"Add Joel Harrison to Metheny and Frisell as guitarist/ composers who have created a new blueprint for jazz." –
New Orleans Times Picayune
Joel Harrison: Guitar
Donny McCaslin: sax
Zach Brock: violin
Dave Eggar: cello
Jacob Sacks: piano
Drew Gress: bass
Jordan Perlson: Drums
Joel Harrison’s latest CD, Search (Sunnyside), finds this intrepid seeker challenging himself compositionally, using extended forms and techniques borrowed from favorite classical composers. The end result transcends style and genre.
All the various threads of the pieces prove to be virtuosic as well as cathartic. He particularly exploits the use of strings in the midst of a more traditional rhythm section.
Harrison is known for seeking unusual sources for “cover tunes” amidst his own composing. Who else would put the Allman Brothers “Whipping Post” back to back with a little known choral piece, "O Sacrum Convivium" by classical giant Olivier Messiaen? Harrison claims to not be attempting any sort of grand statement by this apparent collision. He avers that “I simply love both pieces of music and felt their addition to the project balanced the four tunes I penned.”
And the title? “Search”, explains Harrison, “is what I do everyday as an artist and human being. The older I get the more I realize how much I have to learn, and how little time there is to do so. Keeping open, inquisitive, finding new possibilities is what art and life are all about.”
Brandon Ross - guitar
Kevin Ross - electric bass
Chris Eddleton - drums
Hardedge - sound design
Brandon Ross is a guitarist/composer/singer/songwriter, who has performed and recorded with Cassandra Wilson, Henry Threadgill, Jewel, Tony Williams, Arto Lindsay, The Lounge Lizards, Leroy Jenkins, Butch Morris, Bill Frisell, Me'Shell N'degeocello, Moreno Veloso, Arrested Development, Craig Harris, Archie Shepp, Fred Hopkins, Joan Osborne, Muhal Richard Abrams, Deidre Murray, Mino Cinelu, Don Byron, Graham Haynes, Lizz Wright, Timothy Hill, Myra Melford, Ron Miles, Oliver Lake, Sekou Sundiata, Bill Laswell, Zeena Parkins, Michelle Branch, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others, crafting a personal approach to guitar, and improvisation, that has taken him all over the world.