Definitives play up ‘musical freedom’

When Matt Murphy started putting together The Definitives a few months ago, he looked for talented musicians, of course. But, beyond that, Murphy searched for players who were versatile and, well, fun to play with.

"What I really wanted to do was to put together a group of folks that were really cool to hang out with and who were awesome musicians and had the ability or the knowledge to be able to cover any style of music," Murphy says.

In addition to Murphy on drums, The Definitives features Matt Baldoni on guitar and Aja Wilson on bass. All have experience playing around town in production shows and other ensembles. But, Murphy says, The Definitives offers the trio the "musical freedom" to experiment with different songs and different genres.

"The other night, we started a song in a certain style and, in the middle of the song, Aja started doing something I kind of heard as a little different, so I completely switched it to a reggae feel," he says. "So it allows us the opportunity to really use our ear. ... We're able to play off of each other, which is really fun."

Of course, that sort of thing does require a liberal amount of mutual confidence and respect.

"It's almost like that game you play where somebody stands behind you and you just fall backwards and they catch you," Murphy says. "One of us is going to take a little bit of a stretch and hopes that everybody else goes along for the ride."

Also fun is the flexibility the players have to add other musicians into the mix. Recently, for example, a vocalist the trio knew happened to catch a show, "and we had her come up," Murphy says. "So when people come out to see us, you never know who's going to show up."

The band works in a cross-genre vein, Murphy says. "Each of us is a fan of music, period, no matter what the genre is or what the age of the music is. It doesn't really matter. If it's good music, it's good music."

So, he says, "you'll hear anything from a jazz standard to ... some Johnny Cash the other night. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, some straight-ahead blues shuffles, some more ballady types of songs. We may even throw a bossa nova or two.

"We really try to work with the audience. The reason we're there is because of them, so we'll do whatever we can to accommodate them. And if they want to hear a certain song by a certain artist, we certainly try to cover that, and between the three of us we've probably got 10,000 songs in our heads."

"We're having a blast," Murphy says. "It's all about being able to stretch as musicians and being comfortable with who you're sharing the stage with. It's just a fantastic opportunity."

The Definitives play the Mandarin Bar at the Mandarin Oriental, 3752 Las Vegas Blvd. South, at 10 p.m. Fridays.