Kevin Robert Martinez‘s Reclamation Band released a recording in 2023 called These Roads, but since that time, the road is a place you’d have been hard pressed to find them. This summer, though, the sextet returns to the stage, including two concerts this weekend, and Martinez couldn’t be happier.
“Last year we only played three or four times,” he said. “So my New Year’s resolution this year was that I need to book more It was a combination of the response we got from the crowd and the strong encouragement I keep getting from the people in my band. They keep telling me that they love playing the shows and they want to play more. So we have a lot of shows this year, I think close to 10.”
It’s not like the bassist has been in his basement playing videogames these last two years, but much of his work has been out of the public’s sight. It has been heard, though, and by big audiences. He has contributed arrangements for the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Divergent Sounds series and last summer wrote some lovely charts for a chamber ensemble that accompanied Anthony Taddeo’s Alla Boara band that was recorded for future release (you can watch a video here).
But Reclamation holds a special place in Martinez’s heart. When the band convened in 2015, it was a chordless quintet with a three-horn front line (Chris Coles, alto saxophone; Tim McDonald on tenor and Tony Spicer’s bass clarinet) and Anthony Taddeo on drums.
That lineup offered a rich palette for Martinez’s ear for instrumental color. But it was the addition of Dan Bruce’s guitar that gave the band its instantly recognizable sound. I grew up with guitars around my house,” Martinez said. “If I wrote a symphony about my life, there would have to be some sort of guitar element in it”
The sextet lineup of the Reclamation Band has, as Martinez describes it, “a sense of like a place, like a rural kind of a place, but also just a sense of melodicism.” Martinez grew up in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and you can almost smell the pine sap and follow the flight of hawks in his soaring melodies and expansive harmonies.
Yet Chicago, where Martinez studied and lived for a time, was an equal, and not incompatible influence. “I think a lot of what makes up the Chicago identity is people from the Midwest. Even the out music in Chicago has impeccable phrasing and space, and I feel like that is, in a general sense, what I try to portray for sure.”
Martinez is quick to acknowledge the contributions of his bandmates in giving life to his musical conception. “Chris is soulful, man. I think Chris might be the soul of the band in a way,” he said of Coles. “Chris and Anthony were in the first iteration of the band. So those two are really the backbone.”
While These Roads was a showcase for Martinez’s compositions, the 2025 performances will introduce new material, including some by other band members, that will hopefully be recorded soon. “There’s multiple tunes by them that we’ve played that are sitting on deck,” he said. So, I think I’m about two-thirds of the way to having the material for another record.”
Whenever that recording is released expect it to reveal a variety of moods and approaches. “I like having solos over a form. I like having composed material and I like having improv,” Martinez said. “We’ve all learned over the last few gigs just how to corral that in a live setting and go more places.” Martinez celebrated his 42nd birthday yesterday, and looking back, he feels like he has achieved a measure of mastery. “I think I’m finally getting good at this,” he said. “And I think a lot of that has nothing to do with how you play but how you feel about yourself. So yeah, I think I’m finally in a place where I feel like I’m good.”
Reclamation Band, Friday, July 18, 7 p.m., The Jenks, 1884 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls and Saturday, July 19, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Tickets $20, available here.
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
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