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About Microscopic Septet
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
The Microscopic Septet: Friday the Thirteenth - The Micros Play Monk
by Glenn Astarita
One of New York City's favorites, The Microscopic Sextet's 30-year run has seen a dormant period, but has been revitalized via its affiliation with Cuneiform Records. With its fourth release for the label, Thelonious Monk's influence and eternal spirit yields a wittily entertaining facelift via the septet's customary off-center expansions on bop and swing, to complement the intermittent jiggle to the avant-garde. Its musicians are true to form with their holistic stance on Monk's discography, and, thankfully, they coat the ...
Continue ReadingMicroscopic Septet: Lobster Leaps In
by Joel Roberts
Under the co-leadership of pianist Joel Forrester and soprano saxophonist Phillip Johnston, the Microscopic Septet made their mark on the Downtown scene in the '80s with a boisterous, genre-busting blend of swing, bebop and avant-garde jazz, delivered with a healthy dose of offbeat humor. Now, after a hiatus of more than a decade-and-a-half, the group once billed as “New York's most famous unknown band" is back. And, if a new album (their first in 20 years) and a March gig ...
Continue ReadingMicroscopic Septet: Lobster Leaps In
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes being years ahead of your time is not a good thing. Take the Microscopic Septet, formed in 1980, a dour time in jazz history. They were the critics' favorites--that and fifty cents (Starbucks wasn't ubiquitous back then) would get you a cup of coffee. It just wasn't their time.
The group's twelve-year run ended in 1992, and its catalog was reissued in 2006 on two double CDs by Cuneiform Records--History Of The Micros, Vol. 1--Seven ...
Continue ReadingThe Microscopic Septet: Lobster Leaps In
by Troy Collins
"New York's Most Famous Unknown Band" is back after years of inactivity, with a new album every bit as rollicking and ebullient as those made in its prime. Although the band's genesis can be traced back to 1980, the Microscopic Septet was poised for the big time in the early nineties, but their big break never came. The band finally disbanded in 1992, four years after recording their fourth and final album, Beauty Based on Science (Stash, 1988), with a ...
Continue ReadingMicroscopic Sextet: Seven Men in Neckties & Surrealistic Swing
by Ty Cumbie
Microscopic Septet Seven Men in Neckties Cuneiform 2006 Microscopic Septet Surrealistic Swing Cuneiform 2006
The Microscopic Septet's founder Phillip Johnston frequently posits that the band's music, much of which was penned by him, is “avant-garde . It can be quirky, is often fun to hear and it just manages to swing, ...
Continue ReadingThe Microscopic Septet: Surrealistic Swing
by Nic Jones
The two-disc set Surrealistic Swing, volume two of Cuneiform's “History Of The Micros reissue series, is something of an exercise in retrieval. Tracks 1-8 on the first disc are from Off Beat Glory, originally released in 1986 by Osmosis, whilst the remainder are drawn from a previously unreleased session. The second disc is made up of Beauty Based On Science (The Visit) (Stash, 1988), whilst the remaining three tracks are drawn from a seven-inch single that never materialised, plus two ...
Continue ReadingThe Microscopic Septet: Seven Men In Neckties
by Chris May
A nearly brassless little big band and a guitarless R&B group all at the same time, the Microscopic Septet was to the 1980s New York Downtown scene something of what the Art Ensemble of Chicago was to its own home town. Both bands were steeped in and respectful of the jazz tradition, but both deconstructed, recalibrated, juggled and played around with its component parts to create affectionate, often witty new amalgams of the old--and intimations of the future.
The two-disc ...
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