Photo courtesy of the Benjamin Boone Quartet

The Benjamin Boone Quartet performs for Rogue again

The keyboardist plays the initial chord, signaling the drummer to take out his wire brushes and start setting the tune̢۪s mood with rhythm and tempo. Then the little man with the big bass strums those heavy low notes and the saxophonist starts wailing his melodic solo. This is jazz.

After receiving rave reviews last year, the Benjamin Boone Quartet reunited last week to prepare to dazzle audiences once again at this year̢۪s Rogue Festival.

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone, a music composition professor at Fresno State, exploded with excitement last Wednesday at the band̢۪s first and only rehearsal.

“It’s the week of Mardi Gras. We’ve got to do it!â€Â Boone exclaimed when keyboardist David Aus handed out sheet music for “Sissy’s Trutt,â€Â a song he just wrote the night before in honor of Fat Tuesday.

Aus said he knew the song would get Boone̢۪s and Grammy award-winning drummer Steve Mitchell̢۪s hearts racing.

“I wanted to write some tunes for this year’s Rogue,â€Â Aus said. “I thought something with Mardi Gras would be fun because I knew Steve would have fun with it and Ben would have fun with it, so I came up with the melody last night and wrote it in about an hour.â€Â

Aus, whose day job is technical writing for the Clovis-based company Pelco, wrote two other songs in this year’s Rogue set: “Big Mitch,â€Â a salute to Mitchell, and “De Novo,â€Â featuring Boone on a soprano sax.

Confident despite lack of practice time

With 15 other original songs written by Boone for the Rogue, the quartet had a lot of material to decipher through in one short night.

Boone, however, didn̢۪t display an ounce of pre-performance jitters. It was all about making music and having fun.

“It’s a joy to play with this group, because my adrenaline is flowing,â€Â Boone said. “We haven’t played together for a year and it feels like wearing a jacket you haven’t worn all winter long. When you take it out of the closet and put it on and it feels just right.â€Â

Photo courtesy of the Benjamin Boone Quartet

Not everything is glitz and glamor, though.

“When I was freelance and I had a gig like this, I’d be practicing about five hours a day for a month beforehand,â€Â Boone said. “Now I’m teaching four classes and I have composition students and family responsibilities and a lot of administrative work. I’m only practicing maybe an hour a day and even with that it’s hard. It’s a true challenge.

“I do, however, think it’s important for all professors to practice whatever craft or discipline they’re teaching so that students have the opportunity to see what they do.â€Â

Boone said he wants the audience, hopefully consisting of some students, to realize and be impacted by how much fun the quartet has on stage.

“I want the audience to take away the feeling of being suspended in time and just have fun with the music,â€Â Boone said.

Bassist Nye Morton, an audio engineering instructor at Fresno City College, said he enjoys playing at Rogue and that after playing for over five years with Aus, he feels comfortable playing gigs like this with him.

“David and I work up at a restaurant for Sunday brunch up at the north end of town, so we’ve gotten to know each others’ playing pretty well and we do some other gigs around and this is one of them,â€Â Morton said.

Mitchell, who worked on several projects this year including the musical “Note’s of Pullman Porter’s Daughter,â€Â and just finished recording his band, Burgess, Mitchell and Seal’s fifth CD, shares Boone’s enthusiasm.

“I didn’t expect to live past 30,â€Â Mitchell said. “I figured I’d put the pedal to the metal and burn out early and leave a beautiful corpse. Too bad, too late, I’m almost 64 now and I can’t believe the musicians I get to play with. This is vastly becoming my favorite place to play.â€Â

Boone at Rogue

Want to see the Benjamin Boone Quartet live at Rogue? There are still two opportunities left: Friday, March 6 at 9 p.m. and Saturday, March 7 at 10 p.m. Both performances are at the Severance Theatre located at 1401 N. Wishon in the Tower District. Tickets are $10. A CD recording of last year̢۪s performance is also $10.