Happily defying musical description

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

ALO members, from left, Dan Lebowitz, Steve Adams, Zach Gill and Dave Brogan, are proud of their eclectic sound."People don't expect one sound or style from us," Lebowitz says. "And that's kind of cool, because it lets us do different things." ALO 9 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday Wave Waikiki $10 941-0424 10 p.m. Thursday Boardriders Bar & Grill (formerly Jaron's) $5 261-4600 Also: On Maui, 9 p.m. today, Hapa's; 9:45 p.m. Saturday, Casanova's; and Feb. 13, Haleiwa Joe's (Hale'iwa) and Feb. 15, Bikini Cantina

All right, so they were barely teenagers at the time.

"They needed guys in the (school) musical," said ALO guitarist Dan Lebowitz, reflecting on the band's very first public gig — at its Santa Barbara junior high school sometime in the late '80s. "So we were told, 'If you guys take parts in the musical, we'll let you play at the intermission.' "

Totally stoked, the trio of friends and current ALO bandmates — Lebowitz, keyboardist Zach Gill and bassist Steve Adams — agreed on four songs they liked, and rehearsed them "over and over again" for two weeks. The set list: The J. Geils Band's "Centerfold," John Cougar Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.," The Rolling Stones' "Get Off My Cloud" and The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run."

"That was the start right there," said Lebowitz, laughing. "There weren't too many people (forming bands), so we were kind of like the band at our school."

At least they had semi-eclectic tastes.

Call them ALO. Call them by their longer, oddly apropos moniker, Animal Liberation Orchestra — a nod not to being kind to all things furry, but the experimental musical philosophy of avant-garde jazz bassist Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. The Bay Area foursome returns to O'ahu and Maui this week to share more of its defiantly impossible-to-categorize blend of funk, psychedelia, soul, jazz, pop and reggae stylings.

The diverse musical tastes of its members have driven ALO's music from the start. Besides grooving to the musical philosophy of one J. Geils, Lebowitz, Gill and Adams were already writing and performing multilayered compositions in junior high, pulling in new musical influences as fast as they could absorb them.

"We grew up listening to classic rock (and) '80s radio, so that obviously had an influence on the first things we were doing," said Lebowitz. "But soon after that, we started getting more into soul and jazz music."

On a summer break from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1996, the band (now with drummer Dave Brogan on board) fell hard for the funk after spending some quality time with members of the James Brown Band in Augusta, Ga.

"We met up with (Brown) a few times. We'd sit down and he'd just give us advice (and) tell us stories about his experiences coming up as a musician," said Lebowitz. "We had always liked James Brown. But from that summer on, funk became a real big influence on us. That was where it really sunk in ... and became a focal point in what we were about. We lived it and ate it. So we mixed it into the styles we were already into."

The best moments on ALO's third CD "Time Expander" (Lagmusic, 2002) occur when the band launches into trippy aural jam sessions that swirl their potent funk in a brew of acid jazz, orchestral strings, electronic psychedelia and even beach folk. ALO's untitled "Time" follow-up — scheduled for a June release — promises a mellower, stripped-down sound more representative of ALO's onstage group interplay.

"People don't expect one sound or style from us," said Lebowitz. "And that's kind of cool because it lets us do a lot of different things."

Hawai'i singer-songwriter and longtime friend Jack Johnson even lent some acoustic guitar and backing vocals to "Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down," a track from the upcoming CD. Johnson drummer Adam Topol contributed percussion.

"We were all at the dorms together down in Santa Barbara," said Lebowitz, about striking up a friendship with Johnson while in college in the early '90s. "He had a band and we had our band, so we'd do shows together or play across the street from each other."

The musicians stayed in touch through ALO's relocation to the Bay Area and Johnson's move home to O'ahu. Johnson invited ALO to open a handful of shows on his tour last year and jammed with the band at one of its Wave Waikiki shows last March.

"We even played at his wedding a few years back, which was really fun," said Lebowitz. "So it was really exciting to see his music getting out there."

No, ALO did not play "Centerfold."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.