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Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a quartet founded on the idea that not only is jazz still alive and vibrant, but it can and should be fun, engaging and thoroughly contemporary. Under the playful pseudonym, "Leonardo Featherweight," Elliott writes, "Rather than settling into one style or historical period, MOPDTK fuses the entire spectrum of jazz and the various forms of improvised music it has spawned into a single, seamless melange of Uber-Jass."

Their "music" is a dense jungle of musical signifiers held together by the adhesive qualities inherent to the Jazz Tradition. Elliott's unique and original method of composition uses instantly recognizable gestures from the American aural lexicon to set up expectations in the ears of the listener. Once established, MOPDTK deviates from these expectations as rapidly as possible, only bring them back in myriad transformations and abstractions. The tunes themselves range from bossas to bugaloos, rock to smooth Jazz, and swing to disco, often within the same composition.

Each of the four members of MOPDTK is a product of the institutional Jazz Education system with additional influences immediately recognizable. Peter Evans, who attended the Oberlin Conservatory with bassist, Moppa Elliott, was a Classical trumpet student who has since become a rising star in the improvised music scene. He recently released his second solo CD, Nature/Culture, on Evan Parker's psi Records label and is lauded for his vast arsenal of highly-developed extended techniques. Jon Irabagon, a Chicago native, studied at both the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard after leaving his hometown and completing his undergraduate work at De Paul. His affinity for pop music and tenure with the rock band, "Bright Eyes," is evident in his playing as is his encyclopedic knowledge of Jazz saxophone masters. Jon was the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxophone Competition. Drummer Kevin Shea is probably best known as an influential innovator of the indie-rock scene and became known to experimental music aficionados after recording with the band, "Storm and Stress," in the late '90's. The chaotic elasticity and overwhelming density of his drumming belies not only his training at Berklee and the New School, but his admiration for drummers as disparate as Jeff "Tain" Watts and Stewart Copland. Bassist Moppa Elliott is the composer and leader of MOPDTK. He teaches music history, theory and chorus at St. Mary's High School in Manhasset, NY in addition to performing with musicians as varied as singer/songwriters, chamber pop, jazz, and varous circus bands.

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Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Disasters Vol. 1

Read "Disasters Vol. 1" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Rest assured, Mostly Other People Do the Killing get the joke and on Disasters Vol.1, the amorphous collective's eleventh disc and this trio's riotous second, you either get the joke too or you don't. It really makes no never-mind to this eclectic bunch because MOPDtK know instinctively that, if you don't throw yourself off balance from time to time, (like every single time the opportunity presents itself) you're going to get deeply sucked into the muck and mire of human ...

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Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Disasters Vol. 1

Read "Disasters Vol. 1" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Mostly Other People Do the Killing has a way of making great music sound accidental. So Disasters Vol. 1 is as suitable a name for this collection as it would be for any of their fourteen albums. In past versions, they have boasted big names such as Jon Irabagon, Peter Evans, and rising talents like guitarist Brandon Seabrook. Drummer Kevin Shea and bassist/composer Moppa Elliot, are two-thirds of the current group and the remaining original members of MOPDtK. Ron Stabinsky ...

5
Album Review

Mostly Other People Do The Killing: Disasters Vol. 1

Read "Disasters Vol. 1" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Moppa Elliott's gonzo-surrealist jazz group, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, returns for a second album in its piano trio format with Elliott on bass, Ron Stabinsky on piano and Kevin Shea on drums. They are up to their usual tricks here, playing slapstick jazz which flits deliriously through all types of styles and sub-genres like an old Warner Brothers cartoon soundtrack. However there is a more serious added element on this album. Elliott, as he often does, named all ...

Album Review

Mostly Other People Do The Killing: Paint

Read "Paint" reviewed by Enrico Bettinello


Un po' come succede alle stelle quando “esauriscono il combustibile," quando si espandono e poi si contraggono diventando una caldissima “nana bianca," nel corso dell'ultimo anno i Mostly Other People Do The Killing si sono espansi fino a settetto per poi restringersi all'archetipica forma jazz del trio con pianoforte. Ma sarà davvero anche qui un caso di esaurimento del combustibile? Vediamo! Il nuovo disco, Paint vede protagonista un triangolo con ai vertici il leader del ...

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Album Review

Mostly Other People Do The Killing: Paint

Read "Paint" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Mostly Other People Do The Killing have released their second CD of 2017 and, in keeping with the group's unpredictability, it's a bit of a curve ball. Whereas on previous releases they've ranged in size from a quartet to a septet, this time they've cut themselves down to a simple piano trio. Other than that, it's business as usual. Bassist Moppa Elliott's original compositions are still named for towns in Pennsylvania (which this time all include colors in their names), ...

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Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Paint

Read "Paint" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


No sooner had Mostly Other People Do the Killing expanded to a septet with Loafer's Hollow (Hot Cup Records, 2017) than they shrink to their smallest formation to date with the trio release Paint. Founding member, bassist, and composer Moppa Elliott is joined by pianist Ron Stabinsky and drummer Kevin Shea. Trumpeter Peter Evans had departed the group before its 2015 Mauch Chunk album and now without Jon Irabagon's alto saxophone in the lineup, the sound takes a very different ...

