Don’t Answer It

“The two musicians exploit all their instrumental skills, with all the different shadings and tones that they can create. “In Vino Veritas” gives a nice example of this, Corbett’s double-toned trumpet-playing, half-muted and open, is echoed by Stephens’ alternating plucking and bowing, and what you hear, surprisingly, comes close to the sound you expect to hear from a quartet.” Thursday, March 20, 2008 Schizo Quartet – Don’t Answer It (Loose Torque, 2008) ****1⁄2 Read full review at:
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2008/03/schizo-quartet-dont-answer-it-loose.html

“The duet entitled Don’t Answer It and Today’s Play, a trio session with Marsh, are more synoptic, each gesture succeeded by a measure of space, no matter how small. Corbett’s playing, while relying mostly on conventionally-pitched utterances, springs meditatively into high-register gestures and, on occasion, into wild vibrato-driven frenzy that somehow, ironically, has calm at its core. Stephens’ arco takes on an orchestral sheen, jumping register at a moment’s notice, while Marsh’s arsenal of brushes and mallets is at the ready. Energy bows to reflection, but one never eclipses the other, even on the duo disc, where forward motion remains the order of the day.”
Marc Medwin All About Jazz. See full review at: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=28342

“…the players jaywalk through paradigmatic phraseologies dismantling known meanings, yet remaining well within the borders of a comfortable conversation that exploits linear dissonances and contrasts in the most logical fashion…..the careful analysis of the physics of the instruments graced by an uncanny adeptness in the instantaneous development of short-range melodic fragments, which seamed together generate something similar to immaterial standards….. Enjoyed at low level in a silent late night, this was one of the best experiences of my mid-February return to life after heavy flu. Who needs vitamins?” Massimo Ricci Touching Extremes
http://spazioinwind.libero.it/extremes/touchinghome.htm

Photographs reproduced with kind thanks to Peter Gannushkin taken at Downtown Music Gallery New York.

The Schizo Quartet performing at the Loose Torque Causes Vibrations Gig at The Vortex 12th March 2008 filmed by Helen Petts