By Jim Dail

Euge Groove’s latest album – “Just Feels Right” from 2005 – was a tribute to
the music he grew up with, a style he thinks of as timeless.
“We need to get back to music that is timeless,” said Groove, who performs
Sunday at Thornton Winery as part of the 2006 Champagne Jazz Concert Series.
“That’s been my big complaint. Jazz is about communication, not a good
mini=log between samples. I think a lot of stuff has nothing to do with other
musicians, so there’s no raw emotion between players.”
Granted, these days Groove isn’t touring behind a new album. Instead, he’s
enjoying the success of “Just Feels Right.”
“There’s going to be two years between records, which is definitely not
typical for me,” he said. “I wanted to relax and tour behind the record, and
that‘s what I‘m doing.”
“Just Feels Right” focused on songs with a ‘70s feel, but while Groove
doesn’t know just what the next album will sound like, he does know there
will be a theme.
“Oh, there will be a theme. I don‘t really know yet what it will be but some
of the songs I‘ve started on are sort of coming together,” he said. “It
really helped with the last album in terms of writing and confidence to have
a focus.”
When it comes to putting an album together, Groove doesn’t stick to one
method.
“Sometimes songs just come to me, like ‘12:08 AM,’ while other times the
song is a more programmed song like ‘Chillaxin,’” Groove said. “That one I
put down the A part of the verse and then sat down and developed a B
section. It’s really structured.”
Given a choice, it’s the piano where Groove really finds his musical
creativity.
“I prefer sitting at the piano and just playing stream of conscious,” he
said. “I get the form and melody together and just add verses and soloing to
it later.”
The piano makes sense as Groove began his musical endeavors in the second
grade, adding sax when he was in fifth grade.”
“I was a classical player and just worshipped Marcel Mule,” Groove said.
“But really the main reason I took it up was my friend played sax in the
school band and I figured I could sit next to him if I played sax.”
When he attended the University of Miami’s School of Music, he became
enamored with jazz and the rest is history.
“All of the sax players were playing jazz.” he said. “So, I took a look and
liked it.”
Upon graduation, he embarked on numerous gigs with such artists as Expose,
Tower of Power, Huey Lewis, The Gap Band, Bonnie Raitt and Elton John, to
name a few.
In 2000, he released his debut CD and has been an in-demand performer since.
Groove definitely appreciates a wide range of music.
“I’m very turned on right now by some of the rock stuff that’s out there,”
he said. “There’s also some great innovative stuff that’s neo-soul, but it’s
not mainstream. The whole formatting of music is really sapping creativity.”
One of the challenges, of course, is pleasing his fans while continuing to
challenge himself in his quest for his own timeless music.
“You can’t please everyone, and if you try you won’t please yourself in the
process,” he said. “There are some fans right now who like the sound of drum
loops, for example, and others who hate it. So when you put out the record
there’s always someone who is going to say ‘Why did you do it that way.’”
Well. Groove makes no bones about the fact he is doing things his way, with
a look toward the past of course.
“People don’t know what will be timeless when they do it,” he said.
“Hopefully, I’ve got some timeless things in me.”