Topaz

Topaz McGarrigle launched his path on 6th Street in Austin, TX, where he busked for tips on tenor saxophone and stretched his phrasing to chase ambitions of a jazz career in New York. The contours of his voice emerged through coiled melodic lines, a poised yet earthy tone, and a propulsive rhythmic drive. His ensemble Topaz took shape in New York City in 1997, fulfilling the vision that had taken root during those early street performances and marking the culmination of a sustained musical path from Texas. Circumstances proved difficult, as the band entered the local circuit after acid jazz had crested and amid renewed attention to Miles Davis’s electric work. By 2000 the jazz sector had contracted, with major labels releasing many young players from the prior two decades in favor of rock and hip-hop. Issued on Velour Recordings in 1999, Listen!—the group’s second album—overcame those conditions through its varied appeal. Raised in Austin, McGarrigle encountered a wide range of sounds; his father built and maintained American folk and Middle Eastern instruments and introduced him to Hamza El Din’s music, while his mother fostered an affinity for Kirk Whalum. This foundation opened onto Jean-Luc Ponty and David Sanborn, then Lou Donaldson, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. A senior-year exchange in England in 1990 immersed him in London’s acid-jazz milieu featuring the Brand New Heavies and the Young Disciples. Over time Stanley Turrentine, Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane, and Fela Kuti became central saxophone models. Returning stateside in 1991, he enrolled at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., where he studied orchestration and deepened his engagement with acid jazz, house, drum’n’bass, and the Grateful Dead. While in the capital he played with the jam band Amalgamate and the acid-jazz outfit Exodus. In 1994 he moved to New York City to attend New York University for music and liberal-arts studies, where he encountered his future Topaz colleagues: Takuya Nakamura (trumpet, synthesizer), Squantch (trombone, didgeridoo), Tewar (guitar, sitar, viola), Justin Wallace (electric bass), Ethan White (keyboards), Ernesto Abreau (percussion), and Phelim White (drums). The band began regular Friday appearances at the former Bell Cafe in TriBeCa, later securing dates at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom. Recorded at Philip Glass’s former studio in TriBeCa and released on Velour Recordings in 1999, Listen! reflected McGarrigle’s commitment to Miles Davis’s electric era on Bitches Brew and Live/Evil, alongside his attraction to Middle Eastern melody, the vivid pulse and languid warmth of Brazilian music, and the voices of Gato Barbieri and Pharoah Sanders. The album also incorporated acid-jazz grooves, drum’n’bass rhythms, and John Coltrane’s spiritual dimension within a fabric of dense textures, orchestral color, driving rhythms, and soulful depth.