BABKAS
(SGL 1502-2)
“Babkas knows how to blend freely inspired improvisational abandon with disciplined artistic selectivity and taste... Often dramatic and always unique... Highly recommended.”
—Carl Baugher, Cadence
“Excellent debut... The ideas fly furiously, thick arrangements unleashing a deluge of phrases and turns. Toe-tapping, finger snapping is out... bone-cracking, mind-wracking is in.”
—;Peter Margasak, Butt Rag
Ants to the Moon
(SGL 1505-2)
“Avant-improv trio explore the full range of textures and colors on their instruments, creating image-rich works tangled with hauntingly impressionistic and frenetically hallucinogenic soundscapes, also pockets of melancholic and meditative calm.... Great ensemble performances.”
—Dan Ouellette, CD Review
“From tunes that sound like theme music to a Turkish bath/opium den and instrumentals rivalling Bill Frisell's wilder stuff to a collision between New Age and Ornette Coleman, Babkas goes for the creative gusto.”
—James Muretich, Calgary Herald
Fratelli
(SGL 1513-2)
Brooklyn-based collective plays “unbelievably dynamic, many would say ‘intellectual’, contemporary jazz... One of the most electrifying and sophisticated jazz ensembles active today.”
—Mathias Bäumel, Sächsische Zeitung
“This is a trio that goes for broke and takes some hard lefts, and manages to be both fun and ferocious in the process... Music both gnarly and ordered.”
—Josef Woodard, Jazziz
“As one might expect from such an adventurous group, they are influenced by jazz (especially the late '60s experiments with freedom) but not just jazz: western swing, rock, funk, middle eastern music, classical music, country and western, and more.... Hypnotically absorbing and exciting too.”
—Eric Saidel, Cadence