A wild improvising band from Vancouver in their 3rd release of episodic compositions based around instrumental rock forms, six "sick" and wide-ranging pieces that blend rock, jazz, chamber music and inventive forms in magnificent way, from JP Carter on trumpet, Joshua Zubot on violin, Peggy Lee on cello, Cole Schmidt on guitar, James Meger on bass, synths and Dan Gaucher on drums.
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Sample The Album:
JP Carter-trumpet
Joshua Zubot-violin
Peggy Lee-cello
Cole Schmidt-guitar
James Meger-bass, synths
Dan Gaucher-drums
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UPC: 743407121885
Label: Drip Audio
Catalog ID: DA12188
Squidco Product Code: 34364
Format: CD
Condition: VG
Released: 2023
Country: Canada
Packaging: Cardstock Sleeve , sealed
Recorded at Thee Space Echo and at Afterlife Studio, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on April 8th, 9th and 10th, and July 29th, 30th and 31st, 2021, By John Raham.
This is a USED (previously owned) item
"Sick Boss assembles some of Vancouver's finest improvising musicians under the bold leadership of guitarist and composer Cole Schmidt. The band's hefty, episodic compositions are mostly built upon sturdy instrumental rock foundations but will colourfully explode into detailed, vigorous arrangements. These expansive pieces inevitably unfurl into passages of improvisatory interplay, textural drift, and even diaphanous chamber-music-like junctures, revealing the vast and imaginative collective capacity of this brilliant group.
In 2017, the band released their self-titled debut album on Drip Audio. It was named among the top albums of 2017 in VancouverÕs The Georgia Straight and was warmly received in other media. The band performed in support of this record at festivals across Canada and Europe including Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montreal), JazzTopad (Poland), and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Their forthcoming follow-up effort, Businessless, their first on vinyl, is in many ways more immediate and boisterous than its predecessor. It's also more strange and volatile. Opener "Useless Genius 1" announces the album with gnarly propulsion, only to drop down to a single sustained sine bleep some two minutes later. The tone dissolves into a slowly evolving, drumless swarm that balloons gradually, bursting into a frantic reprise of the track's opening. "When Buzzards Leave The Bones" takes an even less predictable route. Initially it spotlights the bowed strings of Josh Zubot, Peggy Lee and James Meger but things start to unravel as Schmidt lays down a loping groove. Zubot hacks away at his violin, strumming like an unplugged No Wave guitarist, ushering the piece toward a full-band climax. The violinist and Lee are the only ones to emerge from the wreckage and chatter amongst themselvesÑfirst cautiously, and later restlesslyÑas the track comes to a close.
These contrasting, but equally action-packed pieces provide a clear indication of the remaining music's trajectory. Even the relatively continuous path of their majestic jaimie branch tribute "Doctor Dawn" is subject to eccentric formal kinks amidst its elegiac swell. It's a record that teems with charisma and nervy energy, swerving impulsively between contrasting arrangements, musical styles and even methodology. Though wildly erratic in certain ways, each cut unleashes at least one big, downright singable melody, and this fact allows Sick Boss to bound across these seemingly vast sonic and aesthetic chasms without exhausting themselves or listeners.
