Years active 2013–present Associated acts Kishi Bashi | Labels Sunnyside Records Record label Sunnyside Records | |
Website www.josephbrent.com/9horses Past members Shawn Conley
Ben Wittman
Emily Hope Price
Ike Sturm Origin New York City, New York, United States Members Sara Caswell, Joseph Brent, Shawn Conley Albums Perfectest Herald, Joe Brent & Sara Caswell EP Genres Jazz, Avant-garde jazz, Experimental music, Chamber jazz Similar Kishi Bashi, Roseanna Vitro, Nine Horses, Alan Ferber, David Krakauer | ||
9 horses plays snow musik
9 Horses is a chamber jazz supergroup from the United States, consisting of composer and mandolinist Joseph Brent, violinist Sara Caswell, and bassist Andrew Ryan, originating from New York City.
Contents
9 horses plays listening to the elliott smith discography in reverse order
History
Brent and bassist Shawn Conley first played together in 2010 in Brent's short-lived project The Joe Brent Quartet, which also featured clarinetist Hideaki Aomori and guitarist Nadav Lev, but when Brent's commitments to Regina Spektor's touring band and his teaching responsibilities at Mannes College spread his time too thin, he put the quartet project on hold. In 2012, he started performing as a duo with Caswell, and after releasing Joe Brent & Sara Caswell EP together in 2013, they decided to add a bass player and Brent called on Conley once again. After making the finals of the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, they were signed to Sunnyside Records and released their debut album, Perfectest Herald in October, 2015. The recording includes percussionist Ben Wittman, but live performances generally feature either the trio alone, or guest musicians such as Emily Hope Price or Ike Sturm. In 2016, after adding Ryan, they were the 1st Prize winners of the inaugural 21CM Launch: Emerging Artists competition.
Brent is originally from Queens, New York, but spent much of his childhood in Tampa, Florida. Caswell is originally from Bloomington, Indiana, while Ryan hails from Denver, Colorado. All three currently live in the New York City vicinity.
Brent was formerly a member of Regina Spektor's band, is an active classical soloist, and, with Caswell, he occasionally performs with Kishi Bashi. Caswell is also a member of Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society and David Krakauer's The Big Picture. Ryan performs with newgrass ensemble The Freewheel Trio and Jayme Stone's Alan Lomax Project.
The trio's music, all of which is composed or arranged by Brent, combines elements of improvised musical forms with classical chamber music and Brent's own indie rock influences. The four movement piece entitled Perfectest Herald which gives the album its name and acts as its centerpiece contains elements of rock, new music, Middle Eastern music, jazz, rhythm and blues, and traditional classical music, most notably in the 2nd movement, listening to the Elliott Smith discography in reverse order, in which a single musical subject passes through all of the aforementioned genres and a fugue before recapitulating. The music for the 'Perfectest Herald' suite has been called, "...among the most life affirming one will ever hear... Regardless of which emotional depths Brent drew on to compose these pieces, this highly emotive music touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being."
As Joe Brent & Sara Caswell
Studio albums
Songs
Snow MusikPerfectest Herald · 2015
Don’t RushPerfectest Herald · 2015
Every journey is a desperate actPerfectest Herald · 2015