Gypsy Cab Co.

Rule number one in sixth grade band class is that if the entire ensemble plays together, in tune, the music will sound much louder and more powerful than if the twenty pre-pubescent students just blow their brains out individually. Similar analogies have been made to explain how a team is only as good as its weakest link, or a building only as strong as its loosest stone, or sex only as good as the weakest partner. The point is: life, or more importantly for this article, music, is a team sport.

Kalamazoo jam-rockers Gypsy Cab Co. clearly have the team thing down. For the past two years they've been transitioning from a pop rock band to a jazz/funk/rock band that spends more time soloing than they do complaining about women and cheap booze. They call themselves a jam band only because fans need labels to explain their experiences.

"I think what we're trying to do as a band is just kind of let the shows speak for themselves," said John Tobey, lead singer for GCC. "So people don't come to our shows and say, 'Hey, I saw a jam band.' It's more like, 'Hey, I saw Gypsy Cab Company.'"

GCC began when Tobey and bassist Jeff Wardwell met at Western Michigan University a few years ago. At the time Tobey played drums and sang, but after guitarist Adam Conner and current drummer Josh Maitner joined they really began to mold themselves into more of a jazz rock band.

"While we enjoy playing songs that do have vocals," Conner said, "we also definitely enjoy just kind of bonding musically without words."

GCC creates that mood that can take fans on their own mental vacation. It's easy to slip into that indescribable state where you're half listening and half figuring things out in your own life. It's that zone that causes fans to just stare straight ahead and bob their heads, instead of dance wildly.

Unfortunately, this can also put an audience to sleep, so Tobey remains aware of what the crowd is looking for and gives visual and vocal cues to the others.

"I hate to say I'm a leader of the band, I don't think anyone wants to hear that," he said.

"Instead of looking at it like he's a leader," Conner added, "he definitely plays a key role in [the band] focusing."

Tobey at times plays almost a James Brown-esque role that can take the band from an original jam to a Led Zeppelin cover to a James Bond/Peter Gunn cocktail. In fact, covers and teases are one thing GCC does not only to keep fans interested but also to learn new styles and sounds.

"I think one of the most important things in putting on a good show is surprising the listener," Wardwell said. GCC even takes requests, and if they don't know the song, they'll learn it before the next show. Their entire show has an organized laziness to it, which in this case is a good thing.

Gypsy Cab Co.'s web site, gypsycabrecordings.com, unintentionally paints a clear picture of what the band is about in the biography section. The four individual stories are obviously fictitious (no one in the band is from Charlevoix, Wis., and Tobey isn't a former polka champion), but it's understood that a group of pretentious jazz rockers wouldn't reference the rock band Kansas. Needless to say they don't take themselves too seriously.

February 2004