With their debut Step Away, Katahdin's Edge was celebrated as a roguish jazz piano trio goading a languid standard into confrontation. Roots intact, they produced funk- and rock-inspired grooves with cunning licks and intrepid meter sampling. The Ridge, their latest release, evokes the same adventurous spirit while challenging the equilibrium of tradition and innovation they established two years ago.
The Ridge is where simple and evocative contends with infinite possibility, where composer and pianist Willie Myette unravels a new voice in the charged exchange between himself, bassist John Funkhouser, and drummer Mike Connors. A fourth voice emerges in disquieting sounds: a cool whistle like knives sharpening, a jarring squeal like rewinding tape on a reel on "Glad You Called," a strange chanting counterpart to the bass on the title track. The group marries audio effects like looping and distortion with the kinetic meter variations, aggressive improvisation, and haunting melodies that first established Katahdin's Edge as a trio of depth and drama.
From the buoyant melody that launches "Glad You Called" through the song's two mood shifts, serpentine sound effects break the surface; they mystify at first then unleash a rising and leaping crescendo. "The Path," rock ballad apparent, grows an understated melodic seed in two measured shoots that unfurl, rolling and sprightly, before a satisfying return to the source. But the understated must eventually yield to vigor, and so, the title track opens with rhythmic pluck then lurches into thematic leapfrog until a penetrating chant unites the trio in an elevating, captivating jaunt. Eerie distortions of staccato tapping and of a slide introduced to piano strings confirm a fresh pulse.
The adventurousness is contagious. Katahdin's Edge is out to play on The Ridge. They're charged with rock energy akin to Bad Plus or classic E.L.P. and are agile at cracking thematic and rhythmic nuts. Like Brad Mehldau and E.S.T., they optimize the arsenal of a trio with pioneering esprit de corps. Technological voicing has evolved their sound while Myette's compositions remain assured and melodically sophisticated.
A Berklee College of Music graduate, Myette departed Boston for Providence in 1996, created a unique instructional method for jazz piano, founded JazzKids, and published about a dozen books, all aimed at teaching jazz and improvisation to children. Old friends Myette and Connors never stopped performing together since their college days. Connors, who has studied with Joe Hunt and Alan Dawson, has also shared the stage with Funkhouser, a former student of the New England Conservatory, who teaches at Berklee and has toured internationally with his own band, FunkHouse. The trio converged in 2002 to incite an alchemic flash. Step Away was released two years later, and was touted as "energetic, listener-friendly progressivism," avant-garde jazz that could satisfy an eclectic crowd. No matter how Katahdin's Edge evolves, no matter how far-out their exploits are on The Ridge, it's apparent that the group's mission grounds their music with uncanny authenticity.
aaah sweet willie myette! beautiful tunes my friend. Hope you're doing well. I miss playing music with you but listening to you play is almost as sweet.
Hi Katahdin's Edge, just a quick hello from the Jazz Pistols - hope you are doing fine and have a nice christmas season. Thanks for being our friend and good luck for the things you do. Best regards - Christoph
Our Live-DVD will be released on the 1st of February 2007!
If you would like to hear more tunes of the Jazz Pistols you can check out our homepage and get the Jazz Pistols CDs in our own shop - if you are living in the USA it will be cheaper to get them at CDBaby, Abstract Logix or as digital download at iTunes. Please join our newsletter if you are interested in our tour schedule and upcoming releases.
2 time Cannabis Cup and 2 time MassCann Freedom Rally performers Herbal Nation win Song of the Year for 'We Love the Herb' and Album of the Year for 'herbal nation' in the 2006 Global Marijuana Music Awards!
Visit the Herbal Nation website for complete audio and pictures from the show on 06/16/06. It features Jeff Watkins from James Brown's Soul Generals on Sax, and he is featured in the current issue of Rolling Stone in the JB article!
You can also see pictures from a mixing session in the Herbal Nation Studio on the secret recording 'Pimp Danny'! This secret recording is also mentioned in the current Rolling Stone and there will soon be some studio video footage on the website as well. Check it out and hope you enjoy-all audio is free and in mp3 format.
Stumpy www.herb-n-funk.com/audio.php
