Login to send a message

ABOUT THE RECORD
"Key's flail over surging electric bass and all action drums, torrential horn fattening the hissing grooves... just down and dirty funk." Toronto Star
Poised to become the leader in Canada's contemporary jazz scene and capable of producing some of the most adventurous and innovative sounds around today, Metalwood is the band to follow.
For their first album, recorded when they had played together only once, Metalwood received a 1998 Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, a 1998 Virgin Records staff pick of the year award, and a nomination for Vancouver's 1998 Georgia Straight Music Awards. As well, Metalwood won best jazz album of the year and was nominated for engineer of the year at the West Coast Music Awards in 1998.
Most recently Metalwood was voted "Talent DeservingWider Recognition" for the Electric Jazz Group category in Down Beatmagazine's 1999 Annual Critics poll, joining Bill Frisell, Yellowjackets, Zawinul Syndicate, Medeski Martin & Wood, Bela Fleck, Marcus Miller, and Steve Coleman & Five Elements in that category.
The band was chosen as Jazz Report Magazine's Electric Group of the Year for 1999. Metalwood was just nominated for the 1999 West Coast Music awards in the best Jazz Album, Musician, Producer , and Live Performer of the Year categories. The musicians who comprise Metalwood each enjoyed much success as solo artists prior to their union. With over two dozen albums between them, they are internationally respected band leaders and instrumentalists.
With groove-orientated Jazz enjoying a small resurgence, very few bands have the willingness or ability to improvise that made early fusion bands such as Weather Report, the Tony Williams Lifetime, and Brand X so successful. Metalwood, on the other hand, combines impressive facility with equally serious compositional skills.
The band describes its original material as reminiscent of sounds such as that of 1970's Miles Davis, Weather Report, or Return to Forever, and the sound they were seeking is the sound that they have found; playful, sometimes heavy, yet always groovy and sophisticated.
Metalwood builds coherent, sizzling tracks often from bare-bones or improvised ingredients.

REVIEWS
"Bubbling funk improvisations that sound like outtakes from Bitches Brew and delicately layered ballads that show the influence of Wayne Shorter.."
Down Beat Magazine (June 1999)
"Metalwod.. charts wide-ranging territory from '70s fusion, hard hittling funk and freewheeling improv.." Tim Carlson - Queue Magazine
"Metalwood fills the void left when the members of Weather Report decided to go their own ways." Alex Varty - The Georgia Straight
"The opening notes of 5 minute, the John Bonham-sized riff that propels Hillcrest, and Chrs Tarry's bottom-feeding bass on the otherwise boppish Lateral kick rock n roll butt." Alex Varty - The Georgia Straight
"Mike Murley's tough tenor is matched by Brad Turner's probing keys as they seeth over the relentless pulse from Chris Tarry on bass and Ian Froman on drums." The Toronto Star
"These young players create a sound that transcends boundaries" The Sask. Jazz Festival
"The quartet has been giving rock-jazz fusion a good name lately, and Saturday's set kept up the good work." Marke Andrews - The Vancovuer Sun
"Metalwood has won the Juno for Best Contemporary Jazz two years in a row, and for good reason!...stylistic melting pot of jazz..." James Muretich - The Calgary Herald
"If they keep putting out the brand of sizzling funk jazz they were this week, Europe will be won over!" Roger Levesque - The Edmonton Journal
"Metalwood has frimly established itself in the upper echelon of this country's jazz ensembles." SOCAN Words and Music
"The guys from Metalsod can play. That's the frist thing I realized while they played for a massive grouping of awestruck bystanders" Scott C - Montreal Mirror
"Sitting at the pinnacle of jazz improvisation and creativity.." Scott C - Montreal Mirror
"Pan-Canadian Groove!" John Lyttle - Ottawa Xpress

del.icio.us

Recent entries for Metalwood

You must be logged in to become a Friend!

You do not have any Friends... :(