Reptet's Chicken or Beef?

[Lazaro Vega]

p.s. re: no Salmon. "Fish Market."

And that little rant was for the published reviews not the general "audience" responses.

[jazzypaul]

Johnny,

you're now officially radio stars in Chicago.

This stuff's great. Congrats on a great job.

[Larry Kart]

Man, these "reviews."

Don't see anything wrong in Doug Ramsey's review.

[Johnny E]

Man, these "reviews."

Don't see anything wrong in Doug Ramsey's review.

Me neither. After reading Doug's review I pulled out my old OJC copy of "The Dynamic Sound Patterns of the Rod Levitt Orchestra", and there are some strong parallels - although I'm quite certain no one other than myself in the group has ever heard of Rod Levitt.

[Johnny E]

Earshot Jazz

Reptet – Chicken or Beef?

Monktail Records MCMC8

Reptet’s new CD poses the age-old airplane- and wedding-reception dining question: Chicken or Beef? As listeners ponder this question, Reptet employs various antics that include shouts, grunts, group sing-alongs, and a 1980s hair rock guitar solo. And, oh yeah, there’s some good playing and writing too.

Chicken or Beef? Is full of oddball humor and mixed genres. I love the heavy dance-like compound meter framed by collective shouts on “Reptet Score!” The title track, the album’s fifth, features a clarinet solo over a percussion groove followed by chants of “chicken or beef?” The next song, “That’s Chicken or Beef,” is straight up 60’s Jamaican ska that’s cut short by the group singing “that’s chicken or beef,” And later on the multi-sectional “Fish Market,” Reptet rhetorically asks: “why don’t you go to the fish market and get a fillet tonight?” and in doing so, confuses the matter even further.

Cynics beware: Chicken or Beef? Isn’t just wacky shtick from players who aren’t good or serious enough to play “real jazz,” as it takes some serious chops to pull this stuff off. The group’s involved compositions and arrangements require each player to negotiate tricky rhythms and meters as well as tempo and groove changes – often several times within the same song. Reptet handles this with ease.

The album features a lot of ensemble writing, and each musician’s doubling abilities (each of Reptet’s six members are credited with no less than four instruments, not including vocals or bull moose calls) provide many orchestration possibilities. Add the thirteen guest musicians to the fray and the result is an adventurous album with a wide sonic palette and range of styles. Whether or not you enjoy tongue-in-cheek music or are vegetarian shouldn’t matter, because one thing is for sure: Chicken or Beef? is good, clean, irreverent fun. Hey!

-Review by Chris Robinson

[Lazaro Vega]

Doug Ramsey's review is elevating. Was responding to this general air of struggle in some of these between in or out, up or down, accept or warn off of as relates to the indefinable "jazz" line in the sand.

[Johnny E]

Doug Ramsey's review is elevating. Was responding to this general air of struggle in some of these between in or out, up or down, accept or warn off of as relates to the indefinable "jazz" line in the sand.

Yes I know. I just wanted to second Larry's support of Doug's review.

[Johnny E]

Our first negative review

jazzreview.com

Featured Artist: Reptet

CD Title: Chicken or Beef?

Year: 2008

Record Label: Monktail Records

Style: Free Jazz / Avante Garde

Review:

Kinda contemporary, kinda free/avant garde, kind of a serious melting pot of styles often defying classification in many ways, Reptet has released its third album, Chicken or Beef? Interesting title. Even more interesting is the music and its direction.

There are clear times when thick, often pronouncedly powerful, bass lines help this elusive project coalesce and take form, along with some very active horn work. This is not always the stuff you’ve been used to hearing when you think of contemporary or even acid jazz. You do expect some of its elements in free jazz, with which more of this than not readily identifies, in my opinion. Parts, like “Reptet Score!” begin deceivingly moderate and modest and then morph into loud and frenzied pieces. Other parts are more (well, somewhat more) traditional and tame, like the cleverly-timed “EltiT.” The title tune was definitely one I couldn’t get my head around, no matter how many times I listened. Maybe on a good note, there was simply too much energy. By contrast, however, the melody was sorely lacking, as was the melody on the tune immediately following it, “That’s Chicken or Beef.” The latter began with a strange resemblance to the old Roger Miller classic, “King of the Road,” then decided to go “someplace else.”

