DeCara Quartet opens an eclectic musical bag

When the Joe DeCara Quartet performs at An Die Musik this weekend, audiences will find a refreshing, eclectic mix of jazz tunes and pop standards, with classical overtones thrown into the musical stew.

“I take the guitar and do anything I can do with it,” said DeCara, who picked up the instrument at the age of four and has never put it down. “I use different techniques so the audience doesn’t get bored.”

Easily done, since DeCara, a self-taught player with a good ear for picking out melodies, was inspired by the Beatles. That was followed by a period where he studied classical guitar, and finally, in the mid ’70s he teamed up with jazz greats, Lenny Breau and Ted Greene.

Along with his group, Mike Mathias on piano and bass, drummer Carl Ratcliffe, and Baltimore favorite, vocalist Aleta Greene, the quartet will deliver what DeCara calls “pop tunes in a jazz style, incorporated with classical technique.” The evening’s line-up will include the music of Eric Clapton, Sting and Bonnie Raitt. 

“It’s a modern format and most of what I do is improvisational,” DeCara continued.

That format appeals to the group’s featured solo performer, Aleta Greene. A native of Baltimore, her resume includes years of club appearances, voice-overs on commercials and appearances on Maryland Public Television and National Public Radio. Like Joe DeCara, she is eclectically drawn to musical forms such as folk, jazz, pop and blues.

“It’s just the way I was raised,” Greene said. “I listened to classical music, my mom liked jazz vocalists and my brother played woodwinds. This is a jazz town [and] there’s an expected [vocal] form. But I knew other things, it was natural for me and it worked out. It was different.”

Greene plans a medley to include Wizard of Oz standards “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and a soulful rendition of “If I Only Had a Brain.” 

In their first group appearance at An Die Musik, DeCara is confident of a successful crossover of contemporary standards presented in a jazz format.

“We’re putting some of Maryland’s best musicians out there for the public in a unique way,” he said.