Blending jazz, acoustic folk, world music, Celtic and gypsy jazz, the band Taarka is hard to pigeonhole, which is both a curse and a blessing.
“A lot of the misconceptions people have about us is our own doing, because we don’t know what we’re doing,” mandolinist/tenor guitarist and vocalist David Tiller joked during a phone call from Ft. Collins, Colo. “We have a lot of different influences, because we liked all kinds of music.
“People write about us and say we’re a jazz band, and then we show up for a radio show and everyone is expecting jazz and we’re folk or Celtic,” he said. “We’re always changing, and the thing we do know is it will continue to change, but we don’t know which way we’ll go.”
However, being that musically flexible helps the band keep up its chops, Tiller said.
“Having a creative moment gives you a feeling of excitement that is hard to explain,” he said. “You’re giddy for a day and sometimes a week.
“Also, we find we write music because we’re continually trying to teach ourselves something or incorporate something we have learned on a deeper level,” he said. “Plus, a song holds surprises. When we write something we don’t know the emotional impact it piece will have. While we are gearing up for it, it’s hard to preconceive the value a piece will have until it’s played for people.”
The love of music was instilled in Tiller and his wife, five-string violinist Enion Pelta-Tiller, when they were babies.
“Our fathers played music,” Tiller said. “My dad played guitar and was a drummer in a jazz band. He was passionate about music and paid his way through college playing music, when that was possible. Unfortunately, salaries haven’t changed that much for musicians since the ’50s. It’s funny but it’s true.”
Petla-Tiller’s father was a jazz guitarist and her mom played flute.
“While she was being born, her dad put on some Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli,” Tiller said. “Her parents put a violin in her hands when she was three and she went on to study classical music. The next thing they knew was she ended up in a youth orchestra in San Francisco that played symphonic arrangements of Grateful Dead music back in the mid-1990s.”
When he was eight years old, Tiller fell in love with the guitar.
“Growing up in Virginia, I played a lot of bluegrass, Celtic music and jazz until I was 18, when I had an emotional meltdown and tried to quit playing,” he said. “Then a friend left his mandolin at my house.”
The mandolin helped Tiller rediscover the guitar from a different perspective.
“I started tuning my guitars like mandolins,” he said.
At the same time, he started getting into gypsy music after seeing the Tony Gatlif’s 1993 documentary film “Latcho Drom.”
Tiller and his wife-to-be met in New York while playing in the band Brooklyn Bluegrass, fronted by banjoist Phillip Roebuck.
Roebuck discovered Tiller busking in the New York Subway.
“He asked me to come jam with him and then a couple of weeks later, he brought in Enion, who was also playing in the subway,” Tiller said.
The two hit it off and found themselves slowly breaking away from the band.
“We wanted to write more music together, and we also became romantically involved,” Tiller said.
The duo moved to Colorado after the 9/11 attacks, and eventually added bassist Troy Robey and percussionists Ben Blecham and Dale Largent to round out the lineup.
“We are fortunate to be able to make a living playing music,” Tiller said. “It still is difficult, but we found there is no other way we could make a living.”
Taarka will play its eclectic style of music at the Spur Bar and Grill, 350 Main Street, on Thursday, March 3, at 9:30 p.m. For more information visit www.thespurbarandgrill.com .