.:.impossible Posted November 12, 2007 Report Share Posted November 12, 2007 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanchristesen Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 Yeah, this is excellent. I'm a big Fight the Big Bull fan, and I'm really excited for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 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." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papsrus Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 The sound samples have my attention. ... Thanks for the heads-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted May 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2008 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted September 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted September 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2008 Dying Will Be Easy is now available at cleanfeed-records.com. Click here for more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted September 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 Dying Will Be Easy is now available on emusic.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted October 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted October 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 (edited) 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. Edited October 3, 2008 by .:.impossible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 (edited) 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. Edited October 3, 2008 by Dave James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted October 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Skid Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted December 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2008 Bernstein to play with Fight The Big Bull at RVA JAZZ FEST in February RVAjazzfest Saturday, February 21, 2009 8 p.m. featuring Steven Bernstein & Fight the Big Bull Boots of Leather Glows in the Dark $10, all ages The Camel 1621 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 353 4901 www.thecamel.org RVAjazzfest is sponsored by RVA Magazine and Urban Views Weekly About Steven Bernstein Steven Bernstein is a trumpeter/slide trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and composer who lives outside of musical convention. His influence and projects inhabit almost every strain of American music that has been produced in the last half century. He consistently collaborates with Lou Reed, plays trumpet and arranges for Levon Helm, is the former musical director of no-wave Jazz outfit The Lounge Lizards, has released four beautiful records on John Zorn's Tzadik Label, composed numerous film scores including Get Shorty, Clay Pigeons, and Fishing With John as well as scoring Robert Altman's Kansas City. He has worked on various Hal Wilner Projects including being the musical director on the unanimously acclaimed and recently released Leonard Cohen documentary. Bernstein wrote the horn arrangements for Bill Frisell's Grammy winning 2004 recording Unspeakable, as well as for artists including Rufus Wainwright, Darlene Love, Elton John, and Marvin Pontiac. His band Sex Mob has been together since 1995 touring the world. Sex Mob has won numerous awards, and has had their music featured on MTV, Saturday Night Live and NPR. His nine-piece ensemble, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, recently released their debut recording, MTO Vol. 1 on Sunnyside records. MTO was formed in 1999 for a series of Midnight shows at Tonic, and spent a year and a half long residency at the Jazz Standard. Bernstein has played trumpet with a diverse group of artists including Marianne Faithfull, Linda Ronstadt, David Murray, David Berger, Digable Planets, Sting, Medeski Martin and Wood, Courtney Love, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Don Byron and Mocean Worker. Awards include Downbeat critics poll 2006 (#1 RISING STAR ARRANGER, #4 RISING STAR TRUMPETER) Downbeat critics poll 2005 (#1 RISING STAR ARRANGER) Downbeat critics poll 2004 (#1 ARRANGER TDWR, #2 BIG BAND – MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA), Jazz Journalists Association 2003 (RARE BRASS) and Downbeat Critics Poll 2002 (SEX MOB #1 BEYOND GROUP, #1 ACOUSTIC JAZZ GROUP TDWR). http://www.stevenbernstein.net About Fight the Big Bull A spirited congregation of saxophone, clarinet, trombones, trumpet, guitar, bass and two drummers, Fight the Big Bull is a display of spontaneous emotion filled with powerful significance and baptized in the traditions of the music. The band's recordings have drawn praise from artists such as Ken Vandermark and Steven Bernstein and recently gained the attention of Portuguese avant-garde label, Clean Feed Records. Dying Will Be Easy, the bands debut effort, connects the group to its rich southern musical heritage. Proud residents of Richmond, Virginia, the band's music is filled with remnants of spirituals, New Orleans marches, southern soul dance bands, and gospel choirs - all peeking through a kaleidoscope built in the avant-garde tradition. Displaying a very loose and messy aesthetic influenced as much by rock and roll as a deep love of international folk music Fight the Big Bull creates what has been called "... a rapturously chaotic sound." Formed in the Fall of 2005 in Richmond, Va by what was then Fight the Bull (a brilliant but currently defunct avant-garde trio of guitar, trombone and drums) and comprised of the finest that Richmond had to offer Fight the Big Bull recorded what was to become Dying Will Be Easy in the Summer of 2006. After securing a local bi-weekly gig in the fall of 2006 Fight the Big Bull quickly became a phenomenon in the local music community, honing their live performance into a beautiful chaotic and thrilling mess that appeals to the widest spectrum of listeners. Occasionally showing their exceptional sense of humor as well as unique arranging skills Fight the Big Bull has thrown the biggest and best parties that Richmond has ever seen, hosting a complete cover of the Weezer's Blue Album as well as covering Michael Jackson's Thriller on Halloween. In the Fall of 2007 Fight the Big Bull made their debut at the celebrated New York avant-gard space The Stone and released their freaky Richmond gospel trance voodoo on all unsuspecting NYC ears. In April Fight the Big Bull was MacArthur Grant recipient and celebrated avant-garde troubadour Ken Vandermark's guest for a series of shows in Chicago. They have been called "...sonically gigantic", "great, messy, generous music", " the best argument out there for small-market jazz innovation.", and Timeout NY has called them "... one of the more vibrant jazz ensembles we've heard in a long while". In November Fight the Big Bull was featured on NPR's Fresh Air and WNYC (New York City's NPR station) and Popmatters.com recently named Dying Will Be Easy as one of the top 10 Jazz albums of 2008. A band full of horns and love that you should never ever miss, displaying such a wide palate of emotions that your tin heart cannot escape being moved and featuring the finest members of the Richmond music community, Fight the Big Bull is much more than the sum of its parts and begs more than a passing spin on the hi-fi. http://www.fightthebigbull.com View articles on RVAjazz about Fight the Big Bull About Boots of Leather Comprised of Brian Jones on drums, JC Kuhl on saxophone, and Randall Pharr on upright bass, the primary focus of this unique venture is music of the Velvet Underground arranged for instrumental trio, along with a couple VU-inspired Brian Jones original compositions. Venues at which the group has performed include Bogart's, the Commercial Taphouse, and the Canal Club, all in Richmond. Boots of Leather's debut album, Foil, is now available for purchase through Jones' Slang Sanctuary label. The second Boots of Leather record, rich man poor man, is an eclectic mix of cover tunes from different composers (Barrios, Elliot Smith, Cream, Stravinsky, etc). http://www.slangsanctuary.com View articles on RVAjazz about Brian Jones About Glows in the Dark Glows in the Dark is an avant-garde jazz group based in Richmond, Virginia, and includes Scott Burton on guitar, Scott Clark on drums, John Lilley on saxophone, Reginald Pace on trombone, and Cameron Ralston on bass. Formed in 2007 by Scott Burton as a new outlet for his music, Glows is an on-going attempt to meld jazz and free improvisation with the story telling qualities of movies (or “films” for the serious). The group successfully creates music that’s engaging, challenging and always evolving. Glows in the Dark has shared the stage with Ken Vandermark and Tim Daisy, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone, Judith Berkson, Aram Shelton’s Arrive, NY’s Little Women. http://glowsinthedark.wordpress.com View articles on RVAjazz about Glows in the Dark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 _ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Martin Küchen digs Fight the Big Bull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Didn't he boink Demi Moore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted December 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2010 Fight the Big Bull featuring Steven Bernstein ALL IS GLADNESS IN THE KINGDOM has been selected as one of the top ten jazz albums for 2010 by NPR JAZZ. http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2010/12/05/131712050/top-10-jazz-albums-of-2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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