The 15-piece Industrial Jazz Group (IJG), an adventurous big band featuring the music of composer Andrew Durkin, will be touring Southern California this August, with performances on August 19 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and on August 20 at Dizzy's in San Diego. Returning to the road ten months after an east coast tour--in which the band pushed the limits of what is possible for a large traveling ensemble--the IJG is back with a slightly revised lineup (officially introducing such new members as Portland bassist Damian Erskine) that also includes such “classic" original members as Kris Tiner (of the Empty Cage Quartet), Cory Wright (of Wiener Kids), and Evan Francis (of Spaceheater). The band is also on the brink of releasing a strong new album--a sort of homage to the succinct, melodic pop-rock of such unlikely influences as Elvis Costello, Devo, and the Beatles--and will for the first time be showcasing an expansive setlist, highlighting every phase of its restless, multi-faceted ten-year history.
Internationally known, and now in its tenth year, the IJG has developed a reputation for comical, quirky, genre-defying performances. Critics consistently cite the group's broad, entertaining appeal; as Tom Bowden of Educational Digest once said, “Durkin writes music that people who think they hate jazz would like." Scott Yanow of LA Jazz Scene, who compares the IJG to Holland's Willem Breuker Kollektief, enthusiastically calls the group “both a crack up and a memorable musical experience," and the IJG's quirky sonic stew was once summed up by Brandt Reiter of the LA Weekly as simultaneously “cerebral and swinging, ambitious and accessible, challengingly complex and unabashedly fun."
The group's most recent album, LEEF, released in 2008, was recorded live at the world-famous Bimhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to performing overseas (the group will be in Europe again next year), the IJG has toured the US, playing many shows in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington DC, Vermont, and Delaware. It has received numerous grants from the American Composers Forum, has been supported by the NEA and the McKnight Foundation, and has been heard on NPR and hundreds of radio stations around the world. Write-ups on the IJG have appeared in LA Weekly, SF Weekly, The Wire, The North Bay Bohemian, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Boston Herald, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Willamette Week, and numerous other publications.
Internationally known, and now in its tenth year, the IJG has developed a reputation for comical, quirky, genre-defying performances. Critics consistently cite the group's broad, entertaining appeal; as Tom Bowden of Educational Digest once said, “Durkin writes music that people who think they hate jazz would like." Scott Yanow of LA Jazz Scene, who compares the IJG to Holland's Willem Breuker Kollektief, enthusiastically calls the group “both a crack up and a memorable musical experience," and the IJG's quirky sonic stew was once summed up by Brandt Reiter of the LA Weekly as simultaneously “cerebral and swinging, ambitious and accessible, challengingly complex and unabashedly fun."
The group's most recent album, LEEF, released in 2008, was recorded live at the world-famous Bimhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to performing overseas (the group will be in Europe again next year), the IJG has toured the US, playing many shows in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington DC, Vermont, and Delaware. It has received numerous grants from the American Composers Forum, has been supported by the NEA and the McKnight Foundation, and has been heard on NPR and hundreds of radio stations around the world. Write-ups on the IJG have appeared in LA Weekly, SF Weekly, The Wire, The North Bay Bohemian, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Boston Herald, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Willamette Week, and numerous other publications.
