the most is a piano."

On that note he adds, "I wanted to be a piano player ever since I was seven years old, but obviously all that has changed because of the technology and the direction the music has taken in the past decade or so. A lot of guys don't want to hear anything but a Hammond B-3 or an acoustic grand, and it's hurt their careers. It's touch these days to just say you're a piano player. So I'm glad I was able to make a transition into the new age of synthesizers. I made the transition, and I feel comfortable about it. I like what I see and hear."

T Lavitz's Equipment

T's onstage setup includes one electric one grand piano (usually rented on the road), an Oberheim OBX8 analog synth, a PPG Wave 2.2 synth, and an Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard. He enhances the organ mode on his synth with a Dynacord CLS 222, which acts like a simulated Leslie to get that sweeping effect. He also relies on a Lexicon PCM-70 digital reverb and an Ibanez digital delay. He uses to JBL keyboard speakers to run everything in stereo. On his album, Storytime, he also utilizes a Hammond B-3 organ (on Baby Talk and A Voice From Without, a Yamaha DX7, and a Rhodes electric piano (on the Steve Morse collaboration, Sparkle Plenty), and he plays some soprano sax unison lines on Crystal. He plans to use the sampling capabilities of his Mirage a lot more on his next album.