John Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, Fred Hopkins, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, Marion Brown, Henry Grimes, Charles Mingus, Johnny Griffin, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Lucky Thompson, Art Pepper, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Lewis Worrell, Milford Graves. Jeff Parker, Rob Mazurek, Matt Lux, Chad Taylor, Ellery Eskelin, Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Jim Black...
Dragons 1976 is the horn bass drum trio of Aram Shelton, Jason Ajemian and Timothy M. Daisy. The three met in Chicago in the early 00's as all were drawn to the city as a place to develop their music. All highly active in the creative music scene there, Dragons 1976 formed in a natural way after playing together for several years and released their first album On Cortez on Locust music in 2003. Largely improvisational, the music of Dragons 1976 focuses on their individuality as musicians while using composed parts to guide the form and structure. While rooted in and influenced by music of the jazz idiom, the music of Dragons 1976 is never bound to it's tradition, as each of the members is influenced by a wide array of styles including minimalism, folk, rock, electronic and free improvisation.
Oh, thank you, dudes. You blow my mind every time.
Plus you guys really know how to bring out the pretentious asshole crowd, and that can tend to be really entertaining. :)