Art Deco Quartet plays at Max’s Place Tuesday

The smell of pizza filled the air as The Art Deco Quartet took the stage with special guest and tenor saxophone player Alex Beltran on Tuesday evening at Max’s Place. The band was led by trumpet and flugelhorn player David Miller as they performed a variety of cover compositions and original music.\n“I write a lot of the original compositions, but we do a lot of music by other composers, a lot of music by Ornette Coleman,” said Miller.\nMiller has been performing on and off with acoustic bass player Steve Johnson for 47 years and with the band since last August, \nMiller said.\n“Ornette Coleman had a jazz group in the late ’50s and the early ’60s that pioneered this kind of pianoist combination of saxophone, trumpet, bass and drums,” said Miller. “So really we’re trying to play in the vein \nof that.”\nGuest tenor saxophone player Alex Beltran, a recent graduate of the Jacobs School of Music, said he has been playing the saxophone for six years and has performed with The Art Deco Quartet \nseveral times. \n“Anyone who has an original voice inspires me, anyone who is not being fake and is being themselves. Everyone inspires me in that sense,” said Beltran.\nBill Hubbs, a customer of Max’s Place, described the evening as “food meets entertainment” and enjoyed that the band played mid-week and earlier in the evening during dinner hours. \nMax’s Place server Katrina Perry also enjoyed the music of The Art Deco Quartet.\n“They are one of the most passionate (perfromances) that we have here. They really put their heart into it,” said Perry. \nThe restaurant features a variety of music for its customers on a nightly basis. \n“We do bluegrass, folk music, hip-hop, rock and reggae, pretty much a little bit of everything. Anyone who wants to play here can. I’ve seen everything form hip-hop to good old boys with a banjo and a washboard,” said Perry.\nAs the restaurant began to close, the performance became more of a rehearsal for the band. They closed out the evening with their calypso rendition of “Ghosts” by Albert Ayler.