Must-see Motet plays at Golden West Friday

The first thing I need to do is get the particulars out of the way.

The Motet is playing at the Golden West Saloon Friday at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are available at Birdland, 3213 Central Ave. N.E. The show was originally booked at El Rey Theatre, was recently moved. You need to know about the change because the Golden West seats about 275 people, much fewer than El Rey, so the show will most definitely sell out. The Motet is one of the best bands around to combine World Beat, Cuban, Jazz and Funk, and you won’t want to miss this performance.

The cool thing about these Boulder, Colo., natives is that they meld these styles and sounds into a seamless slice of musical fun without overdoing it. The band members’ musical prowess — and they have plenty of it — does not necessarily jump out on the band’s recent release, Play. Instead, each member serves to complement each other to form a unique sound.

Vocalist Jans Ingber has definitely studied his funk. His silky-smooth delivery on “Do What You Want” is the piece’s showcase, along with a laid-back funk groove, Moog and organ stylings and a polyphonic vocal chorus that doesn’t intimidate. But, he leaves the funk behind for nice, south-of-the-border phrasing on the cumbia/Caribbean feeling “Minha Mae Ochunmare.”

Ingber gets help on Play from self-proclaimed drum kit master and band founder Dave Watts, Scott Messersmith on Brazilian percussion, guitarist Michael Tiernan, bassist Matt Spencer and Steve Vidiac, who supplies the various keyboards on the CD. The band also gets help from various vocalists and horn players, and each member seems to contribute more than just their primary instrument. The band’s sound is very big on certain tracks of the CD, and it will be telling to see how the band reproduces this sound live.

The music includes plenty of Galactic-type funk, such as in the opener “Chicken Scratch,” in which the band gives props to Tower of Power’s horn section, the tail end of “Minha” and on “Givin’ What You Can.”

The percussive, vocal-driven “Madrina Ayudame” is on the Cuban tip, and sung in Spanish, in the same manner as bands like Los Angeles’ Ozomatli. “The Lesson,” which is replete with wah-wah soaked guitars, has a stuttering bass and drumbeat and soulful vocals that take you back to ’60s-era Detroit.

And, one of the most stunning tracks on the CD, “Ellegua/Chango,” starts with the band in fine a cappella form, transforms into a Sub-Saharan chant and finishes in an early Santana-style outro.

Still, The Motet is not any one thing at any one time. It seems like it planned to take the tribal beat of “GuinÇe Kan,” and let it deteriorate right into the wild, funk explosion on “Howard,” which it does. I can only hope that the live show will be just as exciting and unpredictable.

So, if you can get in, go to the Golden West and give The Motet a reason to come back to Albuquerque.