HARD VIBE is a new cosmic-modular jazz quartet based in New York City featuring saxophonist Matt Nelson, pianist Ron Stabinsky, keyboardist Matthew Mottel, and drummer Kevin Shea.
Inspired by Herbie Hancock's '70's space-music and long-form repetitive works like Miles Davis’ On The Corner, Hard Vibe has a trans-minimalist compositional impetus with an atypical array of structural obstructions. Specifically, Hard Vibe force-fuses a hard-boiled chordal pattern from rhythm changes into an all-inclusive oasis of contextual amelioration. This is pragmatically achieved by transforming a major-key cadence into a sadistic pre-determined grid of unremitting minor modulations…a task adroitly executed on B3 by Stabinsky.
Simultaneously, the fantastical foundation of Mottel’s 80’s-jazz-era melodic phrase, paired with Shea’s strict 16th-note rhythmic concept, propels Nelson’s inexhaustible sax solo into a increasingly ecstatic state of tantric epiphany. Hard Vibe obediently maintains it’s infectious pulse throughout and ultimately culminates as a joyous synth-infused Prince tribute cum Keytar payoff à la Jan Hammer.
Other influences for Hard Vibe include Charlie Parker's concrete melodic vision within Salt Peanuts, the NYC Avantgarde Minimalism of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, Tenor Sax endurance soloists like Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler's funky New Grass, and the epic organ brutality of Larry Young.
Matt Nelson (tenor/effects): Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Matt has been playing the saxophone since his days at El Carmelo Elementary School. He left the sunshine of California for the flurries and wintry mix of Northeastern Ohio, where he attended Oberlin College and Conservatory to study with Gary Bartz and Paul Cohen, among others. After graduating he moved back to the Bay Area and became an active member of the experimental/ jazz/noise scene in Oakland and San Francisco. It was in the Bay Area that he began playing with tUnE-yArDs. After recording on the acclaimed album WHOKILL, he spent a large portion of 2010-2012 on tour with the band. In 2010 Matt began to split his time between the Bay Area and Brooklyn, where he now resides full-time. Since relocating to New York he's begun playing regular solo shows, as well as in the band Battle Trance, released their debut record in August 2014 on New Amsterdam Records and NNA Tapes.. Over the past couple years he's had the pleasure of performing with amazing musicians like Ava Mendoza, Peter Evans, Nels Cline, Weasel Walter, Ben Goldberg, Dan Peck, Tom Rainey, Michael Coleman, Sam Ospovat, Bill McHenry, Tim Dahl, Nick Podgurski, and many others. His debut solo record, Lower Bottoms, was released in Fall of 2014.
Ron Stabinsky (organ) recently released his debut album, Free for One, the culmination of more than a decade of evolving his improvised solo language. In addition to continuing to pursue his ongoing interest in solo piano improvisation, he enjoys working on music in a stylistically diverse array of situations throughout the United States and Europe with many other musicians and ensembles, including free- improvising saxophonist Jack Wright, bass trombone virtuoso David Taylor, Meat Puppets bassist Cris Kirkwood, and NEA Jazz Master David Liebman. Recent festival appearances include Newport Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Moers Festival (Germany), Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Austria), Outreach Festival (Austria), and Jazz and More Festival Sibiu (Romania). He is currently a regular member of the band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the new music ensemble Relâche, the Charles Evans Quartet, and the Peter Evans Ensemble, a new expanded conception of the critically acclaimed Peter Evans Quintet.
Matthew Mottel (Rhodes/Keytar), is an artist and performer who has worked extensively in the International Arts Community since 1999. He co-founded his performance duo Talibam! with Kevin Shea in 2003. They have released 26 albums and completed over 20 international tours. He has also performed in collective ensembles; CSC Funk Band, Alien Whale, Nymph, and is a band-leader in his own unit Platinum Vision. He has collaborated with his father, photographer Syeus Mottel, choreographer Karole Armitage, Fluxist artist Yasunao Tone, Instrument inventor Cooper-Moore, Visual Artist Peter Coffin and many others. He was an Artist In Residence At Issue Project Room in 2010, an LMCC Swing Space Recipient in 2011 and continues to expand his practice searching for both unique opportunities and collaborations. He has performed at such acclaimed venues as MoMa, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Victoria & Albert Museum London, The Kitchen NYC, All Tomorrow's Parties Festival and more.
