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Sexmob
Sexmob is a band of the now: post-modern waltzes mutating into dub-echoed free jazz. Sexmob is social music: a rollicking midnight set with clatter and drinks and a band. Sexmob is a happy contradiction: an experimental jazz outfit whose music has slid readily into the mainstream via Saturday Night Live, MTV, and National Public Radio.
Dime Grind Palace is a house of deeply lasting pleasures: underground trombone legend Roswell Rudd bellowing and blowing over sweetly surprising changes. Dime Grind Palace is a house of sudden revelry: an accessible groove-etched hootenanny of frayed squawks and squeals.
The winners of two Downbeat Critics' Polls (Best Beyond Group, Best Acoustic Group) have made what bandleader and trumpeter Steven Bernstein calls his "dream record." After four LPs focusing on the songbooks of others (including Duke Ellington and James Bond composer John Barry), the seven-year running Sexmob has turned in an album of original material in their own unique voice, the result of an ongoing dialogue between master players (saxophonist Briggan Krauss, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen) and a diverse palette of inspirations ranging from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to Dixieland to Little Richard. "The album is really about the evolution of the band," Bernstein says.
I wanted to make a record for music-heads," continues Bernstein, the man who the New York Times called a "rogue historian of jazz." "I think everyone has a music-head inside of them," he says. "I wanted to turn people on the way the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra record turned me on. It was real listenable, but there was all this slightly scary stuff going on there. It's not background music. And neither is this."
If anyone could fuse lovingly academic excursions with good time party music, it's Sexmob, who have found themselves in the weird and desirable niche as the downtown scene's late night hang of choice, a favorite of fans, musicians, and critics alike.
A good half-dozen musicians blew through the disc's raucous New York sessions last December: pianist and saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum (Hieroglyphics Ensemble, Trey Anastasio), slide guitarist David Tronzo (John Cale, Spanish Fly), mandolinist John Kruth (biographer of Roland Kirk), tubist Marcus Rojas (Henry Threadgill, Sly & Robbie), and clarinetist Doug Wieselman (Lounge Lizards), Mark Stewart (Bang On A Can All-Stars).
And then there was Rudd, whose presence brings Sexmob full circle. A longtime hero of Bernstein's (who, not coincidentally, played on the aforementioned Charlie Haden LP), Rudd is known as the father of free jazz trombone. "Roswell was kind of the original inspiration for the band," Bernstein says, who put Sexmob's original weekly gig together as a platform to work on his slide trumpet playing. With Rudd as a starting point, Sexmob developed a wholly original sound. As such, Dime Grind Palace is a pure dilution of that.
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Sexmob, Alexander Hawkins, Allen Lowe & Tim Berne
by Maurice Hogue
So much new music to explore. The always interesting Sex Mob debuts The Hard Way, Tim Berne hooks up with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand, saxophonist and composer and historian Allen Lowe has two new ones, there's a pair from Australia, a trio led by pianist Helen Svoboda and the group Tripataka, English pianist Alexander Hawkins' Carnival Celestial, plus the duo of saxophonist Stanley Zappa and drummer Simo Laihonen return with Dance Of The Moving Goal Posts recorded live in ...
read moreSexmob, Larry Goldings, Steve Argüelles, Tim Berne & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
The exciting collaboration between Sexmob and Scotty Hard and that involving Larry Goldings, Kaveh Rastegar and Abe Rounds open an episode focusing also on soundtracks, beat poetry and poetry of the beat, before closing with a sonic voyage by Tim Berne, Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Sexmob Benacek" The Hard Way (Corbett vs. Dempsey) 0:16 Host talks 4:54 Larry Goldings, Kaveh Rastegar, Abe ...
read moreSexmob at Blue Note Milano
by Roberto Cifarelli
Photos of the concert by Sexmob, the fiery quartet featuring Steven Bernstein, Briggan Krauss, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen, which performed for the first time in Milan, at the Blue Note Jazz Club, in front of a warm audience of music enthusiasts. Sexmob played a captivating mix of original music and compositions from the soundtracks of Federico Fellini's movies written by Italian composer Nino Rota. As always, Sexmob infused the performance with irony, sudden changes and continuous surprises. ...
