Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

PREVIOUS SPREAD: SETH WOOD The first time they played together, it felt like “a religious experience,” Parks recalls. “The subway platform just stopped. Right after the first song, people asked, ‘What is that?’ They told us, ‘You guys are going to be famous; you’re going to tour all across the world.” Did Parks share that feeling? “All we knew was that it didn’t suck,” he says with a laugh. “We made money that day and we were going to do it again the next day. We were all play- ing in other bands. I’m a trained chef, and at the time, I was still cooking.” With Leo and Matt, he found the recipe for a robust musical stew the band calls brasshouse. What is brasshouse? Is it akin to what Louis Armstrong once said about jazz, that if you have to ask, you’ll never get it? “I wouldn’t go that far,” Parks says. “It’s not that deep. It’s not like we have a philosophy. It’s mainly for us. People always asked us about the style of music we were playing in the subway. One of the things we all agreed on as far as music we like is house music, so we decided to call our brand of music brasshouse.” In 2013, brass outfits Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Lucky Chops, and Under- ground Horns rocked New York’s sub- ways. They certainly impressed Parks, who says that he was unfamiliar with the term busking . “We called it hitting , or just going to play,” he says. Too Many Zooz—the name was given to the band by a friend of Leo’s who decided not to use it themselves for their own band—“happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Parks says. “The subways and streets offered platforms to be seen. They were a gateway to getting into clubs as well as a way to make money. You could get on YouTube. It was more of a showcase.” Things could get kind of weird down there. “It’s not that bad,” Parks insists. “Nothing too crazy. The weird- est thing I ever saw was a guy with a cabbage on a leash.” “100% pure adrenaline” was the tagline for the cult classic action film Point Break , and that’s a good descrip- tion for Too Many Zooz. The galvaniz- ing and colorfully coiffed Leo P moves like Leo P while playing the sax. As for Parks on bass drum, he thrives on the subway/street energy. “For me, there’s a vibe just going out and being able to play to everyday people,” he says. “I have a space I’m trying to occupy. My goal is to supply endless rhythm and get people to dance. Within that, I’m communicating to the other two guys.” It’s the conversation that drives the band and makes each show unique, Parks says. “My whole thing is making sure we’re happy playing together,” he says. “If we’re communicating and having fun, I don’t have to worry about the audience. We know when we’re hitting it. We know that’s where it’s at.” Too Many Zooz got an early boost from Questlove, who followed them on social media and tweeted a video of them in performance. They ap- peared on Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lem- onade and appeared with her and the Chicks (the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) on the CMAs. Watching how an artist at Beyon- cé’s level creates provided “so many lessons,” Parks says: “Mainly, never get too big that you don’t have your ear to the ground. This amazing artist could choose from any instrumentalists in the world, but she or her people had their ears to the ground, saw us, and recognized out talent. That was the amazing part. She has that kind of vision.” The group has recorded several EPs, including one of some surprising covers (“I Like It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys), as well as a full- length album, 2016’s Subway Gawdz . It’s slowly starting to dawn on the group that they are approaching their 10th anniversary. “We’ve recently started a documentary to tell our story in our own words,” Parks says. “The fact that we were three people who didn’t know each other and have put together an organization is over- whelming to think about.” But Too Many Zooz have not forgotten their roots. Parks reports that they played on the streets as re- cently as two weeks ago. “We’ve never stopped playing the streets,” he says. Ravinia audiences can expect Too Many Zooz to bring their street smarts to the Carousel Stage on September 9, where they will be joined by sax prodigy Grace Kelly, who frequently collaborates with Leo P as 2Saxy. “We’re in the process of recording our next album,” Parks says. “This series of shows we’re doing, we’re displaying our more open-ending brasshouse things. We’ll be playing more like we would in the street, a lot more spontaneous.” Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based entertainment writer. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune , Chicago Sun-Times , Los Angeles Times , and on RogerEbert.com. The first Ravinia concert he attended without his parents was Procol Harum in 1970. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 8