 |
The Jazz Passengers
The Jazz Passengers website for biography, video, audio, quotes, photos and press.
Download the Electronic Press Kit
For info and costs please contact Alberto Lofoco
The Jazz Passengers
Roy Nathanson - soprano, alto, baritone sax and vocals
Bill Ware - vibes and vocals
Sam Bardfeld - violin
Bradley Jones - double bass and vocals
E.J. Rodriguez - drums and vocals
Plus available guests on request:
Gabe Nathanson - trumpet and vocals
Lucy Hollier - trombone
Isaiah Barr - tenor sax
Teri Roiger - vocals
• video •
Official Channel
Wake Up, Again!
Still Life With Trouble EPK
Early Video
• audio •
The Jazz Passengers at Soundcloud
"Big Large" at Soundcloud
"Still Life with Trouble" at Soundcloud
"In Love" at Soundcloud
"Deranged & Decomposed" at Soundcloud
• links •
The Jazz Passengers Website
Biography (about the band)
Press, Reviews and Photos
Big Large: in memory of Curtis Fowlkes page
• quotes and biography •
«The Jazz Passengers are a fantastical fusion of post-bop and musical comedy, once called a
"perverse mainstream... hard-bop group as imagined by Frank Zappa».
- Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe, 1989.
«And therein lies the beauty of this band, where humor comingles with a serious love for the music».
- Mike Shanley, JazzTimes.
The Jazz Passengers loom large in the creative history of New York's Lower East Side.
Their name, a take-off on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, reveals the musicians' wild ride
along the eccentric currents in modern American music.
The band was founded in 1987 by saxophonist Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes,
who realized a strong affinity in their Brooklyn roots while playing together in the
Big Apple Circus band and John Lurie's seminal band, The Lounge Lizards.
They first broke out on the New York City avant-garde scene centering around the Knitting Factory
with a hybrid of Mingus-influenced dance rhythms and original tunes complete with lyrics
and/or entertaining stories.
In the 40-odd years since their founding, their uniquely downtown mission of "cross-cultural
exchange" has enlisted everyone from Jeff Buckley and Debbie Harry to Nick Hakim and Onyx Collective.
Their signature blend of avant-garde jazz, 80s funk, world music, and 20th-century classical,
coupled with lyrical provocations that range from the wistful and tragic to the vaudevillian
and absurd, is a snapshot of the frenetic, syncretic New York of yesteryear: a living memory,
a yearning we all have for something just out of reach.
The Jazz Passengers embody that same energy - the energy of a scene and style that they
helped create, and that has left an indelible mark on the culture of the city they call home.
Besides Nathanson and Fowlkes the original band members
included Bill Ware on vibraphone, E.J. Rodriguez on percussion, Brad Jones on bass,
Jim Nolet on violin and Marc Ribot on guitar. Sadly, co-founder Curtis Fowlkes passed away in 2023.
• discography •
Studio albums
1987 - Broken Night Red Light (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
1988 - Deranged and Decomposed (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
1990 - Implement Yourself (New World)
1993 - Plain Old Joe (Allegro/Knitting Factory)
1994 - In Love (High Street, Windham Hill)
1996 - Individually Twisted (32 Jazz) with Deborah Harry (rereleased on Sundazed in 2020)
2010 - Reunited (Enja/Yellowbird/Justin Time)
2017 - Still Life with Trouble (Enja/Yellowbird/Thirsty Ear Records)
2024 - Big Large: In Memory of Curtis Fowlkes (FOOD)
Live albums
1991 - Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory)
1998 - "Live" in Spain (32 Jazz) with Deborah Harry
2000 - "Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grill (Six Degrees Records)
2005 - The Rock Concert (A Stony Muse Production/Roy Nathanson)
|
 |
