By Mackenzie Burn
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
At first Ebban and Ephraim Dorsey were fans in the crowd, swinging to the jazz of Baltimore saxophonist Sam King at the Caton Castle, a jazz club in Baltimore. Then King called them up to perform solos. They’d only practiced for a few months at Carl Grubbs saxophone camp in Baltimore.
But the brother and sister, then 10 years old, took the stage for the first time.
Adrenaline pumped through their veins as they were finally able to show off what they practiced on the saxophone. Ephraim went first, nervous but excited. “Whenever I was playing this instrument, I never felt stage fright. It always came naturally to me,” Ephraim recalled.
His sister Ebban felt the tension loosen as she watched her brother and realized she was part of a team. Ebban says watching the professionals versus having them invite you on stage are totally different experiences. The experience seven years ago was transformative.
The invitation to come on stage brought them in as the next generation of jazz musicians. “It was their way of saying ‘Hey, we believe in you,’” Ebban said. “You watch these professionals be technically profound on stage, you see them having a conversation, but they were sharing this experience with us. At the time . . . we didn’t have all the right words to communicate with them.”
Today the brother and sister duo is in demand all around the jazz clubs of Baltimore.
They grew up in Turner Station in Baltimore County in a house that was always filled with music. Their dad played the trumpet and their mom sang. Their parents kept a rack of CDs in a multitude of genres from gospel to rap. Their days were typical of other children. But when they played video games, they paid the most attention to the soundtrack of the games.
“Whether we were getting home from school or waking up on Sunday morning to loud gospel music– music was heard all of the time, Ephraim and I took everything in,” said Ebban.
Carl Grubbs taught their older sister during her high school years. Ebban and Ephraim’s mother asked around for instructors who would involve the children with their instruments. Grubbs invited them to his camp.
With practice and consistency, the brother and sister have developed a whole dictionary of notes and remarks; their instruments became their voices.
Ephraim currently attends the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, a music and dance conservatory where he met pianist Hannah Mayer, bassist Aidan Taylor, and drummer Koleby Royston. Ebban attends the Baltimore School for the Arts, her brother’s Alma Mater. She finds time to rehearse and meet up with the band whenever she can.
Ephraim currently focuses on Black American music at the conservatory and takes private lessons. Most of the time he practices solos from the greats like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. “I try to understand what they feel like to me and how to make it unique and authentic to my own sound.”
When Ebban practices, she sets aside two hours, which turns to five when she gets taken over by the music. “There is no such thing as too much time spent practicing something you’re this passionate about,” Ebban said. “It’s hard to gauge how much time has passed.”
As the music is mostly improvisational, the rehearsals with the entire band
focus on running over a few songs and figuring out where to start and where to finish. The in-between depends on the atmosphere of the night and the exchange between band members. “There’s no way of telling how it’s going to go,” said Ephraim. One of their favorite songs for improvising with their band is “Passion Dance” by Joe Henderson. “The song played live is never going to be like the original recording,” says Ebban.
For the siblings, improvising means there is room within the musical structure that allows leeway within how it’s played.
The ability to improvise smoothly is partly due to their familiarity on and off stage. They hang out regularly and spend time together at school. Ebban said it’s important to know who you’re playing with because it’s easier to pick up on any tone changes or shifts in their playing, much like how a conversation goes.
Their stage name at the Keystone Korner is, “Sweet Return” after the song by Freddie Hubbard. Todd Barkan, owner of the Keystone, came up with the name after hearing them perform; he has asked them back to his stage multiple times.
At the Keystone Korner on a recent evening, the candle lighting and low ceilings of the bar and dining room create an evening atmosphere perfect for listening to jazz. The sounds ricochet off the walls and can be heard by people passing by, inviting them in. The crowds sit at tables or around the stage and facing the band as the jazz notes beat from wall to wall.
The band enjoys interacting with the audience by doing call and response. Audience members feel like they are a part of the band as Ephraim leads them through song and scats, “When I say ‘sco-do-dat-dat’, you say ‘bap-bap-bidap’” and the audience responds directly on beat with the music.
Listening to them perform and improv could be related to someone finishing your thought before you’ve had the words to get out what you were thinking. I couldn’t tell where the sounds were going but when I heard them it just made sense. It was relaxing and exhilarating all at once.
Performing is about sharing their language of jazz with the audience, explained Ephraim. His favorite part about performing, he said, is “creating a space for all who enter to leave their worries- or even bring the worries inside and give them the confidence and hope to combat those worries.”