Chesterfield swing
Joey Coloroso pays tribute to a sick friend and a favorite band
Thirteen years after its breakup, Jawbreaker remains one of the most loved punk bands of the ’90s. So it’s no surprise that there are a few Jawbreaker covers around—including Lucero’s rootsy take on “Kiss The Bottle”—and even a tribute band, the Colorado-tied Jawfaker. One Denver musician, however, has taken Jawbreaker worship to a previously unimagined level. Jazz-trained multi-instrumentalist Joey Coloroso has combined his mutual love of swing and punk to create Jazzbreaker, a self-styled “big-band tribute to Jawbreaker.”
According to Coloroso, “I started doing Jazzbreaker because I was in my car listening to [the Jawbreaker song] ‘Want,’ and I noticed what a swinging bassline it had. I got a bug in my ass and recorded it.” Undaunted by the inherent oddness of the idea, he then played his radical overhaul of Jawbreaker for some friends. “I thought I would just let a couple people get a chuckle from it,” he explains. “The response has been pretty good, though. I admit it’s a weird amalgamation of genres, but somehow it sounds all right.”
For now, the project remains a one-man operation. Coloroso’s self-titled Jazzbreaker CD—which he’s constantly expanding as he translates more scratchy, doom-laden Jawbreaker anthems into swingin’ affairs—was recorded in his apartment, with every instrument played by him. But he hopes to gather a full band by May, when he’s planning to play a benefit show for his friend Mike Freeman, the cancer-battling frontman of longtime local rockers Gina Go Faster. Says Coloroso, “Pretty much this is a horsing-around way to pay tribute to one of my favorite bands while helping Mikey out.”
Copies of Coloroso’s Jazzbreaker CD—as well as his official “Jazzbreaker: Fuck Cancer” t-shirts, which he designed—are for sale at his website. Proceeds go to Freeman’s ongoing fundraising effort, the details of which can be found at mikesupport.com. And if you live in Denver, play horns, and love Jawbreaker, Coloroso might just have a job for you.
