“ST7 are in mind of Zappa meets the Dirty Dozen meets Basie meets the Crusaders and all on hallucinogens."
- Biz (WNMC)
Brooklyn, NY - Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet have announced West Coast tour dates in August 2006 to support their new album, Husky, on HYENA Records. The seven-piece unit, who hail from Seattle, claim a five-front horn line featuring Skerik on tenor saxophone, Craig Flory on baritone saxophone and clarinet, Dave Carter on trumpet, Hans Teuber on alto saxophone and flute and Steve Moore on trombone and Wurlitzer electric piano. The septet is rounded out by the keenly perceptive rhythm section of Joe Doria on Hammond B-3 organ and John Wicks on drums. As is always the case with ST7, they could easily be dubbed ST8 for the invisible eighth member behind the soundboard. On the recording of Husky, it was Grammy Award-winning engineer, Husky Hoskulds, whose resume includes Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Solomon Burke. Insuring a quality sonic experience on the road is none other than the renowned Seattle sound wizard, Randall Dunn.
On their debut studio album, Husky, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet deliver some of the freshest, most uncompromising jazz released this year. At any given moment avant-funk can give way to refined swing; bold, roaring horn lines will gently descend into nimble, dazzling passages. In ST7's world, hip-hop beats propel Ellingtonian arrangements, while a subversive punk aesthetic is always lurking in the shadows. As The Buffalo News recently declared, “The music is superb - inventive, exciting, disheveled, mangy and, by Lincoln Center standards, inspirationally ill-behaved." In more simple terms, Billboard Magazine called Husky, “...one of this year's best jazz CDs that shines from start to finish."
Skerik formed the Syncopated Taint Septet in 2002, recruiting some of Seattle's finest musicians for the group. He named the band “Syncopated Taint," borrowing a term used by America's first ever drug czar Harry J. Anslinger to describe the nation's moral decay in the 1930s and '40s as caused by the combination of jazz and marijuana. Skerik, himself, helped launch the acclaimed underground experimental noise unit Critters Buggin (who were ultimately signed to Stone Gossard's Loose Groove record label) and the widely popular soul jazz quartet, Garage A Trois, featuring Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter and Mike Dillon. In a support role, Skerik has served as a saxophonist with the likes of Roger Waters, Mark Eitzel, Tuatara and Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk among numerous others. To this day, he remains a key member of Les Claypool's various working and recording bands.
Skerik's busy tour schedule via his various other projects paired with the economics of touring a big band such as they are today make Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet's return to the road a major event in itself. In fact, with East Coast dates planned for October and Midwest and Southern shows in early 2007, the Syncopated Taint will be one of the only jazz units of its size to tour America over the next year. It's simply one more reason why these shows are not to be missed. The first leg of West Coast dates are as follows:
August 23 / Easy Street Records / Seattle, WA (Free In-store Performance)
August 24 / The Tractor Tavern / Seattle, WA
August 25 / The Nightlight Lounge / Bellingham, WA
August 26 / Music Millennium / Portland, OR (Free In-store Performance)
August 26 / Goodfoot Lounge / Portland, OR
August 27 / CD World / Eugene, OR (Free In-Store Performance)
August 27 / WOW Hall / Eugene, OR
August 28 / Six Rivers Brewery / McKinleyville, CA
August 29 / Harlows / Sacramento (with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey)
August 30 / 12 Galaxies / San Francisco, CA
August 31 / Moe's Alley / Santa Cruz, CA
September 1 / 14 Below / Santa Monica, CA
For more information contact All About Jazz.
