Brian Slattery Photos
Before he sat behind the drums, Gil Hawkins, Jr. addressed the crowd at the Owl Shop from the microphone set up in the middle of the stage. “Wednesday night is jazz night at the Owl Shop. It’s been that way for years.” For the Hawkins Jazz Collective — this Wednesday made up of Hawkins on drums, Mike Godette on guitar, and Lou Bocciarelli on bass — “years” meant well over a decade, Covid-19 shutdown notwithstanding. As the group slid into its first tune, it created a sense less of normalcy (whatever that means anymore) than of timelessness.
Hawkins is both a long-running fixture of the Owl Shop and a true veteran of New Haven’s jazz scene, having played drums since he was a child and jazz since high school; he’s been playing in the Elm City for over 30 years (and worked for the City Plan Department for 26 of them before retiring eight years ago). That experience was on full display from the first sounds he coaxed from his kit, as he fell effortlessly into an easy swing. He had a small grin on his face as he held down the laid-back groove, letting Godette and Bocciarelli take leads. HIs cymbal work loosened the rhythm even further, and Godette and Bocciarelli responded in kind, their own playing becoming sparser, less tied to the harmonic structure of the song, more atmospheric. They settled into an ending and their first round of applause.
The Owl Shop still has outdoor seating set up on College Street and Wednesday night saw a handful of people outside to use it. But most patrons have moved inside, using masks when moving around the place and removing them when sitting and drinking or smoking. (As a cigar shop, coffee vendor, and bar, The Owl Shop, famously, was exempted from the 2004 smoking ban in bars and is now the last remaining spot in the state where one can drink and smoke.) Seating in the back of the shop, closest to the stage where the Hawkins Jazz Collective performed, can be reserved in advance, and this Wednesday all of it had been. Those just dropping in can grab a seat at the bar.
During the band’s second tune a few of those who had reserved seating arrived. One of them waved at Hawkins and Hawkins waved back, without missing a beat in the bossa-inflected groove. At the bar next to me, a patron lit up a fat cigar and smoked it with deliberation. Nearby, an older patron was guiding a younger patron through the bar’s beer selections. Hawkins took a solo, then broke it down further as he and Godette traded off, creating the sense of the song breathing in and out, measure by measure, before they returned to the top of the form.
They picked up the pace for their third tune. Godette kept it loose and relaxed even as his playing became more forceful. Bocciarelli responded with muscular bass lines of his own. Together, the trio pushed the tune outward, finding their own sound within it. Then Hawkins dropped out entirely to give Bocciarelli free rein, with Godette providing just enough of the song’s harmonic structure to give Bocciarelli something to bounce idea off of. Hawkins sneaked in with a light, snappy swing to finish it off.
The band then ripped into a tune in 3/4 time that Hawkins turned into a polyrhythmic paradise. Now fully warmed up, the band gave off heat, with Hawkins in particular laying into the drums to get tones out of them not yet heard that evening. The tune got the biggest round of applause yet.
“Hey, that’s jazz,” Hawkins said nonchalantly into the microphone.
The first wave of the crowd had left and a second wave came in to take its place. My neighbor at the bar was still finishing his cigar. We talked about newspapers, comics, and graphic novels while the band headed off to the musical races again. At last he finished his cigar and accompanying drink, and paid his tab.
“You know, we’re vaccinated, we follow the rules, we get to do this,” he said. He put his mask back on and headed toward the door.
The Hawkins Jazz Collective plays every Wednesday at the Owl Shop, 268 College St., starting at 9 p.m. Visit the Owl Shop’s website for a full list of events and more information.