Send "Dead Cat Bounce " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 At times, the members of Dead Cat Bounce sound like they’re playing contemporary chamber music in a recital hall, savoring dissonance for its own sake, honing the exquisite tones from their woodwinds. In other places they’re a hard-charging funk band, with raucous sax solos screaming over a rhythm section that knows how to groove in 9/8 time. In “Township Jive Revisited”, they simply give themselves over to thick, joyful primary chords, wailing with abandon a tune you’ll walk around humming all day. You can tell this is a jazz band because it comprises a bassist, a drummer, and four guys playing sax (also flute and clarinet)—but “jazz” for them is less a genre shackle than it is a sandbox to explore their oddball musical whims.Most of those whims come from saxophonist, composer, and liner-note philosophizer Matt Steckler, and his songs for the grant-and-commission-funded album Chance Episodes examine “memory’s haphazard way of bringing to the fore seemingly unrelated events, so that an episodic personal narrative is created, as if ‘by chance.’” Well, you gotta write something on your grant application, but someday Steckler should explain how that compositional approach differs from ANY OTHER MUSIC EVER MADE. Doesn’t all music, or at least all interesting music, incorporate seemingly unrelated events? Why, Lady Gaga’s most recent album recounts the actions of a government hooker, Bible people, and some guy from Nebraska! More to the point, music, simply because it’s music and it sounds intentional, creates narratives all the time, almost despite itself. Granted, most such narratives are listeners’ projections. I dare you to listen to an album and not hear it as some kind of “personal narrative,” even if the narrative is very simple—“this album is the Foo Fighters’ rockin’ return to form”, say. Music, like any artwork, challenges us to take up its disparate elements and make sense of them....full text |
| Allaboutjazz |
| Saxophonist/composer Matt Steckler mentions "remembering things anew," when describing the music he wrote for Chance Episodes. Dead Cat Bounce certainly "remembers" several influences on its fourth album, yet its members recollect via their own unique voices. The Boston-based sextet munches on several speeds of hardboiled swing for "Food Blogger," with calypso beats sandwiched throughout. "Silent Movie, Russia 1995" travels between Terry Goss' big, bluesy tenor sax and Jared Sims' jagged klezmer riffs on clarinet. Sims also contributes an addictively greasy soprano sax to "Township Jive Revisited," while Steckler takes a more ruminative approach to the horn on "Bio Dyno Man." Steckler also brings the disc to a funky close on alto for "Living The Dream." Charlie Kohlhase's baritone sax purrs and roars underneath it all, with a rhythmically and harmonically splintering alto solo on "Salon Sound Journal." Above all, Dead Cat Bounce evokes the sheer textural wonder of a jazz reed section. The four-man frontline puts its saxophones, flutes and clarinets through their paces, exploring rich Ellingtonian shades ("Salon Sound Journey," "Salvation & Doubt"), whimsically eerie hues reminiscent of the World Saxophone Quartet and the Art Ensemble of Chicago ("Watkins Glen," "Madame Bonsilene"), and bright, wailing accents from the pulpit and the African coast ("Tourvan Confessin,' Township Jive Revisited"). Dead Cat Bounce paints with a wide range of familiar colors, yet the players' distinct tones and expressive techniques suggest a palette rather than a reproduction. The interplay within this fourteen year-old ensemble keeps things cogent despite rapid shifts of meter, groove and orchestration. Bassist Dave Ambrosio and drummer Bill Carbone provide a solid yet elastic anchor, with "Far From The Matty Crowd" spotlighting Carbone's rolling percussion between saxophone arabesques. Ambrosio's strings provide a foil to all those reeds at key moments, for example his bow work on the unnerving "Watkins Glen" or the resonant strumming on "Bio Dyno Man."...full text |
| Artswrap |
| Dead Cat Bounce evokes the sheer textural wonder of a jazz reed section. The four-man frontline puts its saxophones, flutes and clarinets through their paces, exploring rich Ellingtonian shades ("Salon Sound Journey," "Salvation & Doubt"), whimsically eerie hues reminiscent of the World Saxophone Quartet and the Art Ensemble of Chicago ("Watkins Glen," "Madame Bonsilene"), and bright, wailing accents from the pulpit and the African coast ("Tourvan Confessin,' Township Jive Revisited"). Dead Cat Bounce paints with a wide range of familiar colors, yet the players' distinct tones and expressive techniques suggest a palette rather than a reproduction" (All About Jazz)...full text |
Dead Cat Bounce lyrics
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