If there was ever a surprise outing by an unorthodox virtuoso, Chris Speed's Iffy is it. One of Human Feel's founding members, Speed has drawn together a lean, strong trio featuring Jamie Saft on organ and keyboards and Ben Perowsky on drums. The threesome prove adroit architects in the organ-sax-drums combo vein, working through soulful churners and then absolutely blazing burners. Saft's got incredible feet on the bass pedals and a pair of lightning-quick hands on the keys (check out "Graphic Ridiculous"). When Speed unpacks the tenor sax, he sounds brawnier than anywhere else in his discography (which extends from Human Feel recordings to Dave Douglas's In Our Lifetime and Soul on Soul). With tenor in hand, Speed charges through "FMU," only to spin into the balladic "Gina" on clarinet, Saft intensifying the drama with extended notes that smolder. Get ready, though, because Speed, like Knitting Factory Works labelmate Odean Pope on EBIOTO, has an unrelenting sense of charged improvisation that at once shapes and exceeds melody. --Andrew Bartlett
Iffy,Chris Speed,Knitting Factory,Avant-Garde Jazz,Eastern Europe,Jazz,Jazz Music,Modern Creative,Pop,Post-Bop,Soul-Jazz
Jazz Music:
- Intrinsic
- Ivory Masters: Piano with Attitude
- Jazz in Clear Water: Hoe Down
- Jazz Violin
- Joe Henderson Quintet at the Lighthouse [Live]
- John Surman
- Joy [Original recording remastered]
- Lindy Hop Deluxe
- Matthew Shipp's New Orbit
- Mean Streets: No Bridges
Jazz Music
Leave Right Now [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
H.O.M.E.: A Gainesville Benefit for the Homeless Outreach Mobile Effort
Let's Po a Fo [Explicit Lyrics]