Craig Zavett
Sonic Playground
The AKA Lounge / Orlando, FL / February 6, 2008
Craig Zavett is a captivating performer. His lively one-man stage show not only features his talents as a singer/songwriter, but also showcases his campy humor and dynamic personality as he interacts with the audience. Talking about one of his songs, he says, “What the hell did I just write?” and then he answers himself, “My assumption of what it’s about is my favorite pastime. Yeah, about Scrabble.” Fibber. The last song of his set was an improvisational instrumental. One by one he called each member of the next band out on stage to join him. When the song was done, he left Sonic Playground (in rock-jazz “space circus” format tonight) onstage to carry on with its set.
This show was the band’s chance to show off some of its own compositions as well as its musical interpretation of many well-known composers such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Rush. Usually a three-piece band with Chad Kulscar (bass), Reed Hayes (drums and percussion) and Sean Ghannam (guitar and guitar synth), the group has recently added Brian Giarraffa (keyboards and piano). The set list was short, allowing for the extended tracks, lengthy improvisations and complex time signatures common in the all-instrumental works the band had chosen to play. The band started off with one of its better-known songs “Seahorses” from an upcoming CD. The group also played original compositions “Green Tea” and “New Frontier.” The cover of Chick Corea’s “Spain” was a highlight of the set, giving each band member an opportunity to demonstrate his technical prowess to anyone unfamiliar with the band’s own arrangements. Sonic Playground may draw a larger audience with it’s cover shows, but Space Circus is where the band truly shows off what talented musicians they are with their own compositions.
-Review & photo by Kat Coffin

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