There’s a lot of “diversity” in style here, for certain. Examples would be the slower-paced, rather soulful piece, if I dare, titled “Gwand Wabbit” and the odd “Fish Market,” which begins in a frenzied Molly Hatchet-style fast pace, complete with chatter about going to the fish market. It too then ventures off (I suppose in the direction of the fish market), leaving me to scratch my puzzled head.

Instrumentally, these guys have talent. There’s no disputing that. How they’ve utilized it here is another story. Maybe I haven’t completely embraced free jazz yet, but unfortunately this project doesn’t help.

Tracks: Danger Notes, Reptet Score!, EltiT, Eve of Thrieve, Chicken or Beef?, That's Chicken or Beef, Gwand Wabbit, Fish Market, Swanni, Kill the Air, Go Bears

Record Label Website: http://www.monktail.com

Artist's Website: http://www.reptet.com

Reviewed by: Ronald Jackson

Source

[PHILLYQ]

That reviewer has his head so far up his ass he's looking at his intestines from the inside!

[papsrus]

Seriously, the music kicks ass.

[Jim Alfredson]

Funny stuff. Congrats on the reviews, but most of them are so concerned with where the music "fits", it's laughable. Here's an idea; why not take the music as it is and not worry about it?

[AllenLowe]

I know where they can fit it -

[Johnny E]

Funny stuff. Congrats on the reviews, but most of them are so concerned with where the music "fits", it's laughable. Here's an idea; why not take the music as it is and not worry about it?

Exactly! Thanks Jim.

[Chalupa]

Hey Johnny - Saw this on a download site.....

Torrent: 212809

Title: Reptet - 2008-08-23 - Seattle

Size: 362.95 MB

Category: Jazz

Uploaded by: terrapin5000

Description

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reptet

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Cal Anderson Park

Seattle, Washington, USA

Lineage: HLSC (w/windscreens) --> LS-10 --> USB --> CDWave --> FLAC Frontend

Setlist:

01. [intro]

02.

03.

04. [Collard Greens]

05. Reptet Score!

06. [Handle It]

07. Danger-Notes

08. Chicken Or Beef

09. That's Chicken Or Beef

10. [What I Meant Was]

11. Fish Market

12. [You Gotta Do This]

13. Do This!

14.

Running Time: 65:01

Notes:

~ Crazy-assed Seattle-based Jazz ensemble. Perhaps all you need to know is that during "Chicken Or Beef" the saxophonist went out and danced around in the crowd wearing a giant ham outfit.

~ Photos included.

~ Setlist help for tracks two, three, and fourteen would be most appreciated!

[Johnny E]

Hey Johnny - Saw this on a download site.....

interesting...could you send me the link?

[Chalupa]

PM sent.

[Johnny E]

Watch Reptet performing the title track to their new CD, Chicken or Beef? at Boston's Johnny D's in april of 08'.

And if you want more, check out

and Zeppo as well.

[Johnny E]

Seattle Sound Magazine

Reptet - Chicken or Beef? (Monktail)

Review by Rachel Dovey

If a small-town mariachi band suddenly went on a collective crystal meth trip, it would sound like Reptet. Chicken or Beef showcases some serious talent, but you don't notice that on the first listen. The swinging brass-driven melodies and dexterous drumming are all but eclipsed by Naked City-like screams, coughs, shivers, whistles, beatboxing, panting and randomly placed lyrics, like the voice announcing "I'm from the future!" and repeating "chicken or beef?" throughout the title track. But with intensity and precision, the bizarre set of songs ("Gwand Wabbit", Fish Market", "Go Bears") is able to grab the listener's interest and keep it. It's very refreshing to listen to some jazz that doesn't flaunt the fact that it's a cerebral art form, but focuses unnatural energy on raw entertainment.

[Johnny E]

Reptet’s Outlandish Fever

By Rachel Dovey

Friday, October 31st, 2008 @ 6:38 PM

Watching bizarre jazz/funk/experimental sextet Reptet is like reading a Russian novel (accompanied by a hefty shot of vodka). Their extreme melodrama keeps you at arm’s length (think amplified monkey whoops, cow and sheep calls, animal regalia, furry glasses and full prostrations). But you’re so damn hooked by the passion playing out right in front of you that you don’t mind the antics.

