New York-based trumpeter/composer Peter Evans's 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."
Musicians
Peter Evans :: trumpet
Brandon Seabrook :: guitar and electronics
Tom Blancarte :: bass
Kevin Shea :: drums
Press Reviews for The Peter Evans Quartet
Trumpeter Peter Evans is an urgent new talent who promises to upend the world of jazz and Improv. Evans's technical brilliance was never in doubt; what's astonishing here is his musical intelligence and conceptual nous. If you had a lingering suspicion jazz might be dead, this furious and compelling release will calm your fears.
-Andy Hamilton, The Wire
Trumpeter Peter Evans sports an astonishing technique—no two ways about that.
-Marc Medwin, AllAboutJazz-New York
...trumpeter Peter Evans can leave you astounded (same goes for his debut recording, The Peter Evans Quartet, on the Firehouse 12 label).
-David R. Adler, Leterland
Interpreting multi-layered compositions with a combination of dazzling virtuosity and plucky élan, this crack ensemble balances boundless energy with knowing finesse. Continuously in flux, the quartet endlessly modulates between collective improvisation, intricate notated charts and individual solos with graceful verve. The Peter Evans Quartet is not only a definitive statement from a rising new voice, but one of the finest jazz records of the year.
-Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com
Evans, a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, plays trumpet with overarching skill, a kind of Dave Douglas on methamphetamines. This recording by his working quartet is a tour de will, full of intensity, noise, electronics and, above all, superbly skilled musicians. These four—Evans, Brandon Seabrook (guitar and electronics), Tom Blanchard (bass) and Kevin Shea (drums)—are fully formed and skilled players, yet they opt for the raw expression of the garage band avant-garde.
-Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com
This disc confirms the Firehouse 12 label's fast-developing reputation for left field offerings recorded in luminous sound which handsomely repay in-depth listening. Though the irrepressible trumpet most frequently grabs the ears, this is ensemble music, with only the most fleeting a capella statements amid the dense soundscapes, anchored by bassist Tom Blancarte and drummer Kevin Shea's all-encompassing rhythmic foundation. Guitarist Brandon Seabrook is central to this outing's distinctive sound, with his effects-laden fretwork switching from noisy, in-your-face textural display to smoldering single note runs, ringing chords and swirling drones.
-John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com
...a magnificent, and beautifully paced record. This isn't just a procession of tracks, but a carefully assembled artefact and, for me, the arrival of a new jazz star.
-Brian Morton, Jazz Review
Trumpeter Peter Evans has the kind of mad chops and conceptual smarts that surface just a few times in every lifetime. The Oberlin grad makes the most difficult passages and demanding techniques seem like child’s play. Each piece seesaws between abrasive chaos and liquid fluidity.
-Peter Margasak, DownBeat
...it's a great and energetic listen from stem to stern...with releases like this, Firehouse 12 Records is becoming one of the most interesting and innovative labels this side of the Atlantic.
-Marc Medwin, Cadence
...a magnificent and beautifully paced record.
-The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, 9th Edition
Top 50 Records of 2007 (#23)
-The Wire
Top 10 of 2007 list
-Philip Clark, Jazz Review
Top 10 of 2007 list
-Andy Hamilton, Jazz Review
Top 10 of 2007 list
-Brian Morton, Jazz Review
Top 12 of 2007 list
-Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com
Top 10 of 2007
-Ed Hazell, Village Voice
Top 10 of 2007
-John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com
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