Chant - Sherlock’s Pub (Dallas)

"Not a damn thing happens on Monday night, which is the popular thinking.  Well, that thinking is waaaay wrong, and not simply for the fact that this Park/Central club has $2 call-its all night.  It’s wrong because they have some great live music as well.  This night belonged to the three-piece Chant.  Simply put, Chant is the most talented local set since the Earl Harvin trio (ed: Seal's touring drummer for last several years), which makes them the most musically gifted group in DFW, period.  Lead singer Chant Duplantier has the soulful smoothness to carry Marvin Gaye and Prince while his guitar can cover, as it did on Hendrix’s "Little Wing," the range from delicate jazz/blues to scale shredding rock, replete with harmonic forays and staccato ’finger-on’ runs.  Beyond that, Jerry Smith Jr. grooves nicely on the bass right up until his solo/jam, where he displays skill few have ever witnessed live (see:  Stanley Clarke) and drummer JK Kelly chills through the standard fare while occasionally tossing in a few jazz-based timing twists.  These twists are only a hint of what he is capable of, which comes later to a well-deserved standing ovation.  Visit (www.chantmusic.com) or www.myspace.com/chantmusic and find them live!"

- Mark Beneventi - Lit Monthly Executive Partner

You can find a link to the actual article here:
http://www.suburbannoizerecords.com/images/press/(Hed)pe_LitMonthly_Live%20Review.pdf

To view the feature article in BScene Magazine on the band CHANT, click the link below or paste it into your browser.  Type the number 84 in the page section at the bottom and it will take you directly to the article.

Thanks for supporting live music!

http://www.bscenemag.com/2008/introLinks/SO-08/index.html

Chant

http://www.chantmusic.com

Excerpt from a musical review July 13, 2008 

"....The night before, in a galaxy far away, a soulful jazzy rock band called Chant played a pretty amazing set at the Iron Horse Pub. A trio from Dallas, the group features a seriously good guitarist, six-string bassist and drummer.

Mixing everything from Hall & Oates to Jimi Hendrix to the Spinners, as well as their own jazzy rock jams, the trio played a set that was musically outstanding, and the crowd was right there with them.

Never overplaying the simpler things, they knew when to lay into it, when to solo, not to solo and how to keep themselves (and the crowd interested) at the same time.

I have always believed there are two ways to play music. There's forcing it — which is almost never good — and there's letting it come naturally or it sounds like it's coming naturally — which is almost always good.
Playing fast or showing off often becomes boring really quickly. Tasteful playing — which requires a tasteful drawing upon technique — is almost never boring. The better players are aware of all of their resources — from the simple to the complex — and use them accordingly to create a dynamic.

For example, the bassist from Chant would play these amazing melody lines through the songs, or he would just bust a funky jam, which led the rest of the group. Their guitarist was sometimes all over the neck and other times playing very soulful and jazzy 7th chords.

In other words, just because you can jam like Stevie Ray or Jimi doesn't mean you shouldn't also play like George Benson. Or yourself, for that matter. He mixed it up, like an artist should do...."

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/jul/13/death-metal-comes-falls/

Richard Carpenter, Wichita Falls Times Record

Chant Duplantier has pretty much had three full-time jobs in his life, but he only loved two of them.

Duplantier played right field for the Seattle Mariners, worked in high-tech corporate America and now plays lead guitar in a trio named Chant.

A chronic shoulder injury ended his boyhood passion, while an overwhelming desire to play music got him to leave behind a high paying corporate gig he didn't enjoy.

Happily playing guitar and singing for a living now, Duplantier will bring his eclectic soul band to perform tonight at the Iron Horse Pub. The group is no stranger to Pub listeners having played the venue at the outdoor St. Patrick's Day bash this year.

Chant sounds like a funky mix of Robert Cray and the Neville Brothers with a bit of The Police thrown in, he said.

Duplantier, his bassist Jerry Smith and drummer J.K. Kelly come from gospel and soul and jazz backgrounds and are big on improvisation. "You can hear us 10 times in a row and it will be different arrangements every night."

Looking back on his former office life, Duplantier loves the freedom of playing live music with talented, creative musicians. "For however long I am on stage, I have the freedom to be able to create what I want to create," he said.

Freedom became important to him after working for corporate America. "It took me a lot of years to discover that you have to follow what's important to you."

Duplantier started playing guitar 25 years ago when he was 13. A baseball player since he was a child, he had broken his wrist one summer. Bored because he couldn't play ball, he took his brother's guitar to a music store, got it tuned, bought a book of chords and taught himself to play.

He kept playing guitar through high school and Baylor University while he also played college ball and earned a degree in computer science and math.

He was drafted into pro ball and ended up in Bellingham, Wash., with the Seattle Mariners farm team. He was called up at the end of the 1991 season and played several games with the team alongside the team's outstanding center fielder Ken Griffey Jr.

When a chronic shoulder condition ended his career, Duplantier used his degrees to get a job working for Southwestern Bell in Dallas. But he never gave up playing music.

"The turning point for me was when my company moved me to the outskirts of St. Louis, and I was only supposed to be there for six months," he said.

Those six months turned into two years. He played a lot of guitar, and by the time they moved him back, he was ready to try out for a band.

He joined a blues band called Shame, Shame in 1995. Four years later, he started his own group but burned out trying to both work a job and lead a band.

Leaving music for a while, Smith — an old friend — contacted him about four years ago to sit in on some shows.

"Those gigs got the fire burning in me again, so I took solo shows at restaurants playing guitar and piano. Jerry started showing up with his bass and would play for free."

When the shows started paying more money, he could pay Smith. By the time Smith was laid off from his job about three years ago, Duplantier had already quit his.

"I said, 'Let's find a drummer and get this thing started.' "

Following the departure of their first two drummers, Kelly joined the group nearly a year ago. Chant is their full-time job. "We average anywhere from 18 to 22 nights a month, and we're on the road a lot."

Friday night at the Pub, the band will perform most of its first CD, "One Road," songs from a forthcoming CD and tunes they enjoy jamming on.

"We do love performing and love being on stage. Expect high energy and a lot of fun," he said. But there is also more to the music than that.

"Everything we play has feel. If you have an open mind and accept it, expect to be moved."

Richard Carpenter, Wichita Falls Times Record

(to view the article:  http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/jul/11/soul/)