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Hometown: New York, NY
Label: EverGreene Music, Evergreene Music
Website: www.evergreenemusic.com
Genre: World
Radically multicultural and poly-stylistic to the marrow, TriBeCaStan are one of contemporary music’s most musically diverse bands.
The Washington Post hails them as “an international jazz and folk festival unto themselves, fusing Balkan, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American, and African musical elements to bold and dazzling effect.”
According to Rootsworld “Tribecastan are the most hellishly-heavenly world music band you’re ever going to hear.”
Nestled in the heart of New York’s bustling urban sprawl lies a sonic oasis in which the sounds of the Indian sarod meet surf rock, West African kora merges with Appalachian mountain tunes, and traditional Afghan melodies mingle with East Coast loft jazz. Here Swedish nykelharpas and Pakistani taxi horns coexist in harmony (and mayhem) alongside thoroughbred jazz horns, driving grooves, exotic strings, and buzzing reeds.
While nailing down the multifarious culture of TriBeCaStan might be challenging (especially since the band purposefully aims to tear down the boundaries between world, folk, and jazz), the final package is the result of a virtuosic and exuberant collaboration between some of New York’s finest jazz and world musicians—many of whom have played and collaborated with legendary innovators, such as Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, John Corigliano, James Brown, and Taj Mahal.
Long-time fixtures of the band include co-founders John Kruth and Jeff Greene, Claire Daly (New York’s baritone sax goddess), Matt Darriau (multi-reedist and a Klezmatics staple), Todd Isler (global hand drum guru), and recording guest stars, such as Steve Turre (legendary trombonist and sacred shell master) and Scott Metzger (guitar wunderkind who plays with Ween and Gov’t Mule).
Some have asked why TriBeCaStan play “peasant music in an affluent zip code” and their music has responded with the idea that radical diversity—not purity or homogeneity—is truly representative of our contemporary life and a progressive future. “Our music,” says Jeff Greene, “is ultimately about the cross-fertilization of musical idioms. Between our travels and life in New York City, we get to witness, first-hand, all the wonderful ways in which the world’s cultures combine to create new musical forms and expressions. To us, there couldn’t be anything more inspiring.”
With East Coast and European tours scheduled for summer & fall 2013 and their 4th album releasing this September, TriBeCaStan continue to look outward and inward for inspiration. “Whether it’s the far-away folk and roots traditions of the world, or the blues and jazz music of our home country,” says John Kruth, “at the end of day, our sound and ethos derives from one simple construct: just play music you haven’t heard yet.”
“TriBeCaStan’s members have played with everyone from James Brown to the Meat Puppets and Ornette Coleman, and it shows. The New York-based ensemble sounds like an international jazz and folk festival unto itself, fusing Balkan, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American and African musical elements to bold and dazzling effect.”
Washington Post
“New York cool, explorer energy, and outer space vibes.”
The Village Voice
“You can’t find TriBeCaStan on any map. Instead this sprawling New York-based band spans the world for their sound, pulling in sounds from Marrakesh to Moscow. The weird part? It rocks.”
NY Daily News
“TriBeCaStan spans centuries with its incomparable blend of traditional folk styles with rock, jazz, and other modern styles. With its third album, New Deli, the band continues its spirited, genre-bending expedition with such unlikely sonic pairings as surf rock alongside avant-garde jazz and Afghani folk. Indeed, TriBeCaStan is a strange place where East meets West and old meets new.”
ALARM Magazine
"What [TriBeCaStan] does with those Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry compositions is sheer wicked brilliance. Not surprisingly, the anything-goes approach never lets up, and whatever sense of the silly might occasionally intrude, the fact remains that Tribecastan are damn fine musicians and they put it all together like the most hellishly / heavenly world music band you’re ever going to hear."
Roots World
“The beauty of New Deli is that as a result of musical risks and stylistic mash-ups, the listener is left with a sound that's unique. It's a sound that's distinctively TriBeCaStan.”
Exclaim!
“There's no easy way to describe the distinctive sound of TriBeCaStan. Downtown-loft improv with the odd trace of Appalachian blues? Yep. Cinematic fusion jazz filtered through a North African lens? Ditto. Multiculti urban folk music steeped in Balkan, Cajun, klezmer, Gypsy and classical Indian flavors? Absolutely.
Whatever you call it, the final package is the result of an exuberant, and sometimes irreverent, collaborative effort. Cofounded by veteran ethno-enthusiast Jeff Greene and multi-instrumentalist John Kruth, TriBeCaStan has built its own mythology around a deceptively simple construct: just play music that you haven't heard yet. The group finds the futuristic in the ancient, borrowing from far-flung traditions to create sleek new hybrids and, in the restless spirit of Yusef Lateef, Don Cherry and Rahsaan Roland Kirk (the subject of a definitive biography by Kruth), flip the tables on your expectations.”
Time Out New York
