Ropeadope

Skerik is the kid you wanted on your backyard football team. He’s the one who always hustles, the guy the whole team looks to no matter who is captain, who makes it fun every time. He’s the guy who makes you want to play until it's so dark out, you can't see the ball anymore. Skerik is the guy you can always count on when it's fourth down, when the game is on the line, who always seems to throw you that pass just right so it floats up there, spiraling silently in slow motion over the end zone, while you catch up to it and grab it out of the crisp autumn air for a touchdown just as you hear your mom calling you for dinner. Skerik is that guy. Of course, we're talking quarter notes, not quarterbacks, but even if they were playing two-hand touch, I’d bet you my allowance for the rest of the year that Les Claypool, Stanton Moore, or John Scofield would still use their first picks on Skerik. Check out his story and you'll understand why he's the kid that everyone wants to play with.

Skerik grew up in Seattle and was exposed early on to jazz by his father, who was a big fan of jazz musicians like Count Basie and Dave Brubeck. Skerik received some early mentorship from the teachers in his school's music program, playing in the jazz ensemble, orchestra and getting turned on to saxophone legends like Charlie Rouse, Booker Irvin, Don Bays, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter. Outside of school, he also had a rock band and was inspired by the saxophone playing on albums by The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".

During the 1980s, Skerik left the comforts of home to pursue his artistry as a musician. He packed up his horn and left for several different parts of the world, including London, Paris, and the South Pacific, where he lived for extended periods of time. During this time, he worked all kinds of day jobs and worked in many different kinds of bands, playing blues, rock, jazz, caribbean music, and african music. While in London, with the encouragement of guitarist Leif Totusek, he started playing African music full-time in groups that played South African music and Zairean Soukous.

After returning to Seattle in the late 80s, Skerik played in a number of groups, including the sax-bass-drums rock power trio Sadhappy, where he started to experiment with playing his saxophone through distortion and effects. Later, he also began playing with drummer Matt Chamberlain in a group that eventually became Critters Buggin. Soon, Skerik became a highly-sought band member and mvp guest of many different bands, recording with Stanton Moore on "Flyin' the Koop", Les Claypool's "Frog Brigade, Tuatara, and Ponga", while touring and performing with Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd), Galactic, John Scofield, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Mike Clark's Funk All-Stars with Fred Wesley, Charlie Hunter, Robert Walter, and DJ Logic.

The Syncopated Taint Septet formed unexpectedly and organically in the summer of 2002 when Skerik was at home in Seattle between tours. Talking with long-time comrade and baritone saxophonist Craig Flory, Skerik decided to reactivate a sax-and-organ group with Joe Doria on Hammond organ and john wicks on drums. Soon, the horn count increased as Skerik enlisted fellow Seattle musicians Dave Carter on trumpet, Hans Teuber on alto saxophone and flute, and Steve Moore on trombone and wurlitzer electric piano, packing the harmonies (and the stage) with a five-horn front line. From the beginning, Skerik invited all of the musicians to suggest ideas and write music for the band. "The great part about this band is everyone writes music for the group. For me, these guys represent what is best about Seattle musicians: very strong improvisational ability combined with unique, creative musical compositions.

Skerik took the name "syncopated taint" from a description used by Harry J. Anslinger, the appointed commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. In the same type of puritanical, xenophobic 1930s climate that gave rise to Hitler in Germany, Anslinger pursued a zealous, sensationalistic, and often racist mission in the united states to demonize drugs and the people who use them. His campaign had a particular bias against jazz musicians, who Anslinger saw as satanic addicts responsible for the spread of marijuana use among the nation's impressionable youth. Among several other disturbing remarks to congress, Anslinger famously differentiated between "jazz music" and "good music". "Syncopated Taint" was another term he used to refer to the rhythmic and moral contaminations he perceived in jazz.
When Skerik came across Anslinger's description, he decided to flip it and co-opt the phrase as the name of this group. For Skerik, it fits. "I like to think of this group as punk-jazz. Maybe a punk-jazz version of the Thelonius Monk Octet. I find that a very useful term, which is also something that Jaco Pastorius, used to use to describe his music. I was very influenced by the way he who could play the shit out of bebop and then turn around and interpret a Jimi Hendrix tune just as deeply. Even though people consider that to be two different genres. I’ve always felt they were very closely related. Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix were both coming from the same place, the same roots, and they were both making music that was revolutionary and radical, politically and musically.

In the late 80's, touring extensively with crooner / jazz pianist buddy Greco. He eventually made Seattle Washington his home, where he has performed and or recorded with Julian Priester, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz (Zoney Mash), Robin Holcomb, and various others. He also recorded and toured brazil with the Jovino Santos Neto Quarteto. Hans has recorded in NYC. With Kendra Shank, Frank Kimbraugh, Jeff Johnson, Victor Lewis, Joe Locke, Billy Mintz, The Peck Allmond Quintet and trumpeter Todd Horton's "Whatsa". The last 2 1/2 years were spent on the road and in the studio with folk/funkster Ani Difranco culminating with a European tour opening for Maceo Parker and his band.
As one of the most highly in-demand trumpet players in Seattle, David Carter is always busy. He has played with Aiko Shimada, Sun City Girls, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Wayward Shamans, Tuatara, and Cedell Davis.

Craig Flory has played sax and clarinet with Tex Williams, Mudhoney, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Julian Priester, Wayne Horovitz, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), Peter Buck (REM), Evergreen Classic Jazz Band and Combo Craig.