Photo courtesy of Birth

Birth, an avant-garde jazz trio, fuses both funk and electronica to form a new musical style. The group performs at the Mat Bevel Institute, 530 N. Stone Ave., tomorrow night at 8.

Whoever deems men incapable of giving birth has quite possibly been proven wrong.

Three male musicians from the Cleveland area - saxophonist Joshua Smith, bass player Jeremy Bleich and percussionist Joe Tomino -recently gave birth to a new form of jazz, fusing funk and electronica music.

"A few years ago I was playing primarily a variety of either straight-ahead jazz or avant-garde jazz," Smith said. "I was really inspired by the rhythms of jungle and drum-and-bass music, and wanted to translate that into a live setting where I could play along in an improvised context with the kind of spastic beats that happen in electronic music."

Smith added his motivation to begin Birth also stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the passive audiences of straight-ahead jazz, as well as the general notion of jazz being merely background music.

"I decided that I wanted to put a group together (that was) much more aggressive and current - in a stylistic sense - than the straight-ahead jazz that I was playing at the time," he said.

Smith added that he met the band's current drummer, Tomino, when he filled in for another drummer at one of the band's bar gigs about five years ago. He said he knew bassist Bleich since his pre-professional days on the jazz team in Cleveland.

He added Tomino's technical proficiency made him a definite prospect for the band's drummer position.

"(Tomino) is very proficient technically and one of the few guys I knew who could play the manic and creative beats that come out of jungle music," Smith said.

He added that the group plays all instrumental music - no vocals - and has been influenced by a variety of jazz and electronic musicians, though none are really mainstream.

He said the group's initial influences were saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed, while more recent influences include less-known electronica artists such as Lexaun Culpt. He added the group focuses on a lot of improvisation and "deconstructing" of their music - even after it has been recorded.

"Unlike a more mainstream model of promoting an album through performing, we like to go and deconstruct the material," Smith said. "We record at a point when (the) music is very solid (and) then we go on the road and try to subvert and change different elements of the material while still keeping (the) core melody line together."

He went on to say the group member's familiarity with each other aids in their improvisational creativity.

"(We) know each other as musicians really well (and are) able to rearrange a piece in some ways very spontaneously," he added. "Sometimes we'll just completely change the way the piece is structured - I think it adds a lot for the audience."

Smith said audiences are diverse in that their knowledge of Birth's music varies with each location the band plays.

"Generally (our) audience has to have the prerequisite of being open-minded," he said.

He added that the band just played its first concert on its current tour Saturday night in Santa Fe and that it received a great response.

"We'll be on the road for about two and a half weeks, hitting a few places in the Southwest and then (heading) up the coast," Smith said. "It is really exciting because we get to see (a) really beautiful part of the country that we have never toured in before - (it is) exciting to play for new audiences."

For those interested in becoming more familiar with the music of Birth, the group's first - self-titled - CD is out now, and a second CD is due out in February.

Birth plays the Mat Bevel Institute, 530 N. Stone Ave., tomorrow night at 8. Tickets are available at discounted advance rates at CD Depot, 1712 E. Speedway and Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave. Tickets at the door are $10. For more information call 882-7154.