Other Albums
"Freak Miracle" - Katie Bull
Katie Bull - vocals
Joe Fonda - bass
Jeff Lederer - saxophone
Frank Kimbrough - piano
Landon Knoblock - piano, rhodes
Harvey Sorgen - drums
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb - vocals
Released May, 2011 on Innova
With little regard for the bright lines that have long separated experimentation from tradition—and even vocal from instrumental—in jazz, vocalist/composer/band leader Katie Bull harnesses the accidental, the inspired, the carefully composed and the spontaneous into a challenging, seductive whole on her innova Recordings debut, Freak Miracle. Her flexible, powerful, soulful ensemble is granted remarkable freedom by Bull and the resulting record is a wild ride that takes what you know about jazz vocals through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole.
It is with that spirit that she formed her Group Project, an ensemble capable of a seamless blending of improvisation and structure, a total confluence of impulse and collaboration where the lion of edgy dissonance lies down with the lamb of comforting forms and structures. Bull herself is not afraid of being straightforward when it’s called for, nor is she timid when it comes to cracking it open and going crazy. Freak Miracle is much more than a simple collection of songs—it’s a manifesto, a declaration that the destination means nothing without the glorious winding ride it takes to get there.
"Goodbye Castle" - Dan Kinzelman
Dan Kinzelman - saxophone
Landon Knoblock - piano
Joe Rehmer - bass
Austin McMahon - drums
Released January, 2008 on CAMjazz
"Along the ten tracks of the CD, all composed by the saxophonist with the exception of the traditional Irish tune Spancihill, one can grasp the creative freedom that is not easy to come by today, especially among this latest generation of musicians who often are conditioned by academic models and technical inclinations. Kinzelman and his fellow musicians, instead, show that they possess enough fresh ideas and expressive lucidity to distant themselves from those clichés that spoil a good part of today’s jazz. There’s no lack of reference to the past on the CD, but all of it is filtered by a deep-rooted sensibility of the present and ideally projects towards the future"
"Taser Room" - Joe Rehmer/Taser Room
"The Heartbeat, The Breath" - Landon Knoblock Trio
Landon Knoblock - piano
Joe Rehmber - bass
Austin McMahon - drums
Released May 2008 on CAMjazz
Evolving composition is also at the fore in The Heartbeat, The Breath by Landon Knoblock. Right from the start, in the pianist’s “Jaunted Memory”, Knoblock uses some single notes to find patterns that create a new tune. The composer’s touch, both at the keyboard and in his sense of structure, is graceful and easy but it takes real work to achieve this kind of mastery. This is yet another example of the continuing marvels of the piano trio at its finest. All the themes here are delightfully elusive; just when they make themselves known, Knoblock and his cohorts Joe Rehmer (bass) and Austin McMahon (drums) deftly move elsewhere. The groove of “Why the Frown” seems ever-present but the trio plays myriad inventive lines that merely imply it. And the improvisations are done economically, with never a wasted note or phrase. Speaking of pulse, this trio has also mastered the tempos where there seems to be no pulse at all. “New Beauty” is truly gorgeous, insinuating itself into the consciousness at an almost imperceptible pace. We find it clearly and surely, however, and it’s a stunning thing. Oddly, after the quiet glory there, Knoblock prepares his piano for “Sylvie A Montreal”. McMahon plays melodica for the sinuous melody that works itself out over the ‘noise’ and it’s somehow very sexy and very funny. These tunes all become little tone poems that sound like places we’ve been before but damn if it’s not like we’re there for the first time!
-Donald Elfman, All About Jazz
"Listening Between" - Landon Knoblock Trio
Landon Knoblock - piano
Joe Rehmber - bass
Austin McMahon - drums
Phil Doyle - saxophone
Debut album, released March 2006
