muzycy:
Jason Mears: alto saxophone, clarinet
Kris Tiner: trumpet, flugelhorn
Paul Kikuchi: drums, percussion, electronics
Ivan Johnson: double bass

Editor's info:
The Empty Cage Quartet consists of four musicians - saxophonist Jason Mears, trumpeter Kris Tiner, percussionist Paul Kikuchi and bassist Ivan Johnson - who have been consistently praised by critics as one of the most powerful and substantial new jazz groups to emerge from the American West Coast.
Recorded during a hot summer in Los Angeles, Stratostrophic is a fiery set of original compositions that range from shuffle swing to free jazz blowouts, minimalist percussion loops to complex modernist gestures, funky stomps, odd-meter marches, robotic grooves, heavy rock, and nearly everything in between. The music is vigorous and methodic yet tender and reflective, dead-serious yet open to the occasional wry, sideways irony. As Wadada Leo Smith expresses in his liner notes, these young musicians are certainly on a path "to reach the whole truth of a creative music".



All About Jazz
Stratostrophic is the Empty Cage Quartet's third official studio album. Formerly known as the MTKJ Quartet, the adventurous young West Coast-based ensemble features Tim Mears (alto saxophone, clarinet), Kris Tiner (trumpet, flugelhorn), Ivan Johnson (bass) and Paul Kikuchi (drums, percussion). A cohesive mix of exuberant free jazz, angular post-bop, stark chamber aesthetics and propulsive post- Braxtonian structures all figure prominently in their singular sound.

Balancing extended episodes with brief sketches, Mears and Tiner (the principal composers) demonstrate a newfound versatility in their writing. Their previous reliance on long-form compositions is now offset by the inclusion of concise miniatures which provide periodic interludes to a handful of prolonged excursions.

Five years together have imbued the group with a deep rapport. Mears and Tiner demonstrate their close-knit partnership as they weave expansive contrapuntal melodies and harmonious voicings with sonorous density. Mears' keening.......
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