Tracks:

• The Star Chamber
• A Thousand Times No
• Drippy
• Gross Fugue
• Little Owen
• Schwartzkopf Takes the "C" for Flagstad
• Mamas, Don't Let your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboy Presidents

The Industrial Jazz Group is a new-fangled amalgamation of 50s, 60s and 70s acoustic jazz (bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, free jazz, modal jazz, third stream, etc.) with the kind of sounds, effects and compositional approaches often associated with the avant garde, filtered through a sometimes absurd sense of humor and a love for melody.

The group's music reveals the influence of Monk, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, George Russell, Raymond Scott, Neal Hefti, Elmo Hope, Bob Graettinger, Jimmy Giuffre, Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, Ornette Coleman, Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington, Olivier Messiaen, Henry Mancini, Gil Evans, Henry Threadgill, Edgar Varese, and just a touch of the soundtrack from Mannix.

"The group name is only misleading if it leaves you expecting full-on metallurgical ugliness instead of machine-tooled modern jazz compositions of exquisite precision and strong aesthetic appeal. Outstanding soloists- saxophonist Beth Schenck and trumpeter Phil Rodriguez- and a crisp, punchy ensemble sound anchored on bassist Aaron Cohen and drummer Aaron Mclendon. - Brian Morton, The Wire "This is the fourth release (2nd for Innova) from this incredibly cool progressive/chamber/jazz unit from California, I believe... All horns and rhythm team with no guitar! Andrew runs a tight ship and writes layers of intricate lines for his impressive six person horn team, giving each player a chance to solo over the intricate, interlocking parts. In some ways this is similar to Zappa's 'Grand Wazoo', but without the guitar or quick-changing complexities, yet still retaining with that wacky humor which is never forced. The strong point here is Andrew's rich writing for those layers of contrapuntal horns, at times it is only flute, sax and clarinet that we hear, used just right with equally strong harmonies for the trumpets and trombone. What is interesting is that this music is really in between categories, although it does use elements of modern jazz, chamber music and other quirky elements too difficult to pigeonhole." Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

A Brief History of the Industrial Jazz Group by Andrew Durkin:

Formed by composer / pianist Andrew Durkin in the spring of 2000, the Industrial Jazz Group has frequently been accused of confounding innocent listeners. And no wonder: in addition to its perplexing name (the group could never be confused with, say, Nine Inch Nails), the IJG seems to change shape—aesthetically and physically—every year or so. Sure the music is always fun (and it should here be noted that many of the group’s fans aren’t exactly jazz fans per se). But can’t these guys keep a consistent stylistic vibe together for more than one record?

In the old days, the group produced “edgy melodic jazz,” clearly (though somewhat irreverently) situated in the bop / postbop tradition. “Thelonious Monk goes to the circus drunk” is how one listener (who at the time was probably drunk himself) described the group’s debut album, Hardcore (2001).

Then came the septet era, and the critical success of City of Angles (2002), an aural homage to the group’s hometown, Los Angeles. Clearly indebted to the ghosts of Mingus, Ellington, and especially Zappa, Angles featured substantially more, er, involved charts (“Eleven beats to a bar, the eighth note gets the beat? Are youkidding me?”), with nods not only to bop and free jazz, but baroque counterpoint, musique concrete, and minimalism.

The Star Chamber (2004) followed Angles with a more-or-less “live” (in-studio) document of what was by that time a nonet. Starker than its predecessors, Chamber was, in Durkin’s words, “our attempt to make an ECM record that we knew ECM would never release.” But it also marked a transition into a sound that had become orchestral and cinematic.

Outtakes from the first three records were collected in the limited fanclub-only release, Industrialjazzwerke, Vol. I, also released in 2004. (With a little tweaking this could have been the fourth “official” IJG album. Maybe someday.)

Of course, anyone who has heard the group lately (circa 2005) knows that it has significantly added to this early fascination with jazz and “high art” genres. Though the music still riffs on free improvisation, minimalism, Bach, and bop, it is not so much Monk who is going to the circus drunk these days, but Ray Charles, Elmore James, Celia Cruz, and other illustrious denizens of the variegated worlds of classic soul, R&B, blues, reggae, salsa, mariachi, gospel, doo wop, and rock n’ roll. Sound eclectic? You bet. In fact, the stylistic shifts are so abrupt in this latest (eleven piece) version of the group, that while listening to rough mixes of the forthcoming album (tentatively titled Industrial-Jazz-a-Go-Go) one listener exclaimed of the music that “it never lets you relax!”

Amen to that, brother.