September 19, 2015
World-class jazz doesn’t often find its way to Bozeman but Compound Presents is making sure we have you covered on Saturday, September 19th! Skerik, the endearingly saxophonic, punk jazz iconoclast, introduces his latest project Bandalabra. Joining him are three of his fellow Seattle hometown’s most revered players: Andy Coe on electric guitar, Evan Flory-Barnes on upright bass and Dvonne Lewis on drums. This quartet won Seattle’s Alternative Jazz Group of the Year – 2012 Golden Ear Award.
Skerik is a saxaphone pioneer and has often been described as the most innovative horn player in modern music. He is a founding member of Critters Buggin and Garage a Trois with Charlie Hunter while also a permanent member of Les Claypool’s (Primus) Fancy Band and Frog Brigade. He has played with keyboard revolutionary Wayne Horovitz, played in Tuatara with Peter Buck of REM, has solo works with Stanton Moore, and even was chosen to perform with Rogers Waters on their Pacific Northwest portion of the 2011 tour with feature placement on Pink Floyds ‘Money’. He has performed with Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Meters, Galactic, Dumpstaphunk, Ween, and many, many others. To say he is respected and admired in the music industry is a vast understatement.
In Skerik’s words, Bandalabra is intended to conjure the sounds of “Fela Kuti meeting Steve Reich in rock’s backyard.” A bold assertion, but one for which the music bears witness. Together, the quartet syncopates and snakes, floats free and snaps tight with hypnotic afrobeat rhythms, minimalist canons and improvised harmonics. There’s a duality that demands listeners both dance communally and get lost in their daydreams. On their debut album ‘Live At The Royal Room,’ captured at the band’s first ever performance, the foursome head into the deep unknown, creating music in the moment for over 60 minutes straight. Halfway through the evening, they hit upon the illest of psych grooves, one later dubbed “Beast Crusher.” Here the visceral and cerebral become one, the music explodes into the Northwest skies and Skerik’s Bandalabra is born into the world a fully realized vision. Dance AND listen…..
Tickets available at Cactus Records for $15 or online at www.compoundpresents.com. Show starts at 9 pm sharp! Don’t miss Skerik’s Bandalabra Saturday September 19th at The Filling Station!
