Interview: Jonathan Lloyd (The JLloyd MashUp)
It’s a little after 8 p.m. on a Monday night in April, and trombonist Jonathan Lloyd is talking trumpeter Alex Bradley through horn parts on St. Paul and The Broken Bones’ “Call Me” as an early crowd filters into One World West. Vocalist Blake Ellege steps up to a stage-left mic a few bars into the funk/soul tune and immediately turns heads with a king-sized voice landing somewhere between Chris Stapleton and Chris Robinson.
The brief soundcheck serves as the only rehearsal for the night’s show by the collective known as the JLloyd MashUp, which officially fires up minutes later when the band finds a slinky groove on Aaron Neville’s “Hercules” before segueing into a series of instrumental numbers with ska, acid jazz and Latin flavors. The eclectic crowd, ranging in age from 20s to 70s, never stops moving over the next two hours: dancing, smiling, and singing along to a genre-crossing setlist showcasing Ellege’s gritty, greasy vocals — from Billy Preston’s “Will It Go Round in Circles” to George Benson’s “Give Me the Night” to Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Go Down Gamblin’.”
Similar scenarios play out every week at the Haywood Road brewery and music venue, bringing a New Orleans residency-style vibe to an otherwise sleepy night. A Monday night at One World West feels like a Saturday night anywhere else.
Lloyd, who moved to Asheville from Atlanta in the summer of 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, serves as curator and conductor for the collaborative project. Offstage, he invites singers and guest players to complement the core lineup — Vic Stafford (drums), Ben Bjorlie (bass), Tommy Knowles (keys), Duane Simpson (guitar,) and Jonathan Cole (saxophone) — and shares a Spotify playlist to guide prep for the coming Monday. Onstage, he tastefully directs traffic, cueing solos and singing both lead and harmony between trombone blasts.
The JLloyd MashUp is neither an open jam nor an open mic; it’s a series of loosely orchestrated performances featuring Asheville’s finest and hardest-working musicians. No two shows are the same.
“I don't hide the fact that these are songs we don't get to rehearse. We're trying to do this on a whim,” says Lloyd. “And people there are holding their breath a little bit and thinking, ‘Oh, are they going to do this?’ That adds to the sense of community, because we're all in it together. The crowd’s feeding off the music and sending energy back to the stage, and we're up there doing our thing. It all works together and feels really good.”
In addition to the standing Monday night gig at One World West, the band occasionally pays tribute to a specific artist. On Sunday, June 16, a 12-piece iteration anchored by vocalist Ben Flacon will present highlights from the Paul Simon catalog with a special Father’s Day show at The Grey Eagle.
Asheville Stages spoke with Lloyd about the genesis and evolution of the MashUp, and how the pieces come together each week.
Jay Moye: How’d the JLloyd MashUp get started, and what was your initial vision for the concept?
Jonathan Lloyd: I started it in Atlanta in 2012 at a club called the Five Spot, now Aisle 5, in Little Five Points. The vision was to work with a bunch of different artists. The term “mashup” came not from mashing up music, but mashing together different personalities and backgrounds. I wanted to do something that focused on more than one style of music — to explore all different genres within one night. We did it on Tuesdays or Wednesdays for a while before it kind of fell off when everybody started touring.
The goal when I came to Asheville was to meet as many people as possible and crisscross people from different genres. I was dating [singer/songwriter] Jesse Barry at the time, and she introduced me to all kinds of great people, including the One World folks. I'd been looking to do something with my buddy Brad Walker from New Orleans on saxophone, who's a beast of a musician, so I hit him up to see if he'd be in town for a date in November 2021. He was, so we put something together.
For the sake of promotion, I already had the JLloyd MashUp “brand.” Brad introduced me to Alex Taub on keys, and Jesse introduced me to a lot of other musicians I put in the band. I already knew Ben and Vic . We ended up with what's pretty much the MashUp now. We did a show and it was a lot of fun, so we did a second one. Then I approached [co-owner] Lisa [Schutz] at One World about doing it every Monday because they’d stopped doing trivia nights. She was into it, and we built it up from there.
JM: What’s your musical background?
JL: I'm from Atlanta. I started playing music when I was nine years old with a focus on choir, trombone and drums. When I was 16, I hit the road with a national touring ska/reggae band [The Robustos] and spent most of my teens, 20s, and early 30s on the road with multiple groups. I always came back to carpentry or construction during the day and between tours. I got exposed to the festival scene while playing in Cadillac Jones and DubConscious and did some artist-at-large stuff, which introduced me to all kinds of national acts.
JM: What made you decide to move to Asheville?
JL: I’d wanted to be in the mountains for a long time. Growing up, my mom worked at the Montreat Conference Center over the summers, so I grew up going to Camp Celo. I always knew I wanted to be here. As a musician, I’d been coming up here for many years with Cadillac Jones and, before that, with a band called Madorico. We toured through the Carolinas and made Asheville our home base over the summer. We'd never even go back to Atlanta. We’d stay with friends during the week in Asheville and go on tour from here. I got to really experience Asheville in the late-‘90s and early-2000s, which was great.
JM: What about the musical community here attracted you?
