CACAW (Brooklyn, NY) the future of jazz rock

touring in support of 2013 release Stellar Power, is a futuristic jazz trio which evolved as a mechanism for keyboardist Landon Knoblock to merge his compositions with electronics, and a result of his affiliation with drummer Jeff Davis and saxophonist Oscar Noriega in a band that performed the music of jazz piano great, Andrew Hill.

Listen: http://bit.ly/1ayQ2eB

When musicologists of the future look back to find the missing link between the avant-jazz and synth rock of the early 21st century and the hybrid sounds that have yet to reach our contemporary ears, the formation of the futurist jazz trio CACAW may well represent a key point on that evolutionary timeline. With music inspired by the love between robots, the swallowing of one star by another, and elements in a state of change, the band’s 2013 debut CD, Stellar Power, is an album driven by transition, whether in the music or in the cosmos.

CACAW’s sound runs the gamut of contemporary music, from steamrolling sludge rock to the glassy synth washes of a 1980s Michael Mann movie soundtrack, and from the angular complexity of modern jazz to shimmering, ethereal soundscapes and corrosive noise. It’s a band that continues to evolve and absorb ideas and influences from across the contemporary musical spectrum while maintaining the spontaneity and invention of jazz and the edge and attitude of experimental rock.

Formed in 2010 by keyboardist Landon Knoblock, CACAW itself evolved from an acoustic improvising trio into a vehicle for Knoblock’s forward-looking compositions and experimentation with electric sounds. Saxophonist Oscar Noriega and drummer Jeff Davis were both members of a larger ensemble formed by Knoblock to perform the music of Andrew Hill. When only the three of them were able to make a rehearsal one day, Knoblock immediately recognized the intense chemistry they shared and determined to explore it further.