Reptet certainly is not your grandpa’s brand of jazz, and probably shouldn’t be called jazz at all. “I don’t really like jazz.” says drummer Izaak Mills, no longer sporting his furry glasses after the show. He points to the speaker in the corner of Egan’s Ballard Jam House from which an innocent elevator tune wafts. “This stuff is really, really boring.”

Whatever genre they fall into—two saxes, a trombone and trumpet, drums, a stand up base and loads of raw energy—boring does not describe them. Their musical palette consisted mainly of numbers from recent album Chicken or Beef? released this month from Monktail Records, featuring such numbers as “Gwand Wabbit”, “Chicken or Beef?” and “Fish Market.”

Gwand Wabbit featured alto-sax solos by Mills, as Samantha Boshnack belted out a harmony on the horn and the drums/base ambled along with a smooth, swinging rhythm.

Chicken or Beef dialed up the zany with wild cowbell-banging, chicken squawks and whistles. The funk drumming by John Ewing had an underpinning tarzan-like jungle swing while Mills held a smooth melody on his sax. Then everyone chimed in, “hmmmmmm…chicken or beef?” The song kept devolving into wonderful weirdness as Ewing let out a gut-wrenching “BAAAAA” into an amplifying oil can and Mills took off beat-boxing. Everyone started dancing their asses off, then fell right back into their vaudevillian melody and crazy rhythms without missing a beat.

Fish Market sealed the carnivore theme as perfectly aligned saxes cascaded through a frayed funk melody, Boshnack went to town on the tambourine and the schizophrenic tempo pounded and ambled, while the group screamed “to the fish market we go!”

At intervals throughout the show, the band members would strap on a full size tuba, grab the tambourine or a cowbell or a base drum respectively and proceed, Winnie the Pooh-marching-band style, off into the crowd. Thing was, sadly, few people were in the crowd that night (a rainy Tuesday in Ballard), they were all sitting at tables, and there wasn’t much of anywhere to go. This was one move that felt so staged it was almost hard to go along with, but in the context of so much melodrama and weirdness, you were forced to laugh.

Get a baited bear, throw in a case of vodka and a tortured but enticing young woman and you’ve got Dostoyevksy. But with bunny tails and porkpie hats.

Source

Edited November 30, 2008 by Johnny E

[Guest Bill Barton]

Uh, drummer Izaak Mills?

[papsrus]

Uh, drummer Izaak Mills?

Yeah, noticed that too.

Edited November 4, 2008 by papsrus

[Guest Bill Barton]

Uh, drummer Izaak Mills?

Yeah, noticed that too.

But of course when you factor in the high-quality journalism of the rest of the article it's a minor glitch, eh?

Edited November 5, 2008 by Bill Barton

[Johnny E]

Chicken or Beef?

Reptet | Monktail Records (2008)

By Dave Major - All About Jazz

Free jazz and the avant-garde form an interesting and self-conflicted paradigm. All too often it seems musicians perceive the "free" aspect to mean that they must completely reject traditional music and become trapped in the ether of ambiguity, rather than perhaps accepting a loftier goal: the freedom to both use, and move beyond convention. Reptet is an exciting group which, judging by the music contained on the critically lauded Chicken Or Beef? has accepted that ideal—but only after having poked fun at anyone who would spend a paragraph entertaining such minutiae. Simply put, the album provides an hour of exciting, varied and expertly-realized music.

There is a refreshing awareness alongside a sense of unrelenting, yet effortless, energy to the compositions. This forms a strong and interesting contrast to their sometimes quirky nature. Harmonies flutter from tight unison to wide, yearning Wagner-esque sonorities in "Gwand Wabbit," all the while driven forwards by the exacting and infectious groove of drummer John Ewing and bassist Tim Carey. The lack of a traditional chordal instrument on a majority of the tracks in no way limits the music. The horns weave deft lines behind vivacious improvisations with far more interest and dynamic than could be achieved by a piano or guitar. The ensemble reveal a wide range of influences, from the explosive Mexican lament and dance on "Reptet Score!" to the jovial trombone-led masquerade on "That's Chicken or Beef" and the rocked up intro to "Fish Market."

As an album, it feels almost like a compilation, or a sampler of the band's more than obvious talent, and leaves the impression that they could easily release an entire record based on anyone of the themes explored. But this is not to say that it lacks cohesion, rather that they chose be trapped within one style, and have blurred the edges between the rest.

