Alliance for Improvised Music |
New Show |
SEX MOB BRINGS HEAVY GROOVE TO THE ARTSCENTER
Sex Mob - Steve Bernstein (slide trumpet), Briggan Krauss (alto), Tony Scherr (bass), Kenny Wollesen (drums) - appears at the ArtsCenter on Sat, Jan 30 at 8 pm. Tickets are $13, $11 for ArtsCenter friends and students. Advance tix available at the box office or at 929-ARTS. The ArtsCenter has graciously offered the $11 price for people (plus a guest) on the AIM mailing list, so see Walt Davis or Jeff Stern at any of the AIM shows or be sure to check in at the AIM table on the night of the show to pick up a coupon.
Jazz and improv is for insiders "in the know" and the rest of the public is left standing scratching its collective head, right? You have to know the composers, improvisers, the "movers and shakers" to understand and enjoy what's going on, right? Improv techniques are applied to material you don't even know very well to begin with, so you guess it sounds OK. Maybe after awhile it'll seep in and you'll understand what all the noise (sometimes literally) is about.
Well one of the biggest challenges to these assumptions comes from a NY quartet that stands the whole situation on its ear. No, this isn't some easy-to-take "smooth jazz" confection that insults its audience with fluff in a fake jazz setting. Sex Mob is a serious hardworking quartet that draws on avant-garde jazz, heavy funk, Latin, and just about anything else to connect with the more physical side of "Downtown" music: grooves with brains, extended solos with hooks. Sex Mob's leading light, Steve Bernstein, feels that jazz has lost "the physical, the visceral." He aims to reclaim it.
Steve Bernstein (slide trumpet) along with Briggan Krauss (alto), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wolleson (drums) have been ensconced at the Knitting Factory on Thursday nights playing their outside take on selections such as Goldfinger, Sign of the Times, Come Sunday, and of course, the Macarena as well as a sprinkling of originals. Bernstein developed his eclectic ear as part of his stint as musical director of the Lounge Lizards and a willingness to play every type of gig that came his way and keeping his ears open. With Sex Mob, he is able to indulge his eclecticism and imbue it with his taste and imagination. His bandmates, collected from his other musical associations also sport serious downtown credentials in addition to a passion for eclecticism. They have released a cd, Den of Inequity, that is significant as the first collaboration between Knitting Factory records and CBS/Sony. With major label help, it may get wider distribution and it is being pitched outside the usual jazz audience.
--Jeff Badgett