DownBeat
Magazine gave the band's eponymous debut album four stars in their January 2017
issue, with the esteemed Bob Protzman declaring, "Ah, freedom-the
opportunity do something your way, and then enjoy the bonus of sharing your
venture with anyone interested . . . full of surprises . . . If they stay
together and keep working hard, there's no telling how good Earprint will
become." Well, the band has stayed together, and two plus years down the
road they have evolved and grown. They have expanded their field of vision and
broadened their aesthetic comprised of what liner note writer Jacob Shulman
calls, "The rough energy of Nirvana meets the transcendent progressivism of
Mark Turner; psychedelic tinges of Jimi Hendrix recolor the counterpoint of
Thelonious Monk."
Earprint is
a quartet of improvising musicians-trumpeter Tree Palmedo, saxophonist Kevin
Sun, bassist Simón Willson, and drummer Dor Herskovits-who see modern jazz as
an invitation to unleash their creativity, their modern-day influences, and
their vision of what a jazz quartet can sound like, which is loosely tethered
to the blues but shares the same root system. Actually, the blues is an
important "river" for Earprint, with the streams of both rock and
jazz (two major descendants of the blues) playing roles in their sound:
"Hot meets cold; sweet, sour, salty, and bitter coexist. Blues is music
where opposites join, where contradictions relax and paradoxes thrive, and such
is the nature of Earprint," says Shulman.
Each member
of Earprint has a rich, clarion sound on his respective instrument, and the
band doesn't hesitate to show their brilliant collective fingerprint. As
Richard Kamins noted in Step Tempest, "Earprint has vitality, a
youthfulness that is refreshing; they also understand what creative music can
do, where it can go when you take chances (like jazz players have been doing
since the days of Buddy Bolden)." Jon Garelick added in Arts Fuse that
Earprint is delivering, " . . . post-Ornette post-bop that manages to be
both knotty and transparent, fractured but also lyrical and swinging,
rambunctious and balanced."
Part of the
appeal of Earprint is the strength of the compositions on Easy Listening, all
of which are built on compelling, interlocking layers. Throughout the album,
Palmedo and Sun make it clear that they have spent many, many hours dissecting
and digesting the masters of their respective instruments, along with the
wonderfully free world of piano-less ensembles led by the likes of Gerry
Mulligan/Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins (A Night at The Village Vanguard), and the
previously mentioned Ornette Coleman (beginning with Tomorrow Is The Question).
In the rhythm section, bassist Willson hums along in a self-confident groove
that forms the bedrock for the bands' flights, freeing up drummer Herskovits to
offer textures of propulsion, swing, funk, rock, and humor. These two support,
and they surprise, improvising with subtlety but without inhibition. All four
musicians possess startling versatility with almost no clichéd stylistic
leanings; one gets the sense they could play anything at any time and make it
all sound like it was meant to be.
Shulman sums
it up well:
"The
excellence of its individual members aside, Earprint is notably a quartet of
its time. Instead of just the usual variety of jazz styles, we are treated to a
mix of rainy grunge, abstractness, harmonic constructions, and earnest anthems.
These artists grew up in an era where it was easy to consume great volumes of
music, and it shows. By the climax of the album, the title track, we have
experienced a massive web of musical connections, ranging from satisfyingly
natural to delightfully non-obvious... Easy Listening rewards the curious listener
and takes them on a journey that is both vast and quick. This is the magic of
smart, creative jazz."
More on
Earprint:
Kevin Sun is
a saxophonist living in New York City. His trio, established in 2016 and
comprising bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor, is documented on one
album and performs regularly around the city. Sun plays in a number of co-led
ensembles, including Earprint and Mute, which have released albums on
Endectomorph Music and Fresh Sound New Talent. His creative work to date has
attracted attention from leading critical publications, including The New York
Times, The Village Voice, DownBeat, The NYC Jazz Record, Audiophile Audition,
PopMatters, and Stereogum, among others. Sun is in-demand as a sideperson on
the New York jazz and improvised music scenes, and he has performed with a
variety of small ensembles and larger ensembles, most notably the John
Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Brian Krock's Big Heart Machine. He has also
performed extensively across China and serves as Artistic Director of the Blue
Note Beijing Jazz Orchestra, where he performs bimonthly.
Simón
Willson is a Chilean-born, Brooklyn-based bassist and composer. As an eclectic
and in demand sideman, he has toured with a host of different artists in
Europe, the US, Canada, and South America. He has worked with a number of
relevant jazz figures, such as Ethan Iverson, Rodney Green, Dave Douglas,
Michael Blake, Steve Cardenas, Jim Black, Tim Miller, Jason Palmer, George
Garzone, Frank Carlberg, among many others. In addition to his sideman work, he
co-leads the bands Great on Paper, Family Plan, and Earprint. The latter won
the "best debut album" category of the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll in
2016. He can be heard on over twenty-five records for labels such as Tzadik,
Steeplechase, Newvelle. He recently recorded an album as a member of Dave
Douglas' Sextet and alongside GRAMMY award-winning guitar player Bill Frisell
for pianist Elan Mehler's album TJ & the Revenge.
Tree Palmedo
is a trumpeter, composer, and songwriter based in Brooklyn, NY. His work spans
the worlds of jazz, free music, pop, and indie rock, and he has recorded and
performed with the likes of Cuban jazz virtuoso Yosvany Terry, DIY Italian pop
orchestra Tredici Bacci, singer-songwriter Ben Zaidi, underground legend JG
Thirlwell, and acclaimed indie rock band The World Is A Beautiful Place and I
Am No Longer Afraid To Die. After growing up in the cultural hotbed of
Portland, OR, Tree graduated cum laude from Harvard and completed a Master's
degree in Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory. In Boston, he studied
trumpet and improvisation with artists such as John McNeil, Vijay Iyer, and
Jason Moran. In addition to Earprint, he currently plays regularly in the
Brooklyn bands Tredici Bacci, Drinking Bird, and Peaceful Faces, and can often
be found playing with many other improvisers, songwriters, and bands.
Dor
Herskovits is an Israeli drummer and composer based in Boston. As a sought
after sideman, he plays in various jazz and experimental groups on the
Boston-New York line. He has also toured around the US, Canada, Europe and
China. Herskovits has recorded many albums as a sideman, featured on labels
such as Newvelle and Endectomorph music, alongside musicians such Grammy
award-winning guitarist Bill Frisell, Michael Blake and Jason Palmer. He has
also performed with George Garzone, Jon Cowherd, Steve Cardenas, Elan Mehler,
TJ and the revenge, Bert Seager's Tet-rap-tych, Max Ridley's Basement
Philharmonic, Daniel Rotem and Xiongguan Zhang. As co-leader of Earprint, he
received critical acclaim from publications such as Downbeat magazine, NPR's
critics' poll and many more. In 2018, he established the Dor Herskovits
Quintet, featuring saxophonist Hery Paz, guitarist Caio Afiune, pianist Isaac
Wilson and bassist Max Ridley. Their debut album Flying Elephants will be
released in September 2019.
