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By Janie Franz
Joel Cummins, the keyboard player, says that musical diversity was innate early on. "I think that we probably had the goal of that," he said. "We've all come from very musical backgrounds and have had lots of different influences from the Beatles to Miles Davis to Stravinsky... The challenge we knew right way was how can we put all of these things that we bring to the table together and not make it sound too disjointed. To a lot of people, it is our double edged sword: our biggest strength and weakness. Sometimes still, I feel like the diversity works really well live, and sometimes it can be a little overwhelming."
The richness of the music of Umphrey's McGee is based not only on their varied musical backgrounds but also on their individual versatility. Jake Cinninger, one of the guitarists and singers, is also the drummer for Ben Folds.
"Jake's done some double bass stuff, and he's been the lead guitarist in a country band from Nashville," Cummins said. But Jake isn't the only multi-instrumentalist nor multi-genred musician in the band. "Where we all come together is that we've already been these chameleon-like players," Cummins added.
Even Cummins, who is classically trained, wandered into jam and other genres quite by accident. "I kind of started noodling stuff, when I should have been practicing and started improvising," he said. "That's really how I found a love for jazz and others styles of music at an early age."
This diversity also applies not only to musical genres but to instruments. "One thing that we're into is trying to understand music that doesn't necessarily pertain to the instrument that we typically play," Cummins said. "There's always something to be learned. I grew up loving Metallica. Metallica doesn't have a keyboard player. When somebody puts their heart and minds into music, I don't know if it really matters what the instrument is. You either get it or you don't. We just always try to keep open to that experience."
Yet, with all of this experimentation, Umphrey's McGee keeps analyzing itself, trying to identify their unique style. "We don't really know," Cummins said. "We're not trying to force anything. We'll all go home and write music and work on stuff separately and work on stuff together....We keep bringing everything back to the table and trying to be honest and ego-less about it and say, 'This might work together. This section that you have is really good. We'll put the guitar there....' That's one of the ways we've been doing stuff. I really like that. I like the unpredictability about it. We're not really sure in what direction it's going to be and how it's going to sound. We just have faith in each other that we'll be honest and pull out the worst."
You can catch Umphrey's McGee before they head to 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota at the
Central Park Summer Stage on Thursday, July 20 at the Rumsey Playfield. Also on the bill will be Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and Galactic. Umphrey's will play at 8 p.m.
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n Umphrey's McGee show is a musical extravaganza as the band members trip in and out of musical genres. The band is unique even in the jam scene because of their musical diversity, not only within each set, but within each song. Audiences can hear jazz, rock, ambient space music, Primus-edged metal, and even country wedged up against each other.
