AJ’s on the Rails
Venue caters to hipsters w/young, talented trio
When you walk into AJ's on The Rails, 1022 S.W. Morrison, you immediately feel like you stepped out of Portland and into New York or Seattle. It is free of some of the cultish pretentiousness currently seen in vogue à la Austin City Limits, late-night talk shows, weird venues, festivals and events dominated by music agents who get a paycheck for catering to talent that most people find mediocre. Sometimes bad is bad, as Huey Lewis sings. AJ's caters to skilled players, not posers.
Owner Eleza Faison greets patrons. She is young for a club owner, merely in her ‘30s. She stands strong and confident, built like an Olympic athlete and is adorned with Rasta braids, hip clothes and a friendly smile. She stands like a Greek statue and tells this writer that the band is upstairs.
The group playing is a young jazz trio called The Lee Barbara Trio. If this band went to Santa Barbara, they would be working nonstop!
The guitarist is Lee Barbara. He is 22, recently graduated from Notre Dame and Portland State University, in music theory and jazz guitar. Barbara is from Medford with artistic ties to Ashland. He plays guitar, following the riffs of Charlie Parker's saxophone on songs like Relaxing at the Camarillo and Cherokee. He does this very well. Barbara cites Smokey Robinson, Ray Charles and The Skyliners as influences for his trio. Guitarists Wes Montgomery, Pat Matheny, Mike Morino and Joe Pas are also mentioned as guitar influences, as well as Chet Baker on horn. Barbara's brother teaches choir at Cleveland High School.
The other two thirds of the trio are Bobby Seus, 25, on bass and Eric Gold, 27, plays drums. This is their first gig in Portland. They are easily good enough to play at places like Jimmy Mak’s and other jazz rooms in the city.
Seus states that his bass influences are Marcus Miller, Charles Mingus, Scott Lafarno and Paul McCartney. Both Barbara and Seus started young with piano lessons and high school jazz bands. Seus' dad was a major league baseball player, thus explaining the quality control in his life.
The sound this trio creates is a fresh take on old-school music mathematics, aka jazz music theory. They don't phone these standards in or go through the motions as some older players do. This is how jazz began-spontaneously- with flatted fifths, ninths, inversions, stacked thirds, flat and sharp scales combined with inventive time signatures via a be-bop language that followed the muse of abstract art, with ragtime and the blues’ dominant seventh posturings. Jazz was a reaction to the proper Euro-classical music courtesy of the new fresh country of America.
The trio records and polishes their sound at their recording studio Color Blocks. You can contact them about recording at bobbyseus@gmail.com. The recordings they initially started with were, in fact, Barbara's college project. Bass player Seus explains how they were at the movies and noticed AJ's on The Rail while walking. They started to talk with Faison and wanted to play here; it was perfect, they decided. The combination of these two forces has a magic touch and will surely become a hot spot for college kids to groove smartly to the complex music this trio whips up.
As with all things, there is a genesis of origin. Barbara and Seus played in Ashland in The Royal Blues Band at Alex's bar. They also played at weddings and coffee shops, the staples for getting tone and execution for real musicians to get down in front of a discerning audience. Their goal is to play music forever on the level of Au Privance by Charlie Parker.
AJ's serves American food and its coffee is from AJ Java Roasting, which is Faison's other business. Check out AJJava.com with menus on line as well. Faison says she wants to give the opportunity for all to play at The Rail, including hip hop artists. She says, "Its an open canvas." She stresses that she wants people to know that The Rail is an under-age as well as an adult hangout.
This is Faison’s first restaurant, although she has owned a lot of coffee houses and coffee roasters; one is AJ Java in Albina on Portland Boulevard. She proudly says, "We serve American food, good home-town food." The goal for AJ's On The Rail is to have late night music on Saturdays and spoken word on Fridays. Faison mentions that she wants to have an unplugged scene for famous acts who tour in Portland and want to play after hours, somewhere to unwind. She adds that she is “an Ashland graduate," akin to the south Oregon trio of Barbara.
AJ's is ready for a good review; they just built a bar and are on the verge of a publicity push when the time is right. New York is where Faison's father is from and has his own business, so it makes sense that she is hip to the NYC moxie that is apparent when you walk into the Rail.
Speaking of business, Faison would like to see the commercial landlord/tenant law change in puddle town and other places. Why build a place up for some shark to drive you out so they can raise the rent? Right now, AJ's on The Rail is safe and growing like a new flower. Come on down and smell the fragrant coffee and hear the honey-blessed music of The Lee Barbara Trio.