Fratastic Merlins in Grand Rapids, Friday, November 9

[Lazaro Vega]

Fantastic Merlins

Friday Nov 9

Mexicains Sans Frontieres

120 South Division AV #226

Grand Rapids MI

49503

All Ages 8 PM $10

Nathan Hanson, tenor saxophone

Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan, cello

Brian Roessler, bass

Federico Ughi, drums

Superb...suprisingly adventurous...transcending post-modern superficiality

--Signal to Noise

I've been blown away...This is not just another swell improv disc

--Downtown Music Gallery

Enjoyably innovative...bewildering exploration

--Minnesota Monthly

Fantastic Merlins make music imbued with one of jazz's greatest strengths: a complex but naturally woven and interdependent improvisational spirit.

--Reveille

The Fantastic Merlins make improvised music with the spirit that’s the impetus behind the best jazz.

--Pulse Magazine

It’s refreshing when a band like the Fantastic Merlins comes along...They are a band for bored ears.

--How Was the Show

On top of everything, the musicians look for a collective coherence rather than straining themselves to put their excellent technical value in front of the listener, which is a major plus...

--Touching Extremes

They’re working on the fertile turbulent boundaries of many musical categories, setting their classical training and adventurous spirits on jazz bedrock--definitely a way to get the Paul Seal of Approval

--Minnesota Public Radio

The Fantastic Merlins make music that's unpredictable and steeped in emotion. Alternately upbeat and meditative...a sound that's part avant-garde jazz, part chamber music, part boundary-breaking sonic journey.

-- Mliwaukee Shepherd Express