Jazz Articles about Blue Collar

Blue Collar: _ is an Apparition

by Ty Cumbie
February 28, 2005

Blue Collar's oddly titled debut recording is a demonstration of how to avoid the ordinary. The musicians, all virtuosos, eschew every convention of music here, opting for displays of “extended technique"? or inspired noisemaking. Not until track five do the excellent brass players deign to play actual notes. They do grunt, huff, puff, squeal and produce just about every other possible sound. Tatsuya Nakatani complies and complements, pulling from a voluminous bag of percussive textural effects. _ ...