The Hue colors their music with a fusion of jazz, rock melodies
The Hue's songs have simple, catchy melodies that use a fusion of jazz and rock styles to tell stories. What the songs don't have are lyrics. The nine songs on their first full album, "Beyond Words," which was released in 2009, just show off the four-person band's instrumental work with powerful guitars, drums and bass.
"I sing in other projects that I'm in and some of the other guys can carry a tune, but we decided early on that none of our vocals would match the compositions we were bringing in," guitarist Jared Rabin said. "We weren't opposed to bringing in a vocalist, but as long as it was the four of us, we wanted to see what we could compose without vocals."
Abandoning the traditional pop music formula forced The Hue's members to challenge themselves to appeal to average listeners. Guitarist Marcus Rezak compared their work to a film score and said once listeners open up to the idea, the response is overwhelmingly positive to the band, which performs at 8 p.m. today at the Montrose Room in Rosemont.
"A lot of people are used to having lyrics explain the story of the songs," he said. "For us, the way we react to music is more of an emotional response."
A strong musical education helped prepare the band members for the task. Rabin graduated from DePaul University's jazz program. Drummer Brian Gilmanov, bassist Kyle Meyers and Rezak attended Boston's Berklee College of Music, where they played together and wrote some of the songs that The Hue currently performs.
"Being at Berklee was definitely a life-changing experience for me," Rezak said. "It taught me how to really grow as a musician and work with other musicians. The fact that all three of us got to go there was really special since it allowed us to take what we were learning from school and apply it to our personal music."
Rezak and Gilmanov met by chance in class and discovered they were both from the Chicago area and liked the same music. Rabin was introduced to the group in 2007 through a mutual friend and Meyers joined after he finished school. He and Rezak had been playing with each other in garage bands since 1998, growing up together on Chicago's North Shore.
"Kyle's always felt like a younger brother to me," Rezak said.
The four's musical education shows in their sophisticated work, which draws from classic jazz and '70s jazz fusion along with Led Zeppelin, Soundgarden and Megadeth. Members write songs independently and present them to the group, working to balance their portfolio with harder or more fusion-focused songs while staying true to a unified sound.
While The Hue is their first priority, band members also find musical outlets in a variety of side projects ranging from hip-hop to electronic-based instrumentals.
The group is currently focusing on promoting their album while building a following in cities throughout the Midwest.
"We think we have a great album that not enough people have heard yet," Rabin said. "We've picked out our eight or nine markets, and we really want to keep hitting those same places really hard to keep exposing more people to our stuff."
<p class="factboxheadblack">The Hue</p>
<p class="News"><b>When:</b> 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13</p>
<p class="News"><b>Where:</b> The Montrose Room, 5300 N. River Road, Rosemont</p>
<p class="News"><b>Tickets:</b> $5</p>
<p class="News"><b>Information:</b> (847) 544-5300</p>