By K. Michelle Moran
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Put a civil engineer, a human resources representative, a research chemist/psychotherapist and a music therapy student together, and you might not expect to wind up with an acoustic quartet.
But the members of Work in Progress — percussionist and guitarist Eddie Zmich and vocalist Joan Denis of St. Clair Shores, guitarist and vocalist Charlie Tazzia of Grosse Pointe Farms and Troy native Angela Dunning on violin, respectively — are proving to be more than the sum of their day jobs — and having fun doing it.
That joy is evident on “Back to the Roots,” a live CD and the band’s recently completed debut album. A 15-song collection of primarily original material, “Back to the Roots” ranges from the whimsy of “Detroit Freeway Blues” to the timely (and timeless) call for religious tolerance in “Outbreak of Peace.”
Work in Progress can trace its origins to a church recording project in May 2000 that brought Denis, Dunning and Tazzia together.
“[We] just had unspeakable fun,” Tazzia recalled. “Following that, I said I need to get more of this, so I started having these music parties at my house, and inviting different people who were involved [in music] to kind of see what the level of interest was.”
Denis and Dunning seemed to be the most enthusiastic, and so the three began collaborating. Within months, Dunning’s cousin Zmich was recruited, and the core of the band was established.
“I think we all have a mutual respect for what each person brings to the group, and knowing that Work in Progress is not Work in Progress without the percussion or without the violin or without Charlie’s songwriting,” Denis said. “All of those components are important to it being successful, or it being different from your average band.”
And indeed, the members of Work in Progress, who range in age from 21 to 39, come at the music from diverse vantage points. The classically-trained Dunning leads a professional string quartet and plays with the Eastern Michigan University Symphony Orchestra, which may come as a surprise to those who know her from her first band — a punk group the 21-year-old played with in high school. Zmich, a multi-instrumentalist like Dunning, also performs with the Christian group Ray LeMay and Joy. Denis, a mezzo-soprano who comes from a musical family, has sung at weddings and other settings. And the self-taught Tazzia, in a band for the first time, is finding performing and recording “the most fun [I’ve] ever had.”
Although the members of Work in Progress met as church musicians and a number of their songs contain religious references, the band insists it’s not a Christian folk group.
“We try to do music that we feel really strongly about, and we try to do music that’s positive, but not preachy,” Tazzia said.
Adding to the mix are the guest musicians who show up on record or at concerts, including cello and keyboard players.
“When the other instruments join us, it’s just an incredibly cool experience because, as I’m writing these [songs], I can hear other instruments in my head … You bring [in] those other people, and it’s like the whole thing becomes a lot more organic,” Tazzia explained. “The song becomes like this living thing.”
Flexibility and openness have helped the band craft songs and land gigs from private parties and coffeehouses to festivals.
“I think the thing that keeps us together, or keeps it fruitful, is the fact that we all love a variety of different musical styles,” Denis said. “And so, because we’re not pigeonholed into classical or pop or punk — we like it all — it’s never an issue as far as finding a new song or being open or receptive to people bringing new songs forward.”
That, and mutual friendship, are what keep Work in Progress working, say the bandmates.
“I think the more times that we play, or the longer we play together, our songs just get that much more polished, and we get that much more comfortable onstage playing them,” Zmich said. “We keep branching out into different styles of music … [and] trying new things, and I don’t think there’s any limits to that, really.”
Catch the band
Work in Progress will
be performing live shows at 9 p.m. July 19 at Foran’s Irish Pub, 612 Woodward
in downtown Detroit, and at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 8 at the Arts and Apples Festival
in Rochester. The band’s debut CD, “Back to the Roots,” can be purchased by
sending a check (payable to Joan Denis) for $17 (which includes $2 for
shipping) to: Work in Progress, P.O. Box 36884, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236.
For more on the band, visit the Work in Progress Web site (slated to start
running as of this week) at http://worknprogress.tripod.com/.