Though the music is loud and clear, the reaction that the young musicians receive from the majority of would-be listeners is very subtle, making it harder to spot them at their corner of Main Street and Route 116. Most pedestrians glance in their direction, curious but trying not to stare; others watch from afar as they make their way down the street, only to divert their eyes and walk right past them. But neither Lee Godleski nor Cory Matthews seem to notice. In that moment, their saxophone and drums hold all their attention.
Godleski, the saxophonist, hails from Hatfield and is currently a junior at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High School. Drummer Matthews is a graduate of that same school, and regularly travels 21 miles from Gill to play in downtown Amherst. They used to play in Northampton, but after a cop-they claim-"ran them out of town," they came to Amherst, where busking laws are more relaxed and no permits are required to play. They now perform at the discretion of nearby business owners.
Matthews and Godleski were originally part of another jazz band which they are now trying to reunite. The origins of their impromptu street performances, however, are entirely accidental.
"One time we had a band practice scheduled at Lee's house, and when we all got there, Lee was nowhere to be found, so we stole some of his brother's drums and went down the street to the gas station and played there instead," explained Matthews.
After that, they started playing at gas stations, owing largely to the venues' profitability. The duo would soon relocate, however, opting for a stage which offered a more desirable atmosphere. They have also played at other local venues, such as the Iron Horse, People's Point and the Fine Arts Center at UMass.
"We should be playing at Café Koko in the next two weeks," announced Godleski. Generally the band plays at any gig that they can get, whether it pays or not. But as Matthews put it, "We prefer money."
Still, profit is not their sole motivation: "Being outside, doing what you love and just playing music in a new setting with each other," Godleski mused. "I think the idea must have just come in a dream, because at one point we just started doing it."
The duo originally played in front of the Acupuncture Center of Amherst, but complaints forced them to leave. "An old lady was yelling at us because she was getting acupuncture in the building upstairs and couldn't relax to our music," recalled Matthews. As luck would have it, just as they were packing up, a waitress from Judy's who was passing by suggested that the band play on the restaurant's side of the street. Matthews and Godleski accepted the invitation, and the next time they were in town, they set up their instruments and performed at their new location.
The group's repertoire is diverse, and includes "A Night in Tunisia" by Dizzy Gillespie, "Equinox" by John Coltrane, "Anthropology" by Charlie Parker, "Freddie the Freeloader" by Miles Davis and Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue." "We play a lot of bebop, mostly just any jazz that is high energy," explained Godleski. Tunes by Wayne Shorter and Sonny Rollins can also be heard when the band comes out to play.
As it turns out, not all pedestrians nonchalantly resume their strolls disregarding the band's melodies. "Little kids like us," said Matthews, half-jokingly, when asked about pedestrians' reactions to their tunes. Though some appear indifferent to the music, reactions range from conspicuously pacing back-and-forth on the sidewalk, to congratulating the duo and shaking their hands, to subtly tapping their feet as they wait at the crosswalk. In one instance, two girls even started a little dance in the middle of the street.
One particularly avid listener hung around much longer than the rest. In between songs, he started up a conversation with the musicians. "That's our friend Zaine," explained Matthews. "He always stops to listen to us and talk music if we're all in town. He's a big jazz fan too."
Whenever they perform, Godleski chimed in, Zaine stops by and "throws in a buck and maybe chats with us for a while." With a certain tone of admiration, and perhaps wry skepticism, he added, "He is quite a character and says he knows [tenor saxophonist best known for his afrocentric music, now a music professor at UMass] Archie Shepp and many others."
As darkness and temperatures fell, the musicians started packing up. They had been playing for about four hours, and finally the cold had won. As they were getting ready to leave, a driver waiting at the traffic lights asked them to play a little longer. Sax and drums in hand, they looked at each other, and, without even thinking about it, gave in to a final request.