“Stylistically, I keep the music going in a lot of different directions,” says Katharine Whalen, former singer and banjo-picker of the celebrated Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Well, that’s an understatement. Within diligent, hardworking bands like Whalen’s Jazz Squad and Certain Seas, the musician has been stretching her stylistic wings and flying off toward myriad destinations since the early nineties. Her itinerary stays busy—and her music, as always, unpredictable.
As cofounder of Squirrel Nut Zippers in 1993, Whalen teamed up with then-husband Jimbo Mathus to form a commercial juggernaut of quirky swing and impish humor. The band’s résumé includes a platinum album (Hot), a hit single (“Hell”), appearances on the late-night network talk shows, and a performance slot at the 1998 Clinton inauguration. Hot indeed. Following temporary sabbaticals and fluctuating lineups, the group still exists under Mathus’s leadership today. Meanwhile, Whelan is charting a course that leads somewhere else.
Arriving this month on the Modern Harmonic label, a pair of brand-new records featuring Whalen demonstrates her verve and versatility. Waxed before an immersed audience in Hillsborough in March, Down Yonder is Jazz Squad’s fourth release and a sunny celebration of Tin Pan Alley–inspired Americana. Meanwhile, Ordinary Hopes by Certain Seas charts that combo’s unique blend of edgy folk-meets-rock tunes composed by Whalen, guitarist Austin Riopel, and trombonist Danny Grewen. Somehow, the divergent music of two distinct bands springs from the same trio: Whalen, Riopel, and Grewen.
“Definitely, my voice is different in the two bands,” Whalen explains on the phone from her home in Efland. “In Jazz Squad, I’m trying to serve the song. I’m choosing material that I find intriguing and challenging. When I sing in Certain Seas, I’m serving the musicians in the group. I’m telling a story that’s based on something we wrote. The songs are not always beautiful and melodic. They can be harsh—or just weird.”
If the “sparkle folk” (Whalen’s term) of Certain Seas is quirky and contemporary, the revivalist set list of Jazz Squad proves that the bread-and-butter repertoire of American popular song is alive and well. The early compositions of Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, and Duke Ellington grew from seeds planted during the Depression of nearly a century ago. As Whalen understands, old-fashioned artistry still bristles with relevance today, when harsh political winds blow hard.
“Older music needs to be kept alive and presented in a way that is true to the way the music was performed when it first appeared,” she elaborates. “Songs are living things. I often think of the original songwriter, who was probably tinkling a piano. What did the song sound like back then? What was the intent?”
“I revere older things,” Whalen continues. “My grandmother was in theater up in Hendersonville, and she was often involved in performing classic material like [Thomas Wolfe’s] Look Homeward, Angel. We didn’t have television. We didn’t have radio. We had a record player. We had a piano. My grandmother would play things like Chopin’s nocturnes. I’ve always felt connected to older times.
Although Whalen wistfully confesses that she seldom feels like a “modern singer,” a recent gig by Certain Seas at Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh animated the room like something fresh out of alt-rock. While dancers spun and drinkers at the bar nodded approval, the Grewen’s brass-playing—the band’s signature braaam—moaned sweet and low. On trombone and baritone horn, he blew fat bass lines or whispered in counterpoint to Whalen’s and Riopel’s intertwined vocals. Whatever the music called for, Grewen provided.
“Instantly, when I met him,” confirms Whalen, “Danny and I just clicked. We started our duo thing, Swedish Wood Control, with tenor guitar and trombone, and me singing. He naturally filled up the space that would have been occupied by bass or drums or another voice. What Danny plays just suits me.”
With the tape machine rolling at the Yonder nightclub back in March, Jazz Squad regrouped to record a live record. Grewen and Riopel were joined by rollicking pianist Griffanzo (Robert Griffin) while downstage to the right, a percussionist dressed in bright colors struck a cool pose behind a zany set of drums.
Of course, you’ve guessed that Whalen’s the drummer, and her little cartoon kit is unlike any other.
“The drums make Jazz Squad a little scarier and spicier for me,” she explains. “I have some bongos. And I have a medium-sized cymbal and a small splash cymbal. And I play with these fantastic sticks. The handle is wooden, like a real drumstick. And the top is not exactly like a wire brush, but the size of big spaghetti and made of plastic. They’re just fantastic. They can sound bright or sort of dusky on bongos. Pretty beatnik, huh?” she laughs.
“I started playing drums while I was singing just two or three years ago, just to make the band sound fuller. I’m not in charge of anything instrumentally. I have no training. I can provide garnishes. I just do what I think sounds good. And feels good. And grooves.”
Outside of hall-of-famers Karen Carpenter and Ringo Starr, there are few singing drummers because it’s damn difficult to do both simultaneously. Imagine rubbing your tummy and patting your noggin at hyperspeed. But Whalen pulls it off by simplifying her strokes while singing and pushing the band with emphatic swing when her bandmates take the spotlight.
Over time, KW’s Jazz Squad has become a legitimate jazz band with a thick book of vintage tunes and, now, a new member. Bassist Kenny Phelps-McKeown has replaced pianist Griffanzo, who recently relocated to France. The fresh alignment of stand-up bass, guitar, trombone, and drums is almost unprecedented. The arrival of Phelps-McKeown will liberate Grewen and Riopel to fly high and mighty while the bassist dutifully defines the music’s bottom end.
And what will the drummer do? No doubt, she’ll continue to do what she does best: swing and sing.
As she discusses what she has learned from iconic vocalists of the past like Billie Holiday, Annie Ross, and Chet Baker, Whalen admits her affinity to sing jazz seemingly happened by accident. “I don’t know how this came about, really,” she muses. “From the get-go, I could just do it. It was very surprising. But I’m also grateful that, as I age, I have more to offer. My range has expanded. I have so much more life experience. It’s an honor to be able to sing jazz.”
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