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Paragon
The melody is carried from one to another. Time keeping is shared. Ideas are all over the place. It’s a conversation that goes round in circles because there’s always an angle you haven’t heard yet.
Paragon are a travelling band. They tour countries and influences alike, from Brooklyn ballads to Venezuelan merengue to Bollywood bhangra.
Imagine the classic Jazz quartet going back to the 1970s after backpacking in Eastern Europe and jamming with 21st century Balkan folk bands. Send them off to see a Glenn Gould recital before stopping off for afternoon tea with Pannonica de Koenigswarter in NYC and you might hear something of what goes on in the back of the Paragon tour bus.
It’s the sound of a journey taking place. The setting is constantly changing, but the characters remain constant. Dialogues expand and grow, new surroundings spin in and out ofthe picture, some become absorbed in the whole, the band’s core grows ever tighter knit, and the players more close.
Their upcoming 2014 release on Jellymould Jazz is the latest instalment in such adventures, and is simply entitled ‘Cerca‘.
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Paragon: Cerca
by Phil Barnes
The art of conversation is surely dying. Too many people prepared to shout out the first thought that comes into their empty head, or repeat some banal corporate half-truth intended to drown out dissenting views. Self-importance, simple bad manners and selfishness rule the world with little space to reflect on or listen to what others have to say. In jazz though things can be different--take Anglo-German collaboration Paragon for example -they describe their music as ..."the sound of four people ...
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by Bruce Lindsay
It's been a decade since Anglo-German quartet Paragon formed. Cerca, recorded on an unspecified two days in Cologne, is the band's third release. The sax and Rhodes frontline, backed up by Matthias Nowak's bass and Jon Scott's drums, creates an elegant repertoire of tunes that draws on influences as diverse as '60s spiritual jazz and hip-hop grooves. Although the band's been around for ten years, Paragon's members can still be classed as part of the younger generation of ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
