Brodie West Quintet The Sound of Surprise – post-modern contemporary jazz
Toronto-based saxophonist and composer Brodie West is a tireless creative force—both within jazz spheres and well beyond them. He’s one of those rare artists whose practice encompasses tremendous breadth but whose singular, eccentric voice is irrepressible.
West’s quintet features two drummers – Nick Fraser and Evan Cartwright – along with pianist Tania Gill and Josh Cole on acoustic bass. The group plays West’s rhythmically charged compositions, presenting an intricate rhythmic matrix at times meditative, buoyant and wrapped with lyrical melodicism and virtuosic improvisation. The outfit’s debut, Clips, garnered favourable press from publications spanning DownBeat to the Wire, the latter of which called it “exciting, eventful music of the highest quality.”
West is an in demand studio musician who is featured on recent recordings by US Girls, The Weather Station and Masahiro Takahashi and has appeared on seminal Canadian records by Broken Social Scene, Jennifer Castle, Sandro Perri and Gord Downie.
“Brodie West and his cohorts are some of Canada’s top jazz players.”
Andy Hamilton, Jazz Journal UK
“The way that he and pianist Tania Gill cover ground like a couple of old dance partners; as she gradually implies its Monkish theme, he ranges between staccato split tones that could scour an iron skillet clean, and phrases as weightlessly graceful as Paul Desmond.”
The Wire UK, Bill Meyer
“A groove-driven percussive web, one where complexity is derived from simplicity with plenty of twists. It’s an enchanting, avant-garde mix to dig into.”
Downbeat USA, Kerilie McDowell
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