High school seniors often get asked about their plans. That’s probably why Jake Kulak, a guitarist and Glastonbury native who attends Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, wasn’t surprised when I brought it up.
“I only applied to two schools: Belmont University in Nashville and Berklee College of Music in Boston, and I decided to go to Berklee,” Kulak says. “I’m really, really excited about that, just to be in a place where there are so many incredible musicians, to start new projects.”
Kulak isn’t your usual senior. He’ll spend at least one upcoming Saturday (April 28) on the Bandshell Stage in Hubbard Park at the Meriden Daffodil Festival with his band, the Lowdown, playing blues-based rock in the warm sun (hopefully).
Over the weekend at Hubbard Park, Kulak and the Lowdown join more than 30 other Connecticut bands and musicians on three different stages.
Saturday acts include the Buttondowns, Kerri Powers, Ana Popovic, the Rich Badowski Band, Dis-N-Dat, Frank Critelli, RYXNO, No Line North, Baby Dynamite, Jason Ingriselli, the Mighty Soul Drivers, Chico and Friends, the Gonkus Brothers, River City Slim and the Zydeco Hogs, the Kathy Thompson Band, Mariachi Mexico Antiguo and the Rivergods.
On Sunday, head to Hubbard for Farewood, the Bootleg Band, On the Serious Side, Kal David, Lauri Bono and the Real Deal, Elegant Primates, Oberon Rose, Black Heart Tango, Fustercluck, Karma, Red Hots, Podunk Throwbacks, Last Train Out, George Morgio and Small Town Gamblers. The complete music schedule is up at daffodilfest.com.
On stage, Kulak wears his instrument, a Gibson semi-hollowbody electric, high on his chest. He sings — songs that are often decades older than him — in a mid-register, serviceable voice. Then he leans back and digs in, churning out smart, articulate, overdriven lines. It’s what he lives for.
“I started out self-taught and my dad knew the basics,” Kulak says. “I just picked it up and I could not stop playing it.”
At 11, Kulak’s parents bought him a short-scale Fender electric. They held off on getting him lessons “until they knew I was into it,” Kulak says. (He was.)
Eventually, Kulak found his way to teacher Frank Varela, a local guitar guru with a deep love of jazz and fusion. “He introduced me to George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Larry Coryell, guys that I now listen to all the time,” Kulak says.
Varela invited Kulak to sit in with him at a live show. “That kicked off my love of performing,” Kulak says.
From the beginning, Kulak made music mostly with adults. From 11 to 13, he couldn’t find anyone his age with advanced chops.
“It’s been something I’ve been dealing with since I started playing music,” Kulak says. “Even now, I’ve found it’s very difficult to find high-caliber young musicians. I’ve met some musicians that are my age and a little bit older that are incredible players, but they’re not necessarily playing my style of music.”
At 13, Kulak met Manchester drummer Jeremy Peck and Anthony Dailey, a bassist from Longmeadow, Mass. As the Lowdown, they’ve been together for close to five years.
“It worked out perfectly. These guys are really great musicians. It’s a good band.”
The Lowdown played gigs at Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford, the Hungry Tiger in Manchester and other Connecticut venues. At 14, Kulak was awarded the Honeyboy Edwards Scholarship, which took him to the Pinetop Perkins Master Class in Clarksdale, Miss., taught by famed blues guitarist Bob Margolin.
“That was so groundbreaking for me, going down there to learn from one of the original blues guys.”
In 2015, Kulak traveled to Norway to participate in the Notodden Blues Festival. “That was insane,” Kulak says, “one of the craziest things I’ve ever done, to go to another country to play music to a big audience.”
Of all the musical styles he encountered, Kulak grooved hardest on rock and blues.
“It started out because my parents played rock ‘n’ roll records as far back as I can remember. Then my dad started playing me White Stripes albums. That changed everything.”
The rawness of the blues, a property Kulak found lacking in music of the 2000s, struck a nerve. “[New music] didn’t have the emotion that blues and rock have,” he says. It also suited the way he liked to perform, “all those instruments on stage, right there in the moment.”
And while improvisation quickly became Kulak’s favorite musical pursuit, he steered clear of the Grateful Dead/Phish vortex.
“The jamband scene is a huge influence, but I don’t think it’s exactly what I sound like,” he says. “I still love to incorporate those elements of the free-flowing show.”
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It’s not all super-retro. “Better,” a slow-burning original song, has over 2,000 plays on Soundcloud. This summer Kulak and the Lowdown will release an album recorded at Haddam’s Dirt Floor Recording and Production. They’ll debut a new song called “Get Faded (And Go)” at Daffy Fest.
Along the way, Kulak developed a functional vocal style. “I like to say: I’m not a singer, I’m a vocalist. I do my thing, and it works. And it turns out that I love doing it. I needed to get past that initial anxiety.”
As high school ends, the Lowdown keeps chugging along, though Kulak wants to branch out when he gets to Berklee.
“As much as I love playing with those guys, I don’t want to limit myself to just one band. I want to start a bunch of side projects of completely different genres of music, just try and push it as far as I can go.”
JAKE KULAK AND THE LOWDOWN perform on the Bandshell Stage at the Meriden Daffodil Festival in Hubbard Park on April 28 at 1 p.m. Check daffodilfest.com for the complete music schedule.
