About The Motet
The Motet is an American funk, soul and jazz influenced group based in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1998 by drummer and bandleader Dave Watts, The Motet is Watts, guitarist Ryan Jalbert, bassist Garrett Sayers, keyboardist Joey Porter, saxophonist Drew Sayers and singer Sarah Clarke.
Known for energetic live shows including an annual Halloween concert, the band has released seven studio albums. Their 2014 self-titled album was co-written and produced by all the band members, and was cut on analog recording equipment to capture their instruments' live sounds. They continue to tour nationally and have performed at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Electric Forest Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, North Coast Music Festival, Wakarusa, Rooster Walk, and Summer Camp Festival.
The Motet was founded in Boulder, Colorado, in 1998 by drummer and arranger Dave Watts as a musical collective with a rotating cast of musicians. By 2000 the group had changed its name to The Motet and become a sextet consisting of Watts on drums, percussionist and vocalist Jans Ingber, percussionist Scott Messersmith, guitarist Mike Tiernen, bassist Kurt Reeber, and organist-keyboardist Steve Vidiac. Watts, Ingber, and Messersmith had also traveled to Cuba twice to study bata drums of the Santeria religion, which at the time heavily influenced the band's sound, as can be heard on their first two albums.
The Dave Watts Motet first performed together on Halloween 1998, and at that time were incorporating elements of funk, jazz, folk, and world music into their sound. Watts wrote and arranged the majority of their early music for a rotating lineup of musicians, throwing energetic local dance parties. Their debut release, Breathe, was self-released in 1999, and produced entirely by Watts.
The band released their second album, Play, on aNOnym reCOrds in 2001, which was followed in 2002 by the album Live, their first record on Harmonized Records. Music for Life, released in 2004, was also on Harmonized Records. Also in 2004, the band self-released the DVD Shine, which was produced by James Marshello.
On September 12, 2006, they released their studio album Instrumental Dissent. While the album is largely instrumental, the voices of activists such as Harry Belafonte, Alice Walker, and Noam Chomsky are woven into many of the songs. Allmusic gave release 3.5/5 stars and largely positive review, writing "Motet gets off to an impressive start as the opening salvo of tunes darts between funk, Afro-beat, Latin and world sounds with a slight underpinning of electronic touches, all driven by a nimble yet fiery attack." Allmusic praised the production and audio quality as well, stating "Many of the tracks blend into each other, creating a near seamless whole." Allmusic criticized the slower pace in the latter half of the disc, stating the album "loses some of the imagination, if not steam, of the early tunes, becoming a solid yet rather conventional work from a jazz-funk fusion outfit." However, "Scott Messersmith's bubbling percussion and drummer Dave Watts' elastic beats keep the heat turned up even when the tracks tend to extend longer than needed."
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