By Entertainment Correspondent, John Frazier

This Boston based and established band are making a lot of positive noise, and people are listening, probably because "Stretch" will not be boxed in to any musical style. Influences and sound varies from jazz to rock to African to blues to Latin, even psychedelic. And sometimes during life performances the group may have featured vocalist.

In 1999 Paul Erlich-guitarist, Georgio Chinaglia-bassist began fine-tuning their musical gifts jamming with local friends. According to Stretch bio -, "Several improvisations, recorded on tape, stood out and became the basis for Stretch's compositions, spanning styles such as boosa nova, klezmer, classic funk and John Scofield- influenced fusion.

It continued, "As the music began to jell, sax player, Dave Hess was brought into the picture, and his expanding collection of horns has brought an ever-increasing scope to "Stretch's" sonic picture. Stretch continued to grow and now there are five members in this unique Boston group. Group members are Paul Erlich, George (Giorgio) Chinaglia, John Scofield, sax player- Dave Hess also brought in the horns, second guitar player- Mike Hermans, and Matt Taylor who plays drums. Doug Betensky also served as the band's drummer during the history group's history and has since moved to New York City."

Also written on bio, "Stretch has continued gigging and recording with even more impressive drummers such as Andreas Brade and currently Randy Wooten, both staples of the Boston music scene." With the group's growth and change, its has been a positive force and well known in the Boston area.

Paul took a few minutes to chat with me.

Here's the Interview:

 

John: Hello Paul. I'm from GBMNews, and I understand our Eric Jones will be interviewing you on radio, would you be able to give me a few minutes of your time for an interview? (Something I can have our readers read before speaking with Eric.)

Paul: Yes.

John: How long has your group been together?

Paul: About 10 years.

John: Are you with a record label?

Paul: No, no we are not.

John: So you are looking for a record label?

Paul: Well, yeah, I don't know if we are actively doing that, we have been able to produce our own CD, and we are selling that through CD Baby, I-Tunes and through our website and "my space" and our shows.

John: What's the name of your CD?

Paul: The name of the CD is called, "Stretch" (laughs)

John: And what type of music do you play?

Paul: Well, probably listening to the CD would be the best way to answer that. It's hard to use categories sometimes but some would consider it jazz, some people would consider it funk, others might consider it a jam-bam.

John: So it's a blend of three of those things?

Paul: Yeah, I think we definitely go into a lot of different styles, the word new jazz comes up for a song or two and fusion comes up, even African, Latin and Reggae for certain materials.

John: Do you have any vocalist? I haven't heard any of your music yet?

Paul: It's mostly instrumental, our CD is instrumental but on a few of our gigs we've had a few different female vocalists for our cover songs. And then we will do our originals.

John: Do you write your own music?

Paul: Yes.

John: You will be meeting or speaking with Eric Jones next month, May?

Paul: Yeah, I think on the 7th, I will get the band together and we will all talk, at once, on the phone.

John: Do you have a website?

Paul: Stretch-music.com

John: And will your fans or new fans be able to purchase on your CD there on your website?

Paul: Yes.

John: Well I'm not going to keep you any longer. As far as your fans, it is a gay following or straight?

Paul: (Hard laughter) I don't think that makes any difference, I don't think that…since its instrument music it's hard to locate a demographic. (more laughter) I haven't seen much of a tread in people who come to see our shows. It's just a representative of the general population.

John: When you perform, is it in jazz clubs, parks or?

Paul: We're from Boston, there aren't a lot of jazz clubs left in Boston anymore, so we play in bars that will play various types of music. We've played at some outdoor things, at the festival at Washington State, at a club in Vermont.

John: Is the band called "Paul and Stretch?"

Paul: No, its just "Stretch."

John: Thank you for the interview Paul and continued success to the band called, "Stretch."

 


Dear Readers, in May 2008, Eric Jones of GBMNews.com will interview Paul  and the rest of "Stretch." on his on BlogTalk radio program. It promises to be an exciting chat with this band from Boston. "Stretch" is an example that music is universal.

Check them out at Stretch-Music.com

You hear it first at GBMNews.com