As with any working musician worth their weight, you may find Brad Conant leading his band, The Cape Connection, from behind his kit at the back of the Jazz & Arts Festival stage at Wequassett surrounded by 7 other musicians wielding strings & horns, pounding on the keys, and belting out dancefloor faves at top volume … or maybe playing with Josh Ayala on smaller kit squeezed against the long side of a hay wagon at Block & Tackle in Wellfleet. If you’re a Funtapuss fan, you’ve seen him split by the stairs at the Chatham Squire behind the bar, lighting it up with the latest iteration of the long-famed local band. The first time we ran into him he was jogging back from his car with a djembe under his arm to sit in with his friend (and Cape Connection bandmate) Natalia Bonfini on a frigid March night at Mean Burgers in Wellfleet.
He pulled up a chair at the front of the dining room and they found their way through Natalia’s take on the Backstreet banger No Diggity in front of a … modest Thursday night, post-Prime Rib crowd in the off-season. After sitting at a table with new and old friends putting away an adult cocktail with some dedicated drinkers, he was roused into action and split for the drum stashed in the auto. Brad was wide smiles the whole night, what a charmer. Freeze that frame.
The Winter of His Incubation
On its face, The Cape Connection is a straight up event band. Wedding, yes. Reunion, yes. Any kind of dance party, yes. It’s a modular assembly of the performers Brad declares “the best musicians on Cape Cod.” Some events or venues or pursestrings can only accommodate 4 musicians, or 6, or just a duo. That’s all well and good by the Cape Connection, they’ll find the right fit and be sure it swings. Their mantra, besides keeping the people on the floor moving, is to keep the bookings for Cape Cod events with the musicians on Cape Cod.
We caught them at their 2nd show in full assembly - the Jazz & Arts Festival at Wequassett, mid-August: Brad on drums, Natalia on vocals with Brandon Cordeiro, Rafael Caires on guitar (known to go full Hendrix picking the strings with his teeth), Pat McDonough playing bass, Danny Cordeiro on keys, Ryder Corey on Saxophone, and Jay Souweine blasting Trumpet.
It wasn’t Cannonball Adderley but it was hoppin in a whole other direction. “From the downbeat it happened, the crowd was electric” Brad was thrilled. “We bring the party. You have an event and need some music to get people excited, to turn the crowd up without having to force it. This is our job, we’re a high energy dance band, there’s no two ways about it. Our set list is built this way.”
Not falling into the populous category of Cape Cod singer-songwriter, Brad was happy to be the side-guy, creeping on two decades as the drummer back there keeping the beat, playing as loud as they let him, doing his best to get people to move on the dancefloor or whatever flat surface was underfoot. His goal was always to make a living as a musician, to flip the switch and be a chameleon, and that’s means playing jazz, country, African pop, blues, orchestra, weddings, festivals … what dya got? He’ll be there early to set up.
It was not in his grand design to become a bandleader but when white space calls … Brad spotted the gap in the market: the Cape has a massive wedding and overall gathering/party industry and he was seeing so many of those bookings go to specialized bands over the bridge (sometimes over several bridges) scooping those events up. So he spent a lot of his downtime last winter putting the bones of this endeavor together to unveil in-season. And it’s working.
But he’s got bigger plans than that - he doesn’t want The Cape Connection to be relegated to private events and parties - he wants to turn the venue into a dancetorium. He wants people to come to the floor and stay there, and he’s worked out the right system to keepem where they boogie.
Strictly for the Audience; We Don’t Matter
“I wanted to see if I could put together a high production value band that wasn’t about musical enrichment, it’s about a rippin dance party”
Brad came up in the big band environment, he was in high school Jazz Band - he learned and understands the Buddy Rich style of things with horns and volume and high energy. He also lines up with Buddy Rich’s idea of the drummer being the QB of the band and neither of them played for anybody but the audience.
Watching Conant guide the band from his stool can be a show by itself. Sometimes he’ll put down the sticks and thump on the bass pedal while he takes drink, sometimes he’ll jump in after a medley of tunes and keep people on the floor while the band re-settles for the next round but what he can be seen doing most often muttering into his microphone while the vocalists are pulling it down from the rafters or the horn players are dueling it out - maybe on the dancefloor with the crowd.
Brad’s using a talk-back system, which he triggers with a pedal by his foot. Click, he’s talking to the crowd, “give it up for Rafael!” then Click he’s back in the bass players ear talking him through a transition that’s coming up. Or he’s counting off for the keyboardist. If you’re not paying attention, it’s more or less invisible but, after hearing the band play at speed and volume for a whole set, it’s clear that it’s an essential part of how tight the band is as the night goes by. That’s the high production value that he challenged himself to capture.
But all the tech available wouldn’t allow him to run the ship the way it runs. So it must be rehearsals right? It must be simple to get 8 of the Cape’s best musicians together to run through Drunk In Love ad nauseum, right?
Hahhdly - and this is where his production mind shines like so many speckled sunlight off the waves. Brad will take the set list of songs (Love Shack, Respect, Pink Pony Club …), edit them down how he wants the band to perform them, and then record a track of his own VO over the song talking the players through the changes, the transitions, the areas open for playing around etc. So when he’s on stage and talking to his team, not only are they familiar with the voice in their ear adjusting the row of the oar, they’ve already most likely heard whatever he’s going to say. Production value.
But do you know who loves that? The audience. They aren’t left wrong footed for a second - Brad’s arranged his tracks in clusters to flow as cleanly as he hears them: Dancin In The Moonlight gives way to Brown Eyed Girl and nobody is going anywhere - except to maybe grab somebody and pull them to the floor too.
And you know who else loves take-home recordings and a gentle voice in your ear? The musicians! They’re good, they’re in demand, they’re obscenely busy and need to be smart with their time. So, instead of holding off for 8 performers to find a window of time to drive from wherever to therever and spend 3 hours working everything out together, they can learn the tunes (which, come on, everybody knows from some nostalgia trunk closer or farther back in the recesses), rehearse the notes, and on the spot they trust their command of craft and Jiminy Cricket in their ear helping them find the right spot.
“Always avoid dead air on the dancefloor - it can kill everything.”
When you see a room full of people who didn’t show up together dancing like their cousin just got married and they’re all best friends, something is going the right way and, from the look of the first couple shows, that’s exactly how it’s going.
A People Pleaser on Drums
Conant attributes his background to the crowd-centric approach he takes. Not a tortured artist who learned to drum by the firelight of the oil drums, Brad’s Brewster born and raised, Berkeley bred, and, after a 10 year stint over the bridge, he’s a family man in Yarmouthport. He knew he was going to play drums since he turned teen so that desire crossed with runs waiting tables, spending time as a CNA, and also as a teacher to put a clear focus on wanting to see happiness in other people’s faces.
Which doesn’t preclude his bandmates from the same treatment - he’s putting in the time to build this band, master the process of organizing the personalities, to find efficiencies to polished production, and that’s all so he can not only make his living and give his lady and young son (Bowman James) a good life but so he can offer these gigs to his friends and to the talent he’s surrounded by out here. That reads to be as much a priority to him as making sure the Mr Brightside encore starts and ends on the right beat.
If you’re in Hyannis at the end of September, stop into the Love Live Local Festival in Aselton Park. The Cape Connection’s full band is there from 3-5p.
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