Kevin Shea (drums) is a true original. Few other drummers of his generation are as recognizable and idiosyncratic. Shea has always imbued his playing with a humor and flexibility that few in the jazz world have been able to match. His highly considered approach to the drum set is rooted in virtuosic technique, deliberate rawness, and obsessive inquiry. The global experimental community first took notice of Shea back in 1997 with cult free-rock trio Storm & Stress, alongside Battles/Don Caballero’s Ian Williams. Since then, Shea has been featured on 160 albums and has performed in 45 countries. He maintains a relentlessly prolific and polarizing presence with Talibam! (with Matt Mottel), Mostly Other People Do The Killing (with Ron Stabinsky and Moppa Elliott), People (with Mary Halvorson), Rhys Chatham, David Taylor, and countless other projects in the Avant-Garde, Jazz, Contemporary Music, and less superlative genres.
Talibam!, a 14-year working unit based in New York City, can be described in various ways -- as a classic keyboards/drums expanded-jazz duo, as Dadaist provocateurs with an innate love for the history of music, as a Fluxus-informed theater troupe, as an electronic ensemble inspired by Stockhausen, or as a rhythm section at the cross hair of agility, speed, punctuation, and intention. Since their inception in 2003, Talibam!’s ultimate goal has been to wed disparate ideologies through proficiency, controversy, inquiry, and compassion. Matt Mottel (keys) and Kevin Shea (drums) have remained devoted to their belief that the application of diversity in sound is paramount to the appreciation of diversity among fellow beings.
Talibam! delights in creating music that cannot be pinned down within the safe-spaces of existing genres. With each new album, Talibam! reinvents their methodological palette in order to bolster a fresh clarity of joyous auditory surprise, something their fans have come to depend on. Talibam! has worked hard to proselytize their process. To date, Talibam! has released over 30 albums, traveled to over 40 countries, and completed more than 30 international tours … with performances at ATP Festival curated by TV On The Radio, Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall’s Dance Umbrella Festival, Lincoln Center’s Sound and Vision Festival, MoMA’s “Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde” exhibition, Nickelsdorf Jazz Festival, Tarcento Jazz Festival, Milano Dance Festival, Acéfalo Festival in Chile, Suoni Festival in Montreal, Issue Project Room’s Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain Fest, Forthwith Festival in Winnipeg, Whartscape Fest in Baltimore, and ZXZW Festival in Tilburg, to name a few. Talibam! has collaborated across genre with the likes of Yasunao Tone, Cooper-Moore, Tamio Shiraishi, David Watson, Ingrid Laubrock, Shelley Hirsch, Daniel Carter, Alan Wilkinson, id m theft able, Leila Bordreuil, Briggan Krauss, Ravish Momin, Ron Stabinsky, Rick Parker, Lary Seven, Sam Kulik, Micah Gaugh, Jeremy Wilms, Mick Barr, Peter Evans, Ed Bear, Moppa Elliott, Lukas Ligeti, Robbie Lee, Nate Wooley, Kyle Forester, Tim Dahl, Fritz Welch, Danielle Kuhlmann, Chris Pitsiokos, Jon Irabagon, Anders Nilsson, Mike Pride, Chris Forsyth, Sarah Lipstate, Kyp Malone, Weasel Walter, Tom Blancarte, Michael Evans, Jaime Fennelly, Matt Nelson, Tom Smith, Steve Gunn, David Earl Buddin, and Karole Armitage’s Armitage Gone! Dance company. In addition, Talibam! was awarded residencies at IRT Theater, Incubator Arts Project, and at Swing Space by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
