Eisenstadt, Harris

The Soul and Gone

Label: 482 Music Country: USA

"Prolific young drummer/percussionist/composer Harris Eisenstadt has collaborated with a long list of notable composer/improvisers all over the world in a wide variety of formats and musical genres (including contemporary classical, jazz/improvised music, West African/Javanese dance, theater, and film scores) and on more than 25 recordings on 17 different labels. As LA Weekly's Greg Burk put it, "Harris Eisenstadt is a composer with limbs prodding into spontaneous, post-bop, and neoclassical. He works with the best." His fifth CD as a leader, The Soul and Gone, captures his young all-star sextet of the same name at Chicago's famed 3030."-482 Music

"Last May LA-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt came to Chicago to play with three different lineups of musicians from our strong new-jazz scene. While this kind of ad hoc collaboration is par for the course in improvised music, apparently these one-off engagements left him wanting more. Five months later he returned to record an album with a cross section of the same people--vibist Jason Adasiewicz, trombonist Jeb Bishop, and bassist Jason Roebke--as well as guitarist Jeff Parker and LA reedist Jason Mears. But instead of just leading the group in a free-for-all blowing session, Eisenstadt brought along a variety of complex compositions filled with contrapuntal devices, dense harmonies, and crosscutting lines. On the sextet's forthcoming debut on the 482 Music label, they come together with remarkable precision, delivering wildly energetic performances with unexpected harmonic detail."-Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader 'Critic's Choice'