New York-based trumpeter/composer Peter Evans’ first recording as a leader, The Peter Evans Quartet, introduces his group of the same name featuring guitarist Brandon Seabrook, bassist Tom Blancarte and drummer Kevin Shea. Evans describes the band’s music, which it has performed at the annual Festival of New Trumpet Music among many other prominent New York venues, as using "a combination of influences that are near and dear to the all the members of the group (the great recorded Jazz of the 50’s and 60’s, abrasive noise music, wild and kinetic free improvisation) to give the listener something searing, intense, and honest."
"The compositions here are almost entirely made up of harmonic material lifted directly out of standards, but with many layers of melody and noise piled on top," writes Evans in the liner notes. "My goal is that the familiar elements are constantly coming in and out of focus, creating loaded, pressurized music. The collective and individual improvisation on the material I’ve provided constitutes and second layer of tension; we are forcing our kinetic playing styles through the (usually very difficult) notation, rather than seeking a comfortable relationship with it...traditional chord structures, white noise, bebop licks, tape hiss and practice exercises are set in wild motion against each other."
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