The music scene in Fairfield, Iowa has been making moves recently, especially with the opening of the new venue the Blue Rose Ballroom, which boasts a state-of-the-art sound system for visiting music acts. One of the acts that Blue Rose welcomed in its opening celebration last month was the acclaimed New Orleans-based ensemble Nolatet.
Scott Puffer, a local music fan who says he wants to keep the spirit of Iowa City’s FEaST alive, has embarked on a labor of love to bring the ensemble’s pianist, Brian Haas, back to town. A solo show from Haas will “melt faces for 75 minutes straight,” Puffer asserts.
With that show set for Saturday, Oct. 10 at Fairfield’s Golden Magnolia Sanctuary, Little Village spoke with music-fan-cum-promoter Puffer and Haas himself about the intimate yet “unrestrained” concert Haas has planned.
“I have never promoted another act other than myself,” Puffer said. “From Fairfield, I kept a very close eye on all FEaST events and attended them as much as possible. I am a serious music fan. These events were tailor-made for someone like me.”
Puffer became aware of Brian Haas’ playing through Nolatet’s visits to Fairfield. Though he described them as a wonderfully creative ensemble, Puffer saw that there was an opportunity to get weirder with it.
“I could see that Brian was constrained by the group structure and wanted to set up a situation where he could freely do whatever he wanted to! I decided I wanted to put on a concert featuring him only — and so I approached him about this possibility. I found out that solo piano is something that he actually does and actually loves — so it was full speed ahead on this.”
It turned out that Haas is something of a musical chimera, with multiple outlets and acts for his prodigious musical output — from Nolatet, with its roots in New Orleans-based jazz stylings, to Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and the Parliament-adjacent funk-jazz stylings of Punkadelick.
So Haas was game to return. The performance “will be different at a basic level” from his last Fairfield gig, he told Little Village.
“Instead of playing compositions and improvising based around pre-written melodies as Nolatet did, I will be performing more out of thin air. My melodies will be improvised and then the series of theme and variations will be a direct result of the improvised melodies,” he explained. “This solo piano show will be fully improvised. If I run out of ideas, I will ask the audience to invent song titles then I will improvise based on those audience concepts.”
Speaking of differences, diving deep into Haas’ work, it was fairly easy to see the contrasts within his myriad of musical projects. His website has the list at six ongoing musical collaborations, not counting his solo endeavors. I asked Haas if he sees any throughlines in his output.
“The throughlines are that everything I do is creative, improvised music. None of my projects are based around playing covers or playing the music of other people,” Haas said. “All of my musical projects are based around original compositions, spontaneous improvisations and new works. There are too many tribute bands and cover bands these days, which does nothing to push music and art forward.”
I asked both musician and promoter what’s next.
“Mike Dillon and I just finished recording yet another album of new compositions two weeks ago,” Haas said. “I have five shows approaching with a fully improvised live score to the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu, and my new solo album is being written as we speak.”
Puffer, who is presenting Haas’s performance under the name “Puffer Planetary Airways,” is open to keeping those airways open with more music.
“I would say that if this goes well enough, I will put on another concert of equal quality. Like I say, I am interested in keeping up the spirit of FEaST.”
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