Monday March 10 9 pm $7 21+
Howler’s Coyote Cafe, 4509 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield
from New York City on Tzadik Records
jazz-rockers HYPERCOLOR
https://hypercolorband.wordpress.com/sounds/
with special guests ((microwaves)) and Billy Castle
review from All About Jazz:
Hypercolor: Hypercolor (2015, Tzadik Records)
By DAVE WAYNE, Published: February 11, 2015
The past few months have seen a stream of truly—and in some cases mind-bogglingly—wonderful guitar-centric power trio albums. Yet, the eponymous debut of the Brooklyn-based avant-jazz-rock band Hypercolor stands out, but not for the reasons you’d think. Sure, the trio consists of musical brainiacs James Ilgenfritz and Lukas Ligeti; genre omnivores whose own work and collaborations draw as heavily from the worlds of free improvisation, contemporary classical, various ethnic musics, and art-rock as they do from jazz. How guitarist Eyal Maoz, best known as one of the most distinctive young musicians in John Zorn’s orbit, has remained an underground sort of figure is beyond me. Like his bandmates, his playing is distinctive and virtuosic, and his recordings to date have been consistently fresh and restlessly eclectic. Take, for example Hope and Destruction (Tzadik, 2009) which successfully fused traditional Yiddish melodies and modern metal with the hyperactive rhythms of 70s disco-funk.
Hypercolor is similarly eclectic. The trio eliminates the overt references to dance music, and replaces them with a punkish sort of old school jazz-rock energy. The album is rife with the sort of strutting attitude that made Tony Williams’ Lifetime (in all of its concatenations) so much fun to listen to. The end result, though, is more along the lines of Fred Frith’s great trio, Massacre, or perhaps the Nels Cline Singers.
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Eyal Maoz, James Ilgenfritz, and Lukas Ligeti make up Hypercolor, the NYC- based spastic jazz-rock hybrid whose ridiculous artsong craftsmanship alternately revels in complexity or brazen simplicity, favoring entropy and near-disaster over order or tidiness.
Like experimental grafting surgery gone horribly awry, Hypercolor bears limbs borrowed from 80s NYC No-Wave, and early jazz/rock, and orchestral rock textures.
Eyal Maoz is a guitarist, composer, Tzadik and Ayler Records artist and a guest member of John Zorn’s Cobra. His ensembles performed at major music festivals worldwide such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, Red Sea International Jazz Festival, NYC 2007 Winter JazzFest, the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival, Florida Music Harvest, The Jewzapalooza Festival in NYC and more.
Transcending the boundaries of genre, composer and percussionist Lukas Ligeti (son of composer Gyorgy Ligeti) has developed a musical style of his own that draws upon downtown NY experimentalism, contemporary classical music, jazz, electronica, and world music, particularly from Africa. Lukas creates music ranging from the through-composed to the free- improvised, often exploring non-Western elements, and has been participating in cultural exchange projects for the past 15 years. Lukas has been commissioned by Bang on a Can, Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and the American Composers Orchestra, to name a few. He frequently performs solo on the marimba lumina, a rare electronic percussion instrument. As a drummer, he co-leads several bands including Burkina Electric, the first electronica band from Burkina Faso. He has also performed and/or recorded with John Zorn, Henry Kaiser, Gary Lucas, Marilyn Crispell, John Tchicai, Jim O’Rourke, Borah Bergman, Eugene Chadbourne, and many others. He has led or co-led experimental intercultural projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, and has taught at universities in Ghana and South Africa.
Brooklyn composer, bassist, and educator James Ilgenfritz has been active in creative music since the late 90s. His work has been praised in Time Out New York, All About Jazz, and Downbeat Magazine. Recent performances include work with Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, and Anthony Braxton. James has received grants and residencies from Issue Project Room, the American Composers Forum, and OMI Arts Center. Notable performance venues include Roulette, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Symphony Space, and the New Museum in SoHo. James is on Faculty at the Preparatory Center of Brooklyn College and at Brooklyn Conservatory.