I just received word that Fight The Big Bull have signed to Clean Feed Records.

Fight The Big Bull is "an amalgamation of saxophones, trombones, trumpet, guitar, bass, and drums" out of Richmond, VA. Under the direction of guitarist Matt White (who reserves his guitar playing to profound effect), the ensemble swell and tumble together in a rough rubato, railing through his compositions like a wild locomotive despite its ability to physically withstand the momentum. The result is the opposite of refinement. Instead, Fight the Big Bull possess the ability to combine the raw and volatile talent of the individual musicians, somehow maintaining the sum's stability while pushing it to its very limits. An EP was released in early Fall of this year, intended to reach out further than the core Richmond, VA scene.

Steven Bernstein has taken notice in New York, booking Fight The Big Bull this past October as the curator at The Stone. Ken Vandermark has taken notice in Chicago, booking Fight The Big Bull this coming March at Elastic and Hungry Brain.

Clean Feed has taken notice in Lisbon, signing Fight the Big Bull onto their ever-expanding roster of "innovative contemporary jazz projects".

I would highly recommend this group to most every member here on the board. Of the many projects that my brother is involved in, this is probably the one that will appeal to the widest range of jazz listeners.

Stay tuned...

Yeah, this is excellent. I'm a big Fight the Big Bull fan, and I'm really excited for them.

Cool. Look forward to hearing their release.

I try to keep tabs on what CF are doing, be it reviewing their releases or just "checking in."

Did anyone in Chicago get to the Fight The Big Bull/Ken Vandermark show at Hungry Brain this past week? I'm told it was recorded and will be released by Vandermark at some point.

The sound samples have my attention. ... Thanks for the heads-up.

I went up to Richmond to see them on Halloween last year. Matt White had written arrangements for the complete Michael Jackson Thriller album. Pretty impressive stuff and FUN. It was a great time because just about everyone in the club knew all of the lyrics.

Not to mention the bass lines! We boogied all night.

I saw them again around Christmastime. Matt passed books of Christmas sheet music out to the entire club and we called out tunes for the entire second set and sang along. It felt amazing, I'd never felt so close to a hundred strangers before. A warm Guinness comfort in the golden light of a bar during the holidays, back in the hometown that I'd move away from over ten years ago.

I also just saw them again earlier this month. They were working out some new material for the Chicago trip. The tune, "Satchel Page" hit so hard that my aunt, a hardcore and extremely myopic bluegrass fan, had a minor awakening, or so I'm told by my cousin, who attempted to explain why all of the horns were improvising.

I'm interested to hear how the collaboration turned out.

I know that this board is tough on Ken Vandermark, and I'll admit, I don't think Fight The Big Bull is ready for Roscoe Mitchell, but I do see this as a Minor Move.

Nice interview with Pedro Costa of Clean Feed. I'm not at all familiar with this blog. I came across the link on a myspace page of all places. Fight The Big Bull gets a mention.

http://likerainwhispersmist.blogspot.com/2...ed-records.html

The EP will be released by Clean Feed on 9/9...

The band just played at Gojjo in Philadelphia. I know there are a bunch of Philly-folk here. Sorry I didn't get the word out. The new stuff they have posted on the myspace site is great! Satchel Paige, Bandolier. Good Good Good.

Looking forward to hearing what y'all think of this band.

Dying Will Be Easy is now available at cleanfeed-records.com. Click here for more information.

Dying Will Be Easy is now available on emusic.com.

Dying Will Be Easy has been reviewed by Kevin Whitehead on Fresh Air.

You can hear the review here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=95287524

a correction: I noticed he first called the album "There Will Be Dying". The actual title is "Dying Will Be Easy". He gets it right the second time around.

Has anyone taken the time to listen to any of this? I'm curious to hear what organissimites have to say. Generally a more critical crowd here, so it might be nice to get another perspective. This [ep] has been getting nothing but positive response since is original release.

I was listening to PBS on the way home last night and heard the Whitehead review. I'm going to get ithis from eMusic in a few days when my DL's reload so I can check it out more closely. There are only four tunes on the disc and it runs just over 30 minutes so eMusic is definitely the way to go.

Was it just me or did some of the clips I heard on PBS sound a little "New Orleans-y"? Certainly the tailgate trombone contributed to that sense, but there as fairly strong marching cadence to what I heard. I'll tell you one thing, Pedro Costa plays a weird sounding guitar. When I first heard it, I thought it was some kind of contrabass clarinet. Interesting music to be sure. Who'd have thought these guys hail from Richmond, Virginia.

Up over and out.

Pedro Costa owns the label Clean Feed Records. The guitarist is named Matt White. He is also the composer. The first time I heard that guitar part, I thought it was Reggie playing low notes on the bass trombone through a distorted microphone!

There aren't too many compositions that feature guitar at all as a matter of fact. Most of the time, Matt is conducting the band. They have adapted a couple of Pops Staples' tunes which of course feature some great tremolux-style playing, but the guitar is usually resting.

There are a few tunes here that are not on the album.

Whitehead's review is now available online. I listened to it earlier this morning, and between this thread and that review, my interest was piqued.

Downloaded "Dying Will Be Easy" from EMusic, and the first spin has lived up to my expectations. From Patrick Jarenwattananon's review: "liberal mixing of musical metaphors", "exuberant and relevant improvised music"... fitting descriptions.

In fact, this band reminds me a little of Reptet: "blaring horns and snare-drum rolls render the exotica of a slow Spanish march into a loud, blown-out stampede" could be just as easily be applied to "Reptet Score!" from their Chicken or Beef? record. I also hear similarities in the creative percussion and arrangements of both groups, and the soaring trumpet on "November 25th" and Reptet's "eltiT".

I really like this record. Like Reptet, they don't seem to shackled with artificial notions of what is and is not "appropriate" in a "jazz" group -- I hear a lot of individual creativity, plus a certain group cohesiveness that keeps it all together without being predictable.

Would love to see these guys live sometime!