Too Many Zooz bring their horns to Cleveland

Too Many Zooz are an almost undefinable mix of jazz, house, funk, EDM, and various other high-octane musical genres. They call themselves brass house music, which is as good of a label as any. Like many great artists, the label isn’t nearly as important as the chemistry that happens when these three performers are on stage. Made up of Leo Pellegrino on baritone sax, Matt Muirhead on trumpet and keys, and David Parks on percussion, Too Many Zooz focus on creating a high energy show focused on both their incredible musicianship and excellent showmanship.

The band played a high energy and extremely eclectic set at The Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on 3/31. Fresh off of their most recent release, Retail Therapy, they played a healthy dose of their newer style mixed in with the energetic and unorthodox music that first got them recognized. I was surprised that Leo’s pink hair, which had almost become a trademark in videos I had watched, was gone, replaced by a cowboy hat. He was the closest thing to a frontman that the band has, consistently moving and dancing around stage, doing spins and high kicks, while clearly enjoying showing off his sizeable “instrument.” Muirhead was more subdued in a dark jacket and hat, regularly moving between his trumpet and keys. Parks was in a loose fitting shirt with a ski mask over his head, with his shirt drenched in sweat by the end of the show. While Pellegrino is the showman and Muirhead is the one talking to the crowd between shows, it’s Parks that is clearly one of the hardest working men in music, laying down the high energy percussion with hardly a break throughout the night.

The last time I saw Too Many Zooz was in 2018, and their set was marked an EDM-style vibe, with Pellegrino and Muirhead extracting sounds from their horns that I never expected to hear. While there was some of that at the Beachland, the majority of the set was dominated by the smoother sound that the band seems to have developed. The energy was still there, and the band often played at a very fast pace, but they kept their instruments a little more “in the box” than I had heard before, with less squealing and high-pitched notes during their jams. They still were exciting and had all of the excellent dance rhythms needed to get the crowd moving, it just sounded a little more like what you would expect from the 3-piece setup rather than the completely unconventional sound that I heard the first time I saw the band. The growth in their sound honestly isn’t surprising, and I felt that it opened up a lot of opportunities for both Muirhead and Pellegrino to show off their chops.

What I was most surprised and pleased by at the show was the makeup of the crowd. I’m not sure if the show was sold out but the Ballroom was definitely packed, and the crowd was loudly showing their approval all night long. I anticipated a younger raver-esque crowd and, while those folks certainly turned out, there were folks of all ages and styles in the audience. Lots of jamband fans, plenty of parents with young kids, and certainly some buttoned-up older folks as well. I initially saw the band at Electric Forest and anticipated that type of vibe, but it was much more of a well-rounded night with folks simply looking to jam out to the music.

Overall, Too Many Zooz throw an excellent party while also clearly showing off their musical chops. They’re a band that goes out of their way not to fit neatly into any boxes. Their goal is to make you dance and enjoy yourself, which they absolutely achieved at their Cleveland show.