read moreSexmob: Cultural Capital
by Nicola Negri
Vent'anni di Sexmob. Un gruppo nato quasi per caso, a metà anni 90, in occasione di un lungo ingaggio alla Knitting Factory di New York. Steven Bernstein lo aveva pensato come palestra personale per praticare uno strumento improbo come la slide trumpet, e per affinare le doti già significative di arrangiatore, oltre che per divertirsi con alcuni tra i suoi amici più stretti. La sfida era proprio quella di creare una musica che potesse arrivare immediatamente ad un pubblico ampio ...
read moreSex Mob: Cultural Capital
by Glenn Astarita
Sex Mob celebrates 20-years in the business going back to their initial 1996 gigs at New York City's downtown music scene hub, The Knitting Factory. With its first album in four-years, the band jubilantly returns via its crisscrossing of jazz with pop, funk and other genres, complemented by witty dialogues, mischievous improv sequences and treks into the free zone. Unlike previous programs this album consists of all slide trumpeter, Steven Bernstein originals. To a certain degree, Sex Mob's distinct stylizations ...
read moreTop Ten "Most Read" Album Reviews: 2013
by AAJ Staff
All About Jazz tracks how often an album review is read, and the reviews listed below represent our top ten published in 2013. Sex Mob Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sex Mob Plays Fellini) Wayne Shorter Quartet Wayne Shorter Quartet: Without a Net John Scofield John Scofield: Uberjam Deux Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock / Jack DeJohnette Somewhere Pat Metheny Pat Metheny: Tap--John Zorn's Book of Angels | ...
read moreSex Mob: Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sex Mob Plays Fellini: The Music of Nino Rota)
by Troy Collins
Founded 17 years ago as a showcase for leader Steven Bernstein's unique slide trumpet, Sex Mob has since embraced a far more ambitious mission: to revive the adventurous spirit of prewar jazz. Bernstein realized early on that playing radically altered covers was the best way to lure an audience into his roguish sound world. Since then the group has deconstructed and reworked everything from ABBA's Fernando" to the Macarena," while 2001's Sex Mob Does Bond (Ropeadope) was dedicated solely to ...
read moreSex Mob Descends On Dublin!
Source:
All About Jazz
Sex Mob is a band out of time: a smartly old-fashioned quartet of world-class musicians with a satchel full of charts. Sex Mob is a band of the now: post-modern waltzes mutating into dub-echoed free jazz. Sex Mob is social music: a rollicking midnight set with clatter and drinks and a band. Sex Mob is a happy contradiction: an experimental jazz outfit whose music has slid readily into the mainstream via Saturday Night Live, MTV, and National Public Radio. Sex ...
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"This is Our Music" is Back! Sex Mob, Planet Dream, and Glassband on April 10 in NYC
Source:
All About Jazz
This Friday, April 10 at the Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, guitarist Brad Farberman's This Is Our Music series returns for its ninth installment, a triple bill featuring Glassband, Planet Dream and Sex Mob. The show kicks off at 7PM. There is a $5 cover. This Is Our Music IX Friday, April 10, 7PM, $5 @ The Glasslands Gallery 289 Kent Avenue between S1st and S2nd Williamsburg, Brooklyn L to Bedford ...
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The Sex Mob as Part of a Triple Bill Presented by the Ars Nova Workshop on December 4, 2007
Source:
All About Jazz
On December 4, 2007 at 8:00 PM the Ars Nova Workshop presents a triple bill:
SEX MOB Steven Bernstein - trumpet Briggan Krauss - saxophone Tony Scherr - bass Kenny Wollesen - drums
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BILLY MARTIN / CALVIN WESTON DUO Billy Martin - percussion G. Calvin Weston - percussion
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ANDREW D'ANGELO TRIO Andrew d'Angelo - saxophone Evan Lipson - ...
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"This new project makes for a copacetic counterpart to the group's latest album, "Sex Mob Plays Fellini..." –Wall Street Journal
"Sexmob has been straddling the lines between genres for 17 years by incorporating popular tunes into instrumental jazz, and putting the emphasis on beats that move feet. Drummer Kenny Wollesen's funk rhythms, particularly of the New Orleans variety, create a party atmosphere, and Bernstein's visually striking slide trumpet doesn't hurt the hedonistic vibe that Sexmob conveys." –OregonLive.com