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Rhythm Future Quartet

The acoustic jazz ensemble, Rhythm Future Quartet has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today’s musical universe. The virtuosic foursome, named for a Django Reinhardt tune, offers up a newly minted sound, influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet wholly contemporary. Led by violinist Jason Anick and guitarist Olli Soikkeli, the quartet performs dynamic and lyrical arrangements of both Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw upon diverse international rhythms and musical idioms. With Max O’Rourke on second guitar and Greg Loughman on bass, Rhythm Future is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of a vital musical genre.

Where the band’s self-titled debut album re-visited classic jazz and Gypsy jazz favorites, Travels, the quartet’s current release, concentrates on group originals that make captivating use of musical sources from outside the conventional Gypsy jazz terrain. Travels reflects both the accumulated knowledge garnered from the groups world wide touring as well as the international influences that inspired new rhythmic and harmonic possibilities within their compositions and arrangements.

Jason Anick, an award-winning composer and one of the youngest professors at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston, has shared the stage with an array of artists including Grammy award winning guitarist John Jorgenson, Stevie Wonder, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and Tommy Emmanuel. Olli Soikkeli (coined “the Finnish boy wonder”) recently made the move from Scandinavia to New York City, where he quickly became a top call guitarist in the bustling Brooklyn jazz scene. He has performed alongside rising star Cyrille Aimee, world-renowned Gypsy guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, Bucky Pizzarelli and many others.

Max O’Rourke was the winner of the 2015 Saga Award from DjangoFest Northwest, and at 19 has already toured/recorded with many of the top American Gypsy Jazz musicians including John Jorgenson and Gonzalo Bergara. Greg Loughman is a top call bassist in Boston and has been heard with such luminaries as Sheila Jordan, Curtis Fuller and George Garzone.

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Album Review

Rhythm Future Quartet: Travels

Read "Travels" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Hanno preso il nome da un brano di Django Reinhardt i quattro componenti di quest'organico manouche, che si distanzia dalle formazioni modellate sull'Hot Club de France e vuol gettare uno sguardo al futuro. Troppo spesso lo stile inventato da Reinhart e Grappelli nella Parigi del primo Novecento è stato conservato sotto una campana di vetro. Riproposto nel tempo in una logica di repertorio, quando lo stesso Django, prima di morire, aveva dimostrato di saper trovare nuove forme espressive. ...

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Live Review

The Rhythm Future Quartet at The Evening Muse

Read "The Rhythm Future Quartet at The Evening Muse" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


The Rhythm Future Quartet The Evening Muse Charlotte, NC April 23, 2016 The Rhythm Future Quartet plays Gypsy jazz with one eye towards the past and the other towards the present. They've got the style, they've got the chops, and they're not afraid to try new things. As one of a series of shows billed as album release parties for their second release Travels, much of the program was taken from there. Bassist Greg ...

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Album Review

Rhythm Future Quartet: Travels

Read "Travels" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Gypsy jazz started, in terms of popular recognition, with guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli, and their lively and supremely swinging Qunintette du Hot Club du France. The group recorded hundreds of tunes in the thirties and and forties, released on the 78 rpm discs that were the recorded music mode at the time, and left a lasting and perhaps unmatchable legacy. Drawing deeply on that legacy, the Rhythm Future Quartet does its part by pushing the ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Travels

Self Produced
2016

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