Don't go see Zilla for the songs — there are none.
"We just play. We don't have any songs," multi-instrumentalist Jamie Janover said in a phone interview from his home in Boulder, Colo.
"There are no other bands that I know of that do entire tours with no material — 100 percent improv," he added.
You may not get much in the way of individual songs when Zilla comes to town Friday, but you will get a night full of dance grooves.
This isn't your typical guitar-driven jam band. Sure, there will be guitar, bass and keyboard, but they are all played by one member of the trio — Aaron Holstein. Michael Travis (of String Cheese Incident fame) plays drums, percussion, keyboards, sampler and mallet kat.
Janover plays electric kalimba, mini sitar, sampler, percussion, tamboura, tongue drum and water — he dips percussion instruments into buckets of water to change their pitch — but his primary instrument is the hammered dulcimer. Janover won the 2002-03 National Hammered Dulcimer Championship and uses his instrument in a wholly nontraditional way.
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"I'm bringing an ancient instrument and using it to play modern dance music," Janover said. "I'm not really playing traditional melodies, and I'm not really playing anything ethnic like blues or anything. It's kind of future music really. It's not related to anything culturally. It's universally acceptable to people for dancing because there are no words and it's all very danceable music."
Zilla works this way: One band member begins to play and then the other two chime in to complement the original melody, but the music is entirely made up on the spot. The jams can last up to three hours without a break in the music.
"The traditional thought of improvisational music is that it's about solos," Janover said. "Zilla has almost a rule that there aren't solos. It's group improvisation the whole time."
Janover calls it "organic live electronica," but this isn't anything like industrial electronica. The percussion-heavy trio's backbone is a West Coast break beat — uptempo, syncopated — but it's layered with lush instrumental melodies and an almost New Age spiritual vibe.
The band sets up with the two percussionists in front on either side of the stage facing center and Holstein in the middle in back facing the audience.
There are assorted instruments surrounding each band member, and each may be playing as many as three instruments at any given moment. A light show is projected on a wall and, if all goes well, Janover said, everyone in the room is dancing.
"We try to transport people to a place where they kind of forget who they are and what they're doing and they just dance," he said. "We sometimes play a whole set without stopping, much like a D.J. It's more like going to see a live D.J., but a band is playing live. We want it to feel like you're going out to a night of dancing to a really good D.J. and the music never stops — it's just a flow of grooves the whole time that changes tempos and mood and textures, but it's always got a groove going, so you're always in a flow of dance."
The audience's energy directly influences the band's music, Janover said.
Zilla, now in its third year, has released six albums, all live.
"We tried to record in the studio, and we didn't have the magic. We need the audience to have the magic," Janover said.
To improv for hours on end, the band members must be in tune with one another on many levels.
The fact that Zilla is performing during the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase is no accident.
"We are very much in tune with other levels of consciousness and energy that the traditional rock 'n' roll band around the country isn't thinking about," Janover said. "Because we're 100 percent improvisation, we kind of do a little powwow before we play. We set our intentions, and we are aware of all levels of things influencing the music — including gems and crystals.
"If anybody wants to bring big crystals or any crystals at all, we'll make an altar at the front of the stage," added Janover. "We're making an altar, and we're asking people to bring their favorite to place on the stage — not to give to us, but to contribute — and then they can take it back at the end of the show, but we'll have a really cool display onstage."
Trio's 'organic live electronica' invented anew night after night
Quick take
Zilla in concert
with Pnuma and more
When: 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3
Where: Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
Tickets: $15, 622-8848
Et cetera: This is a 21-and-older event.
