On Wednesday, February 21, the American quartet Forq played their second show of a two-night engagement at The Rex. Forq is currently on tour, and their Toronto shows came near the end of a two-week journey that started on February 11 at the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach, Florida (GroundUP is the label for whom the band records, and is helmed by Snarky Puppy’s Michael League, who, along with keyboardist Henry Hey, co-founded Forq). GroundUP artists – including Forq, Snarky Puppy and Becca Stevens – have made a number of successful appearances at The Rex over the past few years, and their shows tend to bring in a diverse range of live-music patrons. Hey remarked early on in the first set that The Rex is probably Forq’s favourite place to play, and the affection evidently runs both ways: the strong connection between the GroundUP family and The Rex is such that members of The Rex staff – including music manager Tom Tytel – made the trip down to Miami Beach for the aforementioned festival, in order to scout potential acts for the Rex’s 2018 Jazz Festival.
The current iteration of Forq includes keyboardist Hey, guitarist Chris McQueen, drummer Jason Thomas and bassist Kevin Scott, all four of whom were in top form at The Rex on Wednesday. Forq is described on its website as a band with “an aggressive sound,” but the description seems to do a disservice to the intelligent, nuanced approach to music-making that they took throughout the evening. While the highs were certainly high, much of Forq’s best playing was found in dynamic interplay between band members during quieter sections, and, though the show didn't lack in bombast, the prevailing mood was thoughtful, patient and communicative.
After a short piece at the beginning of the first set, the band launched into the McQueen original “Lymaks,” a funky, medium-tempo song anchored throughout the melody by Thomas’s excellent tambourine playing. “Lymaks” featured a powerful solo from Hey that set the tone for the rest of the evening: melodic, rhythmically interesting, and with a keen attention to textural detail. Thomas’s “635 South” saw Hey taking another compelling solo, this time using his keyboard’s organ sound, as well as a great solo from Scott. Although it started with a swung 16th-note feel, it transitioned into a straighter feel after soloing to accommodate a beautiful melody, reminiscent of D’Angelo’s “Africa.”
One of the show’s most winning moments came at the beginning of “Cowabunghole,” another McQueen original, that was named, as Hey apprised the audience, by fellow GroundUP artist Becca Stevens during a visit to the studio where Hey and McQueen were mixing the band’s most recent album. The piece starts with an energetic, surf-y guitar riff, played with great enthusiasm by McQueen – so much so, in this particular case, that he broke a string. Hey quoted “Think!” as McQueen performed a quick string change, and, without a break in the music, the band transitioned directly back into the opening riff of “Cowabunghole.”
The second set brought many of the same pleasures of the first, including another excellent solo from Hey in the first song, a beautifully-paced solo from Thomas over a 13/8 vamp in the third song, and solid playing from the whole ensemble on Hey’s “Grout,” the final piece of the evening. It is a testament both to Forq and to the special relationship that the band has with The Rex that the audience was attentive, focused, and, let it be said, quiet, for much of the show – although, as was only appropriate, not during Thomas’s masterful drum solo at the end of “Grout.”
American quartet Forq performed, as part of their February tour, on February 20 and 21 at The Rex, Toronto.
Colin Story is a jazz guitarist, writer, and teacher based in Toronto. He can be reached through his website, on Instagram and on Twitter.
