RetroPotential
RetroPotential is a jazz trio based in the Seattle area. The members of the group are Melynda Poplin, doubling on clarinet and voice, Bret Smith on banjo and Curtis Peacock on tuba. The instruments used in this jazz trio are three of the first instruments to be used in the history of jazz. The tuba and banjo were the second line or rhythm section of the earliest Dixieland jazz bands and the clarinet was one of the front-line instruments. Early blues bands also had a similar instrumentation. RetroPotential pays tribute to and preserves these styles by performing songs and tunes that those early bands would have played in an early jazz or blues style. They also take this early style into the future by performing music from subsequent eras of jazz on these early jazz instruments. This trio performs not only early jazz and blues standards but also swing, bebop, cool, funky, and jazz-rock standards as well as original compositions and third stream arrangements. This is what is called the neo-classical approach to jazz. By taking this approach, RetroPotential looks to the past for the inspiration to create new expressions in the jazz idiom. Curtis Peacock is Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium and Bret Smith is Assistant Professor of Music Education at Central Washington University. Melynda Poplin is a recent graduate of Central with a bachelor’s degree in Clarinet Performance. She teaches band at the Ellensburg Christian School.