Night Watch by A-tet

It's a Thursday night in Washington DC. The city is alive with sounds from all quadrants but a small converted basement apartment in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest has been cultivating an artistic vision for years, with Thursday as their flagship night and A-tet as their house band. Formerly the A-Train Trio, A-tet has held the Thursday night spot as early as 2018. In 2021 when the world began opening back up, A-tet (a jazz quartet) has been performing weekly to enthusiastic audiences and, along with the phenomenal bar program, anchoring the flow of traffic at the basement speakeasy at 600 T St NW.

Bassist Alex Nowak has been the de facto band leader, even as he calls A-tet a "democracy", guiding with stoic optimism and deft instrumentalism the hand-assembled musicians and friends that make up A-tet. Nowak's right hand man, guitarist Rob Coleman has been a true partner-in-crime since their days at the University of Maryland under the tutelage of Chris Vadala. Drummer Lee Durham was part of the initial A-Train Trio with Nowak and Three Man Soul Machine's Frank Mitchell Jr and made the transition to A-tet as the opportunity presented itself. Rounding out the quartet is saxophonist Brendan Schnabel, a staple of the DC music scene and Richmond, VA prior, playing with the brassy Black Masala and funky Everyday Everybody among others.

As the Thursday residency started picking back up, A-tet made an effort to showcase and workshop their original music alongside classic and modern straight ahead, funk and hip hop interpretations, building their sets to simultaneously include and challenge the audience. A Soundcloud release of some of their favorite presentations came in early 2025 and this set is fully their original material, one tune penned by each member of the band. 'A Living Picture' starts out the player, composed by Coleman, and finds A-tet in Metheny-esque territory with a delightful melody that never feels stale. Solos from Coleman and Schnabel are of a high caliber and give way to an outro reminiscent of 70's funk. Next is Durham's 'Teal Blues', composed in honor of his wife's favorite color, it sits in a straight-eighths hip hop groove and conjures many colors with teal of course at the forefront. Nowak's 'Sunny Ocean' is third, reggae influenced in nature and laid all the way back. It is a contrafact on a well known standard but we'll let you figure out which. Lastly, 'Night Watch' is imagined by composer Schnabel as an anime theme, with surprising twists and asymmetrical chord patterns. The outro feels at times to be hitting on d&b turf but always keeping the listener guessing which way it will end up.

This is the literal tip of the iceberg of A-tet's compositional output as evidenced by their set lists each week which are constantly featuring rotating original music. More sessions are set for the future so be on the lookout for a long player soon and let these four tracks tide you over until then. And if you find yourself in the Shaw neighborhood of DC on a Thursday night, you know where to be.

Tracklist

1.	A Living Picture
2.	Teal Blues
3.	Sunny Ocean
4.	Night Watch	7:20

Credits

releases July 25, 2025

Rob Coleman - guitar
Lee Durham - drums
Alex Nowak - upright bass
Brendan Schnabel - tenor saxophone

Recorded March 27, 2024 at Growroom Studios, Hyattsville, MD
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Lee Durham

Art Direction by A-tet

A-tet would Ike to thank all the past and present 600 T staff, Steve, Torrence, Jordan, Mazan and Nour

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