1
Album Review

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Loafer's Hollow

Read "Loafer's Hollow" reviewed by Luca Canini


Se pensavate che dopo dodici anni e undici dischi nel barile non fosse rimasto più niente da raschiare, se li avevate un po' trascurati di recente perché il gioco è bello fin che dura poco, se vi eravate fatti l'idea che una volta risuonato Kind of Blue nota per nota, in una delle operazioni più assurdamente dadaiste dai tempi della Gioconda baffuta, i Mostly Other People Do the Killing avessero raggiunto l'ultima frontiera del plausibile, sappiate che la band più ...

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Recording

Sort of Blue: Clone or Art?

Sort of Blue: Clone or Art?

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

By this time on Tuesday, the jazz community will likely be in an uproar—or will at least be dumbfounded. Blue, a new album by the quintet Mostly Other People Do the Killing, has broken a taboo of sorts by recreating the Miles Davis Sextet's Kind of Blue, note for note. I write about the album (due out on Tuesday), and its implications for jazz and the music industry in Friday's Wall Street Journal (go here). Kind of Blue (1959), of ...

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Recording

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Go Live in "The Coimbra Concert"

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Go Live in "The Coimbra Concert"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Live jazz has traditionally gained a certain cache among the cognoscenti. In the age of the 78, artists were limited to the three or four minute cut; live playing allowed them the stretch out. With the advent of the LP, artists could go on for quite a bit longer, which they started to do on Prestige albums in the early '50s and everywhere else after that. The CD enabled even longer stretches, as we all know. Nonetheless the live situation ...

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Performance / Tour

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Will Be Killing It at the Bug Jar This Thursday

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Will Be Killing It at the Bug Jar This Thursday

Source: Jazz@Rochester

Is jazz not “fun" enough for you? Do you expect to see it in a venue known for cutting edge music but with a more rock sensibility? Surprise!... unusual jazz will be presented in an unusual place when NY band Mostly Other People Do The Killing hit the stage at Rochester's The Bug Jar this Thursday, April 21st. MOPDTK Bassist Moppa Elliott has written that “[r]ather than settling into one style or historical period, MOPDTK fuses the entire spectrum of ...

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Performance / Tour

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Will They Be Killing It at the Bug Jar This Thursday

Mostly Other People Do the Killing Will They Be Killing It at the Bug Jar This Thursday

Source: Jazz@Rochester

Is jazz not “fun" enough for you? Do you expect to see it in a venue known for cutting edge music but with a more rock sensibility? Surprise!... unusual jazz will be presented in an unusual place when NY band Mostly Other People Do The Killing hit the stage at Rochester's The Bug Jar this Thursday, April 21st. MOPDTK Bassist Moppa Elliott has written that “[r]ather than settling into one style or historical period, MOPDTK fuses the entire spectrum of ...

152

Recording

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - The Coimbra Concert (Clean Feed, 2011)

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - The Coimbra Concert (Clean Feed, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

One of the most exciting and innovative bands on the modern jazz scene, Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a jazz ensemble consisting of Peter Evans on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on tenor and sopranino saxophones, Moppa Elliott on bass and Kevin Shea on drums. What makes the band so much fun to follow is the impish delight they take in making music, from the delightful spoof covers to wryly quoting famous jazz songs amidst their original compositions. But make ...

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Contest

Enter the Hot Cup "Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Fort Fort" Giveaway

Enter the Hot Cup "Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Fort Fort" Giveaway

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Hot Cup Records “Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Forty Fort“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on May 13th. Click here to enter the contest

(Following Moppa Elliott at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at Hot Cup Records

About MOPDtK MOPDtK formed in the fall of 2003 in New York City. ...

"One of the most infectiously vivacious releases of the year, Shamokin!!! reveals a new wrinkle in the tradition. Historically aware and virtuosic, the wily Mostly Other People Do The Killing is an ensemble to watch." —Troy Collins, All About Jazz

"...minds are sure to be blown by the near-masterpiece they’ve come up with here." —Derek Taylor, Bagatellen

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Disasters Vol. 1

Hot Cup Records
2022

buy

Loafer's Hollow

Hot Cup Records
2017

buy

Paint

Hot Cup Records
2017

buy

Mauch Chunk

Hot Cup Records
2015

buy

Blue

Hot Cup Records
2014

buy

Mostly Other People...

Hot Cup Records
2014

buy

Three Mile Island

From: Disasters Vol. 1
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Yellow House

From: Paint
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Hi-Nella

From: Loafer's Hollow
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Mauch Chunk Is Jim Thorpe

From: Mauch Chunk
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Yo, Yeo, Yough

From: Slippery Rock
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

Forty Fort

From: Forty Fort
By Mostly Other People Do the Killing

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