SKERIK'S SYNCOPATED TAINT SEPTET - "HUSKY"
".one of this year's best jazz CDs that shines from start to finish." - Billboard
"The multiple rhythmic influences on this recording exist together seamlessly: you'll hear James Brown breakdowns, New Orleans third-line vigor, hip-hop grooves-and lots and lots of jazz. Unless an unexpected masterpiece appears in the months to come, this qualifies as the best album of the year. " - All About Jazz
"May Skerik continue to roil the jazz waters. This is one of the coolest albums of the year." - Albany Metroland
"The music is superb - inventive, exciting, disheveled, mangy and, by Lincoln Center standards, inspirationally ill-behaved." - Buffalo News
".a perfect sound for its time." - Glide Magazine
"Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet crafts open-ended but tightly rhythmic, radical Jazz that indulges modern devices like Hip-Hop and Electronica, yet still resonates with the progressive attitude of some of Jazz's greatest innovators." - Cincinnati City Beat birth of the septet:
the syncopated taint septet formed unexpectedly and organically in the summer of 2002 when skerik was at home in seattle between tours. talking with long-time comrade and baritone saxophonist craig flory, skerik decided to reactivate a sax-and-organ group with joe doria on hammond organ and john wicks on drums. soon, the horn count increased as skerik enlisted fellow seattle musicians dave carter on trumpet, hans teuber on alto saxophone on flute, and steve moore on trombone and wurlitzer electric piano, packing the harmonies (and the stage) with a five-horn front line. from the beginning, skerik invited all of the musicians to suggest ideas and write music for the band. "the great part about this band is everyone writes music for the group. for me, these guys represent what is best about seattle musicians: very strong improvisational ability combined with unique, creative musical compositions."
the story behind the name:
skerik took the name "syncopated taint" from a description used by harry j. anslinger, the appointed commissioner of the u.s. bureau of narcotics from 1930 to 1962. in the same type of puritanical, xenophobic 1930s climate that gave rise to hitler in germany, anslinger pursued a zealous, sensationalistic, and often racist mission in the united states to demonize drugs and the people who use them. his campaign had a particular bias against jazz musicians, who anslinger saw as satanic addicts responsible for the spread of marijuana use among the nation's impressionable youth. among several other disturbing remarks to congress, anslinger famously differentiated between "jazz music" and "good music". "syncopated taint" was another term he used to refer to the rhythmic and moral contaminations he perceived in jazz.
punk jazz:
when skerik came across anslinger's description, he decided to flip it and co-opt the phrase as the name of this group. for skerik, it fits. "i like to think of this group as punk-jazz, maybe a punk-jazz version of the Cannonball Adderley Sextet. I find that a very useful term, which is also something that jaco pastorius used to use to describe his music. i was very influenced by the way he could play the shit out of bebop and then turn around and interpret a jimi hendrix tune just as deeply. even though people consider that to be two different genres,
i've always felt they were very closely related. charlie parker and jimi hendrix were both coming from the same place, the same roots, and they were both making music that was revolutionary and radical, politically and musically."
