Like the city this Baltimore quintet calls home, Quartet Offensive is a band bursting with musical innovation, experimentation, and character, whose music exists between the cracks of jazz, rock, and the avant-garde. It is a band whose unique style freely crosses genre boundaries, and one that succeeds in presenting an honest musical vision.
Originally a quartet of John Dierker (bass clarinet), Matt Frazao (guitar, Adam Hopkins (bass), and Nathan Ellman-Bell (drums), QO later added Eric Trudel (saxophone). Quartet Offensive has drawn both local and national attention, having been featured on NPR's “The Signal,” as well as being hailed as “a lineup of musicians nothing short of virtuosic...First-class improvisation. A mix of time-tested Baltimore weirdness paired with wet-behind-the-ears energy.” (Baltimore City Paper). During their brief career together since forming in 2007, they've already shared bills with living legends Tim Berne, Michael Formanek, Dave Ballou, Jack Wright, and Lafayette Gilchrist.
Members of Quartet Offensive have performed and recorded with jazz greats such as Gary Thomas, Uri Caine, Paul Bollenback, George Garzone, and Peter Kowald, and currently play in such groups as Lafayette Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes, Soul Cannon, Panacea, Out of Your Head Collective, Powerlunch, Microkingdom, and Subatomic Particles.
