It may be the ultimate irony that the complicated union of funk, gospel, jazz and rock that has helped to make Cassius Clay one of Chicago’s top-drawing local acts has ultimately proved to be its undoing.
Cassius Clay’s Saturday night Double Door show will be the group’s last: After over four years and dozens of sold-out shows, the band has fallen victim to what is traditionally termed Artistic Differences.
“I really don’t know how we didn’t kill each other before now,” says guitarist Scott Tallarida, who blames the difficulties involved in keeping afloat a band with seven members, three of whom write songs and all of whom come from disparate musical backgrounds.
Tallarida, like the other band members, stresses the amicable nature of the split.
“There was certainly no ill will or anything like that,” says saxophonist Josh Bell. “But this had always been a band that had been criticized for being sort of schizophrenic, and that came from everyone having so much input and no real leadership. There were some real questions about who the band was and where it was going. We all like each other so much, which is why we kept it together as long as we did.”
The members of Cassius Clay met while playing in different outfits at the now-defunct Avalon club back in the early 1990s. Give or take a drummer or two (most notably Matt Walker, who drummed with the band for a year before leaving for Filter and, ultimately, the Smashing Pumpkins), the band’s lineup has remained constant ever since, with all past and present members expected for the Double Door finale.
The members of Cassius Clay promise future collaborations as well: Tallarida, who plays the Metro with his new project Bomb Pop in March, is already working with singer Jayh Johnson on new material.
“This isn’t the end of our musical relationship, just this chapter of it,” he says. “In a way it’s scary, but everyone has always been busy (with other projects). It’s not like everyone pinned their hopes on Cassius Clay. There was never that youthful idea of, `We gotta make it! It’s all or nothing!’ “
The band, which released several records locally over the years, attracted attention from major labels back in 1996, although an inability on the part of label executives and band members to figure out just what Cassius Clay was, exactly, doomed any chance of national success.
“We were so off the beaten path no one really seemed to know where to put us,” says Tallarida. “Maybe we were just ahead of our time. I guess now we’ll never know.”
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Cassius Clay plays at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave. Call 773-489-3160 for more details.