Throttle Elevator Music - Final Floor (March 2021 Wide Hive Records)

Final Floor is eleven new tracks featuring saxophonist Kamasi Washington and trumpeter Erik Jekabson with longtime collaborators and songwriters Matt Montgomery and Gregory Howe. Joining them are Mike Hughes and on drums, Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone, Ross Howe on fender guitar and Mike Blankenship on organ.

As the title indicates this album represents the final original recordings of Throttle Elevator Music. Final Floor has an upscale energy with elements of rock and punk that fuel the overall sound and dynamically bring an edge back to jazz.

1 Supraliminal Space

2 Caste Off

3 Daggerboard

4 Ice Windows

5 Final Floor

6 Recirculate

7 Heart of Hearing

8 Return to Form

9 Standards Reproached

10 Fast Remourse

11 Rooftop Sunrise

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Erik Jekabson Quintet - Erik Jekabson Quintet (WIDE HIVE RECORDS 2017)

Erik Jekabson is a well known Bay Area musician who's played trumpet in many groups, including: Galactic, John Mayer, and most recently alongside Kamasi Washington in Throttle Elevator Music's latest release.

Here, on nine new compositions, Erik is stepping into his own sound with an awesome quintet that features saxophonist Dave Ellis (Charlie Hunter Trio), and guitarist Dave Mac Nab, bassist John Wiitala, drummer Hamir Atwal and percussionist John Santos also joins on congas for two tracks.

E.J.Q. is an overall beautiful album that sounds both expansive and classic.

1 Maintain 6:37

2 Zig Zag 7:35

3 Detective Work 6:26

4 The Rising Tide 5:26

5 A Piece of the Action 6:20

6 Emily Jane 6:29

7 Nasty Woman 4:02

8 Let Me Tell You What 4:39

9 Little Z's Strut 6:44

Throttle Elevator Music - Retrorespective (WIDE HIVE RECORDS 2017)

https://twitter.com/RepublicOfJazz

Throttle Elevator Music's "Retrorespective" reunites Gregory Howe and Matt Montgomery with tenor Saxophonist Kamasi Washington for a fifth recording.

This release contains nine original new compositions by Matt Montgomery, Gregory Howe and Kamasi Washington. Throttle Trumpet player Erik Jekabson and Kamasi sound amazing together throughout the title. This time around they are joined by rhythm section drummer Thomas McCree, guitarist Ava Mendoza, and bassist/pianist Matt Montgomery.

1. Liminality 8:21

2. Playing The Alleyway 5:25

3. February Drift 7:01

4. Flux And Solder 3:26

5. Retrorespective 2:43

6. Second Liminality 5:54

7. Subtract Limited 4:03

8. Rapid Rotation 2:22

9. February 15 7:51

Erik Jekabson

Erik Jekabson is an American trumpet player, composer, and music educator from Berkeley, California. He appears on Throttle Elevator Music IV and Throttle Elevator Music Area J.

Gregory Howe

Gregory Howe is a producer, engineer, musician and owner and founder of Wide Hive Records. Howe is an accomplished producer who has released over thirty albums through Wide Hive Records.

Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington is featured Saxophonist on Both Throttle Elevator Music and Phil Ranelin's Perseverance. Also as a composer Kamasi has scored for several films including Stacey Peralta's recent Independant Lens feature: Crips and Bloods: Made In America.

Matt Montgomery

Matthew Montgomery has performed or recorded with, abbreviated for brevity’s sake would include: Faye Carol, Calvin Keys, Donald “Duck” Bailey, Graham Connah, Hafez Modirzadeh, Eddie Gale, Mark Levine, Kevin Carnes and David Boyce (Professor Borris Karnaz and Black Edgar Kenyatta of BROUN FELLINIS), and Kat Ouano (CROWN CITY ROCKERS).

Erik Jekabson - A Brand New Take (ORIGIN RECORDS 2016)

"...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.

1.Streamlined 7:17

2.Blues for Q 7:52

3.Morning, Sunshine 6:53

4.Valentine Ostinato 1:25

5.Thriller 8:05

6.Streamlined Ostinato 1:17

7. A Brand New Take 5:29

8. My Funny Valentine 8:05

9. Chettie 8:54

Erik Jekabson - trumpet, flugelhorn

Kasey Knudsen - alto sax

Matt Clark - piano

John Wiitala - bass

Hamir Atwal - drums

special guests:

Dave Ellis - tenor sax (1,5)

John Gove - trombone (5)

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