Sick Boss encompasses a wealth of experience that spans many dimensions of VancouverÕs music scene from alternative pop to far-out experimentation. Appearing in their full line-up, the band performs the unique amalgam of composition and improvised music showcased here; in smaller or collaboration-oriented incarnations, the group primarily improvises. Sick Boss' constituent members have received or been nominated for prestigious awards while collaborating with the likes of Mary Margaret OÕHara, Destroyer, Dan Mangan, Gordon Grdina, Jesse Zubot, Marin Patenaude, Pugs & Crows, Dave Douglas, Sam Shalabi, Ingrid Jensen, Mats Gustafsson, Lisa Cay MillerÕs NOW Orchestra, Tony Wilson, Chad VanGaalen, and have many more."-Drip Audio
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for JP Carter "JP Carter is a multiple Juno award-winning musician from Vancouver, Canada. Carter's singular approach to the trumpet and versatility as an improvisor and composer make him a vital contributor to the Vancouver music community. JP incorporates a variety of techniques into his trumpet playing, utilizing and experimenting with acoustic (traditional, extended) and electronic (effected, amplified) methods to create a wide spectrum of sound. Currently a member of several Vancouver-based groups, including Destroyer, Dan Mangan, Fond of Tigers, the Tony Wilson 6tet, Handmade Blade (with Peggy Lee & Aram Bajakian), Gordon Grdina's Haram, Michael Blake's Variety Hour, and the various New Orchestra Workshop ensembles. JP's main projects as a composer/performer continue to be Inhabitants, Aeroplane Trio, and Carsick. These three long-standing original projects have all released albums on Vancouver's Drip Audio label [dripaudio.com]. Most recently, JP has been working on a solo amplified trumpet project. He will be releasing a self-produced document of this solo work in 2017 entitled "Toy & Tool". Awards & Achievements: Juno Award Winner (2012, Dan Mangan, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Winner (2011, Fond of Tigers, Instrumental Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2016, Destroyer, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2012, Destroyer, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2009, Inhabitants, Instrumental Album of the Year); Polaris Prize Short List (2011, Destroyer, "Kaputt"); Galaxie Rising Star Award (2005, Inhabitants, Vancouver Int'l Jazz Festival) Education: JP studied Jazz Performance with Kevin Dean and Andre White at McGill University in Montreal from 1993-96, and Jazz Trumpet with Alan Matheson at Vancouver Community College in 1992/93. As a teenager, JP studied privately for a brief time in 1990/91 with Vancouver-based trumpeter Bill Clark, while studying under David Proznick in the award-winning jazz program at Semiahmoo Secondary in Surrey, BC." ^ Hide Bio for JP Carter • Show Bio for Joshua Zubot "Joshua Zubot is a musician who spent his younger years honing his skills in the West. Gaining ground internationally, Josh toured with the former Barrage group from 1997-2002. Moving to Montreal in 2003, Josh finished his BFA in Electroacoustic Studies after 4 years. In 2005, he produced his first solo album, Crouched Head, on the Drip Audio Label. He now freelances full-time as a violinist. Mainly, Josh is a performer/composer fusing many means of styles through his violin. These styles range from somewhere in the middle of jazz, free jazz, avant garde, contemporary classical, folk, improvisational, rock and electronic. Since then he has developped through the avant-garde scene in Montreal producing his own albums: Subtle Lip Can, Mendham, and Land of Marigold. Over the last decade, Josh has played with numerous different groups and individuals. Some collaborations were with Chad VanGaalen, Lori Freedman, Patrick Watson, William Parker, Pierre-Yves Martel, Michael Blake, Bernard Falaise, Rainer Wiens, Michel F Coté, Sam Shalabi, Miles Perkin, Myra Melford, Marshall Allen, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, Jean Derome, Malcom Goldstein, Pierre Tanguay, Martha Wainwright, John Butcher, to name a few. Josh performed in the Mozg Festival (Poland),International Festival de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Guelph Jazz Festival, X Avant New Music Festival L'Off Festival de Jazz de Montreal, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Sound Travels (Sound Art Festival in Toronto), Guelph Jazz Festival, Osheaga, Pop Montreal, NXNE, as well as numerous festival circuits in Europe." ^ Hide Bio for Joshua Zubot • Show Bio for Peggy Lee "Cellist, improviser, composer Peggy Lee was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She studied classical cello, completing a bachelors degree in performance at the University of Toronto as a student of Vladimir Orloff and Denis Brott. She furthered her studies on the cello with lessons with Martha Gerschefski in Atlanta Georgia. In the fall of 1988 Peggy began a year residency with a string quartet at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta. It