KHUM’s Artist of the Week spotlight is on The Jauntee, a Boston-bred improvisational band that’s been building its own lane since 2010 - part funk engine, part psychedelic wanderer, with plenty of jazz vocabulary under the hood.

Jordan in the Afternoon scored an on-air conversation with guitarist (and vocalist) Caton Sollenberger, and it kept coming back to one simple idea: a song isn’t a boundary, it’s a launchpad. The written parts matter, but they’re there to open doors - so the band can lock into a groove, stretch it, pivot hard, and still land together.

The current lineup is Sollenberger (guitar/vocals), Tyler Adams (keys/vocals), John Loland (bass), and Scott Ferber (drums/vocals). Caton talked about trying to play like one system - listening closely enough that they can build peaks without “talking over” each other.

He traced the first spark back to the Berklee College of Music scene, plus shared obsession points - especially Phish and that balance of composed detail with open-ended risk. Caton called improvisation “collective composition”, i.e. you can’t undo a mistake in real time, so you learn to turn it into the next idea.

We also hit influences (from Jerry Garcia to fusion rabbit holes) and the practical stuff - nonverbal cues, when to simplify, and how tiny changes in bass, keys, or backbeat can steer a jam into a new feel. The bottom line, he said, is keeping it fun and connected: eyes up, present, and in it with the room.

Interview with The Jauntee's Caton Sollenberger