Music ambassadors for the U.S., the Huntertones bring dynamic energy to Savannah Jazz Festival

After coming off of a two year pandemic hiatus, the Savannah Jazz Festival is finally returning to Forsyth Park for what could possibly be its biggest and most well attended event yet.

Returning to the festival and closing out Friday night is the New York-based instrumental band Huntertones, who have a knack for getting the party going wherever they play, all over the world.

The Huntertones were formed by horn players Dan White (saxophone), Jon Lampley (trumpet/sousaphone), and Chris Ott (trombone/beatbox) while they were student at Ohio State University. The rest of their current line-up includes Adam DeAscentis (bass), John Hubbell (drums), and Josh Hill (guitar).

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With an energetic and imaginative trio of horn players, Huntertones have grown their fanbase by traveling around the world as music ambassadors for the United States.

Since the 1960s, the state department has been sending great jazz musicians to work, collaborate, and present concerts in partnership with U.S. embassies all over the world. Participating artists have included Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Louis Armstrong, who famously posed in front of the Egyptian Pyramids, so Huntertones are in royal company.

“To be a part of that lineage and that program and to use music to connect with people, I think we found ourselves really well equipped to make those connections and speak directly to people—even when there was a language barrier—as an instrumental band,” said White. “I feel like the further we got from western culture the more profound and amazing experience we had.”

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Globetrotting to 20 different countries and collaborating with so many different cultures have shaped Huntertones into incredibly creative composers and dynamic musicians.

“I don’t think there’s anyway to have those experiences and have them not affect you,” said White. “We think of it as an exchange where we’re collaborating, we’re working with musicians as much as we can when we’re out there, and working with students, as well. To do that, we’ve learned about so much world music and specific styles and cultures that as a vacationer you would never get to do, but because we were performing and connecting with people you actually have an inside look at some of the really special things about what it is to be a human on this planet outside of national boundaries.”

Hunterones’ latest album is “Time to Play," which was produced by Late Show host Stephen Colbert’s current band leader Louis Cato (Huntertones’ Jon Lampley is currently a member of Grammy Award-winner and former Late Show band leader Jon Batiste’s Stay Human).

Recorded during the pandemic, “Time to Play” manages to capture the incredible live energy of the Huntertones.

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“[Cato] really pushed us to create in the moment and not to rely on technology to fix things later, but do it exactly like we do it live on stage, in the studio,” said White. “Because of that I feel like there’s a really great projection of what is special about this band. It’s chemistry, and it’s our sound, the way each of us hears the harmony, hears the intonation, hears and feels the beat. It’s different, but it’s also a celebration of those differences. The diversity of sounds and feels, it all comes together in the studio. It’s delicious.”

Huntertones have described their shows as social experiences where the energy of the audience is integral to their performances. There are opportunities in every Huntertones song for the band to improvise, and the audience’s reaction can drive the band into exciting directions.

“We don’t put on the same show for a different audience,” explained White. “When we are getting a vibe from an audience we throw it right back at them and it becomes a living breathing exchange during the concert. It’s hard to describe in words, but it’s music that lives in the moment in a really amazing way."

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To feed off that energy, there are risks involved with leaving sections open for improvisation. There are no guarantees of writing an absolute banger every time. Instead we love that sense of risk because without it sometimes you can’t reach certain heights of energy. We found that having that exchange and opportunities in the show is really rewarding and provides a deeper connection with our audiences, once they realize that we’re swinging for it and are authentically in the moment.”

Fans might be familiar with trombonist Chris Ott’s hilarious viral YouTube rendition of Darude’s dance classic “Sandstorm” as played on a tiny toy trumpet, so it begs the question of whether or not that will be a part of Huntertones’ setlist on Friday night.

“That’s a game time decision that we cannot reveal,” White said with a laugh.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA events: Savannah Jazz Festival presents the Huntertones