A Brand New Take

...when trumpeter Erik Jekabson is the force responsible for the conflagration, it's an invitation to let the good times roll.
Andrew Gilbert, Berkeley Side

Over the past decade, composer and trumpeter Erik Jekabson has been at the center of a daunting array of creatively charged musical situations that consistently attract the Bay Area's most incisive improvisers, like the cast that joins him here on his fifth album as a leader. The album's surging post-bop opener "Streamlined," introduces the quintet's front line with Jekabson and saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, propelled by crisp work from the fierce rhythm section featuring pianist Matt Clark, John Wiitala on bass, and the extraordinary young drummer Hamir Atwal. Besides his work as a leader, Jekabson has contributed to many albums as a sideman, including projects by trombone legend Gracham Moncur III, Marcus Shelby, New Orleans funksters Galactic, and singer/songwriter John Mayer, with whom he toured for a year. He also runs the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra whose debut recording was released in 2015.

Production Info:

Produced by Erik Jekabson
Recorded by Dan Feiszli at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley
October 11, 2015
Mixed at What's for Lunch? Studio, El Cerrito
Mastered by Jeremy Goody at Megasonic Studio, Oakland
Photography by Kasey Knudsen
Cover design by John Bishop

Reviews of A Brand New Take

Midwest Record (Chris Spector)
If you've ever wondered what makes John Mayer interesting after all this time, maybe it's because he has this jazzbo lurking in the background putting some punch into the kind of mopey sounds that would inspire Taylor Swift---for a while. Left to his own devises with a Bay Area crew, the trumpeter knows how to blow up a good kind of holy racket th ...

All Music Guide (Matt Collar)
Over the last decade, trumpeter Erik Jekabson has established himself as one of the leading lights of post-bop jazz in the San Francisco area. A native of Berkeley, California, Jekabson studied jazz and classical composition, first at the Oberlin Conservatory, and later at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a professional, he divides his t ...

Jazz Weekly (George W. Harris)
Erik Jekabson plays both trumpet and flugelhorn along with a collective of Kasey Knudsen/as, Matt Clark/p, John Wiitala/b and Hamir Atwal" for some thoughtful originals and surprising covers. Of the latter, Atwal digs deep with guests Dave Ellis/ts and John Gove/tb while the confident keys and horn blow through Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and an ...

Improvisation Nation (Rotcod Zzaj)
If SMOKIN'-hot jazz trumpet work is what you're yearning for, you will be listening to the near-hour recording over & over again, I can guarantee that! Erik leads with his trumpet and flugelhorn, but is also joined by some of the finest Bay-area jazz players on the planet - Kasey Knudsen, alto sax; Matt Clark, piano; John Wiitala, bass; Hamir Atwa ...