JL: Everybody seemed to work together as a community. It didn't matter what genre you were in. Everybody knew and supported each other. You could go to any given spot and see something amazing — all these pop-up shows and just a really cool scene. I used to come up almost every week from Atlanta for the Tuesday Night Funk Jam [at Asheville Music Hall]. I’d drive up on a Sunday or Monday to go hiking, then hit the jam on Tuesday and head back the next morning.
The MashUp at One World West (Photo: CJ Huff)
JM: Did the Asheville incarnation of the JLloyd MashUp feel seamless from the get-go?
JL: Yeah and, no offense to my Atlanta crew, but it was actually better because it was new. I didn’t know everybody very well, and they all knew each other. I was new on the scene, but people had trust from the beginning. I was able to throw a bunch of songs at people and they actually learned them, top to bottom, and were able to hit without rehearsal. And that’s created an energy that’s really hard to describe. Everybody's on their toes trying to do the best they can, and nobody wants to drop the ball. That’s what's really made it attractive for both the musicians and the audience.
JM: Is the absence of rehearsal intentional, or logistical?
JL: I started doing these shows with a mixture of covers and originals I had recordings for. But then I realized, without a true rehearsal, originals didn’t really work. We usually have about 30-45 minutes to run through things at sound check before it’s go time, so we don’t get to touch everything.
JM: Help me understand the preparation that goes into each week’s show.
JL: Everybody does their own homework and figures out their parts. I tell everybody the song keys and changes, and Cole — the sax player — and I get together to chart out horn parts every week. For the first year and a half before [Cole] joined, I was fluctuating between different horn players, so every week my playlist would be the setlist for the coming Monday. I’d listen nonstop and just memorize by ear. Everyone has their own approach, but most people listen to the playlist a day or so before the gig so the songs are fresh in their short-term memory.
JM: You rotate in vocalists each week. Who chooses the songs?
JL: The singers choose their songs, up to eight per week. Sometimes I guide them, but it starts with their ideas. We ask them to keep in mind the instrumentation of the band and to try and integrate horns. It’s interesting to see where people's minds go. At soundcheck, we’ll find creative ways to play something — like giving a Nirvana song a Latin feel — by adding in our influences on the spot. That’s what I love the most.
JM: Is pretty much anything on the table, genre-wise?
JL: Yeah, I don't think there's anything we haven't touched. The only thing we haven't done is classical, but we’ve come close. We do try to keep it dance-oriented because the people who come out are used to getting up and dancing, which is amazing.
JM: Why is One World West the right home for the Monday Night Mashup?
JL: For one thing, Jay and Lisa are just sweet people. They have big hearts. They started a brewery and wanted to have live music. They had a great outdoor area and a bunch of positive things going for them, but they didn’t really have an indoor stage. And in West Asheville, there wasn't really anywhere else you could really do anything. The Rocket Club was gone. Isis [Music Hall] was there, but they’d kinda found their own identity during the pandemic. I saw One World as a great place to build something because they were trying to build something, too. Jay and I actually built the stage and brought in curtains and lighting to create a real music venue.
JM: Why Mondays?
JL: I didn't want to step on anybody's toes. At the time, nothing else was happening on Mondays, so we saw the opportunity to do something non-competitive. And it’s one of the few nights everybody could almost guarantee they’d be free to play because they’re so busy with other bands. So logistically, it made sense. And Monday night just seems like a good community night. Less touristy, more local.
JM: You’re about to do your fourth Paul Simon tribute. How’d the concept come together?
JL: It came out of a Monday night. Ben Falcon, who’s the singer, sat in and wanted to do a bunch of Paul Simon songs. I think we did eight tunes that night and thought, “This feels pretty cool.” He came back a second time and we decided to build a full show. Paul Simon’s music is timeless and it's so intricate, so you need a full band to really pull it off. And he’s not touring anymore, so we felt like it was a great opportunity to pay tribute to him and get something going.
JM: Pretty crazy that you guys do those songs — especially the Graceland stuff — without rehearsal.
JL: I won’t lie: the first one we did [at Isis in Nov. 2022] was tough. We were supposed to have a two-hour rehearsal at soundcheck, but the times got messed up and we ended up only having 45 minutes. So everybody had to be on their toes. I think we did 26 tunes that night, so it was incredible that we even got through it. Now we have it down really well. We actually do rehearse for these shows because we realize if we’re going to do a tribute like this, we’ve gotta make them tight. We had a great rehearsal last week and are really looking forward to Sunday.
JM: Do you keep adding to the set?
JL: Yeah, we refine and add. We record every show, and Ben and I go through to see where we can improve. We’re streamlining things a bit this time around and doing one long set, with JP [Pearlman] and Peggy [Ratusz] opening up. They’ll do some of the [Paul Simon] stuff we’re not doing, as a duo.
JM: What’s next for the MashUp, outside the Monday night residency?
JL: We want to record an album of originals. And I’ve got several ideas for artist tribute shows, including Roy Ayers and Otis Redding, which would be amazing. Stay tuned.
IF YOU GO
Who: The JLloyd MashUp: A Tribute to Paul Simon
When: Sunday, June 16, 6:30 p.m.
Where: The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave., thegreyeagle.com
Tickets: $15
(Photo by Adam Chase)
