Dead Cat Bounce
Lineup & Instrumentation:
Matt Steckler - saxes, flute & compositions
Jared Sims - saxes, clarinet
Terry Goss - saxes
Charlie Kohlhase - saxes
Dave Ambrosio - bass
Bill Carbone - drums
Presciently stripped from the headlines, the term dead cat
bounce denotes a small, brief recovery in the price of a declining
stock. To the artists in Dead Cat Bounce, it signifies one’s
dedication to creative rebirth and renewal even as times, traditions
and masters move on.
Featuring four saxophones of all ranges plus upright bass and drums,
Dead Cat Bounce since 1997 has been the unique artistic vision
of founder and composer
Matt Steckler. Word of DCB’s high caliber as a performance ensemble has
brought them to festivals and concerts nationally, and garnered distinctions
from Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, American Composers Forum, American
Music Center, Boston
Music Awards, Jazz Times, The Washington Post, Cadence and many others in the
creative music community.
Dead Cat Bounce invokes Charles Mingus and the World Saxophone
Quartet with their "tightly
arranged, swirling contrapuntal reeds and multi-part, blues n’ roots-infused
tricky compositions" (Jon Garelick, the Boston Phoenix). Their eclectic
approach to rhythm is informed by traditions from the Caribbean, Deep South,
Brazil, West Africa, Eastern Europe and Detroit. In Dead Cat Bounce, solo and
collective improvisations energetically complement the poise of its ever-expanding
compositional repertoire.
According to Dave Liebman, Dead Cat Bounce "does it all with exquisite writing,
the subtle use of a bass-drum rhythm section and above all a definite sense of
communication between the members that I am sure will be apparent to even the
casual listener. These musicians are not just playing the music on the page,
but listening and communing together."
Dead Cat Bounce’s members are on the cutting edge of today’s jazz,
rock and world music scenes and have performed and/or recorded with: Dave Douglas,
Steve Lacy, Ray Charles, Lonnie Plaxico, Roswell Rudd, Matt Wilson, Anthony Braxton,
John Tchicai, Michael Cain, Pheeroan Aklaff, Curtis Fowlkes, Melvin Sparks, Leroy
Jenkins, the Either/Orchestra, Miracle Orchestra, Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra,
Mango Blue and others. To boot, DCB’s lineup is comprised of great bandleaders
in their own right, offering a heady combination of musicians both self-taught
and mentored under such renowned artists as Danilo Pérez, Jerry Bergonzi,
George Garzone, Jim McNeely, Bob Moses and Cecil McBee.
In 2011-12 Dead Cat Bounce toured to promote its fourth full-length
album Chance Episodes (Best CD Lists: Downbeat and Jazz Times), and also created and performed its commissioned electroacoustic
cycle Eco-Beat
Heresy.
To their résume add the globally merchandized and seminal recordings Home
Speaks to the Wandering (Innova), Lucky By Association and Legends of the Nar
(Chonsky), and you have in Dead Cat Bounce one of the most prolific and soul-searching
bodies of work available to one Little Big Band That Could.
Please visit www.deadcatbounce.org and the official DCB Facebook
Fan Page for more details and to join the mailing list for
Dead Cat Bounce and other
music
of Matt Steckler.