As to the question posed by the title: if you want fiery, spiced chicken, listen to some bop, and if you hunger for a beefier, more cerebral cut, look to the avant- garde. However, if you want both, along with a side from the expansive buffet of music, then Reptet and Chicken or Beef? Will provide a solid and exciting experience.

Reptet at All About Jazz.

Visit Reptet on the web.

Track listing: Danger Notes; Reptet Score!; eltiT; Eve of Thrieve; Chicken or Beef?; That's Chicken or Beef; Gwand Wabbit; Fish Market; Swanni; Kill the Air; Go Bears.

Personnel: John Ewing: drums, percussion, bull moose call, vocals; Samantha Boshnack: trumpet, flugelhorn, slide trumpet, vocals; Chris Credit: baritone, alto, and tenor saxes, vocals; Tim Carey: upright and electric bass, baritone guitar, vocals; Nelson Bell: trombone, tuba, euphonium, conch shell, vocals; Izaak Mills: tenor sax, bass clarinet, flute, percussion, bull moose call, vocals; Lalo Bello: percussion (1, 2, 5, 8); Mark Oi: guitar (6, 8); Tobi Stone: clarinet (5, 6); Clinton Fearon: frog (1, 6), vocals (6); Eyvind Kang: viola (1); Lori Goldston: cello (1); Paris Hurley: violin (1); Maeg O'Donoghue-Williams: vocals (7); Sari Breznau: vocals (7); Kevin Hinshaw: vocals (7); Scott Adams: vocals (7); Satchmo: vocals (11); Jack: vocals (11).

Style: Free Improvisation/Avant-Garde

Published: November 30, 2008

Source

Edited November 30, 2008 by Johnny E

[Johnny E]

And yet another from AAJ:

Chicken or Beef?

Reptet | Monktail Records (2008)

By Henry Smith

A sextet based out of Seattle, Washington, Reptet present a sound and message that, in its own words, aptly describes both the group's approach and its broader mission "to compose, interpret and improvise music that inspires growth through freedom and discipline." Working within a good-natured, party band atmosphere, the unit manages to stretch its genre's typical trappings on Chicken or Beef?, with both a broad array of stylistic capabilities as well as an adventurous, fun-loving attitude too often lacking in this setting.

The album opens with the funky "Danger Notes." Starting off in New Orleans party band mode, percussionist John Ewing and bassist Tim Carey guide a path that ebbs from the scorching solo of saxophonist Chris Credit to the more contemplative, textural mood over which Samantha Boshnack's trumpet can shine.

Things get even less predictable on "Reptet Score!" With a flurry of horns and percussion, the piece uses a Latin-tinged theme, building until the whole unit yells "hey!" before slinking into a steady, understated groove that meets somewhere between the dance floor and the lounge. The piece breaks apart soon enough, with horn squalls and guffaws abounding, sounding not unlike Spike Jones and his City Slickers if they were to cover Sun Ra.

"Chicken or Beef?" starts off with one member proclaiming that he is from the future before a Roland Kirk like party favor kicks off a percussive groove intermixed with electronic washes. Tobi Stone guests on clarinet with a fine solo that maintains the taut quirkiness of the track. A chant of the title builds into something not far off from a funkier version of the Residents, chugging along with abandon before slipping into "That's Chicken or Beef," in which a ska-inflected rhythm is turned into a soloist's delight, this time with trombonist Nelson Bell leading the way.

The unit slows down for "Gwand Wabbit," whose broadly sweeping rhythm is further pinned down by the vocal washes of guest singers Maeg O'Donoghue-Williams, Sari Breznau, Kevin Hinshaw and Scott Adams. The respite is quickly interrupted though, as "Fish Market" presents a manic lyrical musing on, well, fish markets, with interlocking horn lines moving about over Izaak Mills' steady bass clarinet riff to create a Frank Zappa meets Dirty Dozen Brass Band atmosphere of wacky fun and highly skilled musicianship.

Ultimately, that's what Reptet seems all about. Chicken or Beef? is less the defining artistic statement of a creative collective than a document of a highly skilled and engaging group that is subtly stretching the bounds of its medium without sacrificing its favorite part of it all, the fun.

Style: Free Improvisation/Avant-Garde

Published: December 01, 2008

Source (there's a little video there too)

Edited December 1, 2008 by Johnny E

[jazzypaul]

and another review of Johnny's record