Picking a name for the band started out as a joke. The members eventually came up with the name Mt. Thelonious in honor of their favorite jazz musician, Thelonious Monk.
“We were making jokes like, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great to have a band named after Thelonious Monk?’” Alyssa Avery, vocalist and violinist, said. “It became a big joke but it ended up sticking.”
Chloe Feoranzo, vocalist and clarinetist in Mt. Thelonious, said Monk is a huge influence in the jazz world.
Mt. Thelonious consists of Webster University alumni Avery, lead vocalist and guitarist Ian Lubar, bassist Mark Wallace and music performance major Feoranzo. Mt. Thelonious has officially played with each other for six months, but has been together for about a year.
Mt. Thelonious recently released their self-titled EP, which includes four songs. Avery said the experience was one of the easiest recordings they had ever done.
“It was actually a lot of fun,” Avery said. “We recorded at Shock City Studios with a former Webster student, Luke Arens, who also graduated in 2012. He’s great. We recorded everything basically from the first or second take, which is fairly rare. We tried to capture the live feeling that we had. We got the whole thing done in one evening.”
Feoranzo said the recording took about two hours and the band “cranked out the tunes.” In the end, she said the band was very happy with the final product.
On Oct. 30, Mt. Thelonious had a release party and performed at Foam, located on Cherokee Street. Avery said they’ve been on KDHX (88.1 FM), featured on a segment called the Local Artist Spotlight. She said there have been people calling them because they heard them on the radio.
Mt. Thelonious is already booked through the month of February. The band hopes to eventually do a tour in California, the home state of Lubar and Feoranzo.
Feoranzo said for now, Mt. Thelonious is just a fun project, but the band is trying to see where it will go in the future. Avery said she would like for Mt. Thelonious to be a significant part of her career.
“At the end of the day, these are my best friends,” Avery said. “It’s so easy to make music together. You can’t ask for anything better than that.”
Mt. Thelonious’ self-titled EP is available on their website at mtthelonious.com. The band is also on Facebook, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.
The next shows for Mt. Thelonious will be at Livery Company at 10 p.m. on Nov. 8 and Mangia at 11 p.m. on Nov. 15.
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