You need to see this amazing 15 person psychedelic-jungle-jazz-funk-orchestra from Durham, NC. Their music blends the familiar with the avant-garde with a solid rhythmic punch. Listening to D-Town Brass music is a soul-expanding experience, but can be dangerous, as it usually attracts, well, let’s just call them entities, for lack of a better term, that want into our dimension, but may not have proper, shall we say, manners when it comes to what (or who) they eat. Keep that third eye open and turn up the volume.
“D-Town Brass’s name is only an indication of what you might expect to hear from this savory jazz outfit: The 15-piece ensemble indeed spouts a great deal of brass, along with drums, marimba, bass, keys and vibraphone. Every D-Town Brass composition is so deliciously distinct, you’d never know you were listening to the same collection of crazy cats. Since D-Town Brass doesn’t fit snuggly into any cohesive genre, it is more prudent to highlight the diversity among their scintillating selections.
On “Zombie Rag,” horns wail and drums pop like hollow bones. One might divine a scad of skeletons jiving to the beat in an eerie underworld disco. On “Mystery Town,” the persistent bass line provides Bond-esque spy motion. Horns sound in succession, ascending to a string of saxophone and trumpet solos. “Totem Pole” is a minimally percussive piece whose spare arrangements are inviting. It’s as if the entire song grows in a question that doesn’t get answered until the end, when it asserts itself like a dance around a rapid rhythm. While D-Town Brass are no strangers to cacophony or free jazz’s open forms, “Switch Blade Brush” proves that they likewise don’t shy from tradition. The track is reminiscent of the bop jazz arrangements of Dexter Gordon and Illinois Jacquet.” — Nina Rajagopalan
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