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Musicians: Christy Doran el-g, Bruno Amstad voc, Fabian Kuratli dr,perc, Wolfgang Zwiauer el-b, Muthuswamy Balasubramoniam mridangam
Recording date: 20. - 23. November 2000
Recording place: Radio Studio Zürich, Schweiz
Funk, jazz, rock and pop meet in ”Black Box” in an exciting display of fireworks and create a stimulating and exhilarating atmosphere. The guitarist Christy Doran, who has chosen Switzerland as his home, and his band New Bag present a highly explosive mixture of very different elements on their second album and debut on DOUBLE MOON RECORDS. The band heats up these elements to an unimaginable degree in a fiery blast furnace. The result is ”Black Box,” a rousing and captivating album filled with intelligence, skill and sensitivity.
Christy Doran, who was born in Dublin/Ireland and has lived in Lucerne since his childhood, is part of the crème of European jazz. Always searching for new paths and stylistic links, he is in the front row of innovative jazz with his personal hallmark. He has been creating havoc in the music scene with his sudden excursions into other genres for more than 30 years. He has innumerable credits as a sideman (Carla Bley, Bobby Previte, Gary Thomas, Albert Mangelsdorff, Charlie Mariano, Wolfgang Dauner, Annie Whitehead and many more), and his own and cooperative projects have included an elite range of artists: the electric jazz band OM with Urs Leimgruber and Fredy Studer, the septet Christy Doran’s May ’84 with Norma Winstone, Trilok Gurtu, Dom Um Romao, Urs Leimgruber, Rosko Gee and Dave Doran and many other projects with musicians such as Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Gary Thomas, Marilyn Mazur, Manfred Schoof and Tomasz Stanko.
But Christy Doran could not exist as New Bag without his fellow musicians. The three others involved are not sidemen, but instead participants of the same standard who contribute their own bit of style. Singer Bruno Amstad uses his voice in a great variety of different areas of singing. He mixes different singing techniques with technical effects to create a sound structure, which blurs the borders between naturally created and electronically alienating sounds. Wolfgang Zwiauer proves to be a multifaceted, sensitive bassist, who is considered the most all-round bassist in Switzerland. He has worked in the studio and been on tour with George Gruntz, David Gilmour and Candy Dulfer, among others. Drummer Fabian Kuratli is part of the first generation who grew up with techno music. As a result, modern and current sounds from pop music influence his playing, although his secret love is for the jazz legends of the 60s such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Thanks to his unmistakable style, he has become the busiest drummer in Switzerland. Percussion virtuoso Muthuswamy Balasubramoniam is a guest on ”Black Box,” and he gives a special flavor of world music to the whole concept of style fusions.
”Black Box” by Christy Doran’s New Bag presents six pieces, which together underline the multifaceted aspects of the band. Whether it is a question of pop-funky arrangements such as in the opener ”Sugarpie,” more rock-oriented fusion sounds in ”Written In Your Face,” expressionistic ballads in ”Caviar,” globally comprehensive and airborne in ”Structured Clay” (with a long introduction by Muthuswamy Balasubramoniam), gloomy and electrifying in the title piece or rhythmically driving jazz rock as in the last piece ”Pantrova,” this album captivates listeners with is expressive melodies, its pulsating rhythmic background and its virtuoso excursions into sunny solo fields. Christy Doran is further solidifying his place at the forefront of the European jazz scene with ”Black Box.” As the German music magazine FACHBLATT wrote about the musical jack of all trades: ”There are not many who can match him with respect to freshness, originality, richness of imagination and variety of sound ...” – a judgment that few would dare to contradict!
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