Lawrence.com

The members of Jose PH aren't wussies when it comes to getting gigs.

"I like to see bands that are gonna play anywhere, anytime," says singer/guitarist Joe McGuire from the porch of his student ghetto abode. "That's our attitude. We play more free shows than we play paying gigs. We play house parties constantly. We want to play for the people to get down."

McGuire and his bandmates (organist Ehren Starks, bassist Paul Winn and drummer Josh Adams) are decidedly old-school for such a young group, living in a land of a 1,000 dances where Jimmy Smith takes precedence over The Smiths. Playing an infectious blend of jazz, funk, rock and soul, Jose has built a local following as a self-described "high energy, enthusiastic, groove, get-down-on-your-ass band."

Though Jose's head-bobbing grooves sound deceptively simple on the surface, there's no easy formula for putting it all together. The quartet is truly the sum of its influences and its membership. There's a bassist with a classical and jazz background who prefers to play ska; a drummer who's an avid Medeski, Martin and Wood fan; a keyboardist whose tangy clavinet and Jimmy McGriff organ riffs provide a swinging ride on the funk bus; and a singer/guitarist steeped in the classic soul sounds of Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and Ray Charles. Put these disparate elements together, add a healthy dose of rock and you have Jose PH.

"We all have diverse backgrounds," McGuire says. "We all love jazz. That's probably our very roots, but we're not necessarily going for any sound. We love reggae, we love Latin, we love Afro-Cuban. We're just trying to fuse as many different styles as we can and still make it our own thing."

Party train

The nucleus of PH was formed in the fall of 1998 when Starks, Winn and McGuire started getting together for regular practices near their Johnson County homes. The burgeoning band went through three drummers before moving to Lawrence last summer (to attend Kansas University) and recruiting stickman Josh Adams. Things clicked almost immediately and Jose PH began building a fan base via local house parties.

"House parties are the way to go," McGuire enthuses. "You're right there with the band. That chemistry is just awesome  that pure energy. I talk to my friends that are starting bands and want to get shows at The Bottleneck and it's like you gotta get the house parties, man  especially if you play music that's gettin' down and you can dance to. It's all about the groove, the boogie, the beat ... The bars suck because underage kids can't get in, or they pay five bucks and they can't even drink. College kids want to be able to drink when they go hear music."

What about police showing up and closing the party down?

"It depends on the location, but 50 percent of the time we get shut down," McGuire admits. "Sometimes we get lucky and get to play all night. That's the best  when the cops never come. If it's in the neighborhood, the studio ghetto, it's usually cool."

Area music pundits lucky enough to attend a Jose PH show get just that: a show. Eschewing the jeans-and-T-shirt approach of most local bands, PH tends to go all-out in concert, wearing a variety of outfits that add to the fun quotient.

"On the bigger occasions we'll do the vintage tuxes, but we have a lot of hip clothes that we like to wear," McGuire explains. "Sometimes we'll do different themes. We'd like to get some soccer jerseys with our names on them. It's fun, man. The crowd likes it; we like it."

Studio grooves

Last December, Jose PH entered Z'Gwon'Th Studios for a three-day session that begat the band's self-titled debut CD, released independently in April. Though the sessions were rushed, they effectively captured the quartet's knack for non-stop grooving, underscoring the myriad influences that comprise PH's sound.

"Mountain Night" effortlessly switches gears between funk and reggae, while "Mrs. E's Cookies" offers a potent slab of throbbing jazz-funk. "The Hornet" contains a swanky guitar riff straight from the Superfly school of trouble funk, and "Mr. Technical" is a playful bit of bounce that sounds like Bob James in a centrifuge. Though the CD has been well-received by local music fans, McGuire remains critical of his contributions to the work.

"We're not a studio band; we're a live band," he says. We've never even been in a studio enough to know the game. Playing music under the gun is not how you should play music; it's not natural. Feeling like we gotta get in and get this take, you're worried about messing up and that's not right. But that was in December, and we're already so many stepping stones past where we were then."

Phat pharm

Earlier this year, Jose PH got a major boost when it was selected to play Farmer's Ball, KJHK 90.7 FM's yearly battle of the bands where area acts compete for a coveted opening slot at the annual Day on the Hill festival. Though PH was narrowly defeated by local metal mavens Preferred Villain, McGuire insists that the experience was a positive one.

"We played a good stage show," he says. "We had a lot of fun, we had the crowd really involved and that's all that matters. I don't care whether we won or not, I really don't. I was so happy afterwards even though we lost. We got to play in front of a bunch of new people, and it was a very successful show, both of them."

As for the local music scene, McGuire  whose decision to relocate the band here was motivated by the city's reputation for great local bands  was anticipating a bit more.

"The music scene has gone down a little bit," he says. "It's not as good as I would hope for. I'm not talking (expletive) on anyone when I say that. But there's all these older badass bands that don't do anything. A couple years ago they were all at their peak, selling out venues and on their way up. Then they don't go out and tour, they don't promote their shows very hard when they play. Bands kind of fizzle out when they still could really go somewhere."

Part of the problem, McGuire says, stems from the music-heavy nature of Lawrence, which tries to balance the local and national scenes to varying degrees of success.

"There's so many awesome national shows coming through, you can't go to every local show," he says. "There are 20 local bands playing this week and there's a bunch of national shows. How much money do you have and how much time? So it's good because there's a lot of good music and it's bad because there's a lot of good music."