was here that she first became interested in collaborating with artists from different mediums and in veering away from the classical path. This led to a decision to move away from the known and thus to her relocating to Vancouver, B.C. where she now makes her home. Peggy's first forays into improvisation in Vancouver happened with dancers at the EDAM (experimental dance and music) studio at the Western Front and eventually led to her meeting and joining guitarists Ron Samworth and Tony Wilson in their respective bands; as well as becoming a member of the New Orchestra Workshop, which went on to have interesting and fruitful collaborations with Butch Morris, Wadada Leo Smith, René Lussier, Barry Guy and George Lewis. Peggy continues to collaborate frequently with Ron and Tony and with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, as well as with many other longtime musical associates including Dave Douglas, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Veda Hille and Lisa Miller. She also leads or co-leads a number of musical projects: The Peggy Lee Band, Film in Music, Waxwing (with Tony Wilson and Jon Bentley) and Beautiful Tool (with Mary Margaret O'Hara). She has also collaborated extensively in theatre and dance with companies and artists such as Ruby Slippers, Rumble Theatre, Presentation House, David Hudgins, Peter Bingham and Delia Brett. In 2005, Peggy received the Freddie Stone Award for integrity and innovation in music and in 2010 she was awarded a Jesse Richardson Theatre Award for outstanding composition." ^ Hide Bio for Peggy Lee • Show Bio for Cole Schmidt "Cole Schmidt, is an active participant in Vancouver's creative music scene. As a composer, Cole spends the majority of his time writing and recording with 2013 Juno Award winners Pugs and Crows and the newly formed group Sick Boss. He can also be heard alongside other local artists such as Debra-Jean Creelman, Copilots, Karen Foster and John Paton's Soft Morning City. In 2013, he received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Emerging Artist in Music. Cole has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, including a 5 week tour with Drip Audio's DarkBlueWorld in Eastern Europe and Russia and participating in the Vilnius Jazz Festival." ^ Hide Bio for Cole Schmidt • Show Bio for James Meger "James Meger was born and raised in Surrey, British Columbia. He began playing the electric bass in early high school and took up the double bass upon entering post-secondary. After a brief stint studying music and Capilano College in North Vancouver, James moved to Montreal where he earned his Bachelors in Jazz Studies from McGill University and studied with drummer/composer Chris McCann. Despite working and studying primarily in the fields of jazz and improvised music, James' experience on the bass spans many different areas of music. In his late teens he was a member of the acclaimed Vancouver based indie-roots band, The Sumner Brothers, with which he recorded two studio albums over 3 years. Later he went on to tour Eastern Europe with art-rock band, Dark Blue World, as well as tour all over Canada with Vancouver folk act, The Fugitives. While attending McGill University, James helped form the collective saxophone trio, Braveheart. They have toured several times around Canada and self-released one album of original music entitled Acoustic Music. James currently resides in Vancouver, where he is an active member of many diverse groups including: The Bruno Hubert Trio, Squareheart, 4=4, O.A.B., Tom Wherrett Trio, Proud Animal, The Jaclyn Guillou Band and Cow Trance." ^ Hide Bio for James Meger • Show Bio for Dan Gaucher Vancouver based drummer Dan Gaucher has been a member of the following projects: ^ Hide Bio for Dan Gaucher
6/3/2024
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6/3/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
6/3/2024
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6/3/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
6/3/2024
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The Abramson Singers 2008-present
The Buttless Chaps Drums 2007-present
The Crackling Drums 2005-present
The Crackling Drums 2005-present
Francois Houle Tentet drums
Tom Varner/Francois Houle Quartet drums
Melody Diachun EQ drums
The October Trio with Brad Turner drums
Anatma drums
Dan Gaucher Trio
Ribcage drums
Uncommon Gold drums
Stop Time drums
Fond Of Tigers drums
doppler (d)efect drums / electronics
Alita Dupray Quintet drums
Ian Cox Trio drums
Shift drums
Terra Grimard drums
Sketches
Sick Boss drums
The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band Drums 2007-The End
Rabnett 5 Drums 2002-The End
the october trio Drums
Bess Durey Quartet drums
Headwater (Guest) drums ?-2006
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Useless Genius 1 6:05
2. When The Buzzards Leave The Bones 5:04
3. Useless Genius 2 5:05
4. Doctor Dawn 7:14
5. Useless Genius 3 5:55
6. Cj Blues 7:55
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