Experiment #1
Cleveland Jazz Project

Cleveland's jazz scene has long been anchored by seasoned local musicians who double as music educators. How refreshing it is to find a group of the city's youth (and protégés of the aforementioned) carrying the torch forward proudly. The four "Young Lions of Cleveland Jazz" (dubbed by Nighttown's Brendan Ring and Jim Wadsworth) known as the Cleveland Jazz Project are charting some exciting musical ground... and they're all pals from time in college prep at Cleveland Heights High School.

As the CJP, James Muschler (drums), Jacob Bergson (piano), Nathan Davis (saxophone) and Benjamin Bloom (bass) perform a stunning cosmopolitan mélange with nods bebop, hard bop and post-bop sounds. Their EP Experiment #1 shows favor to Coltrane, Mingus, Tyner, Kirk, Hancock and dozens of other big names... all crafted by four young men who have active collegiate schedules across the northeastern quadrant of North America. Muschler and Bergson attend the New School for Jazz in New York City; Davis is enrolled at Akron University, and Bloom attends McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. They gig and record when their schedules align.

Jazz musicians are known for "lofty ambitions and intellectual leanings" in their work, and the CJP is no exception - whether it's in the smoky, slippery interplay of an after-hours cut like "I Live in the Milky Way," or in the soothing, contemplative piano phrasing of "Dance," the foursome definitely have chemistry and compositional chops. And with the disc's title track, "Experiement #1," they flourish in a mode where virtuosity doesn't mean stepping on toes. Seriously tasty chops on this one, to be sure.

Muschler's latest composition - a magnum opus with a working title "History of the Biological World" - didn't make the cut here and that's too bad. It will debut tomorrow night at the Experiment #1 CD release party at Nighttown in Cleveland Heights tomorrow night. There are some 39 minutes to the piece, corresponding scientifically to fossilized evidence that Earth began 3.9 billion years ago. How that for baking your noodle?

"We take 1 billion years and cram it into 10 minutes," Muschler said recently of the piece. With ambitious chops and intellectual compositions like that waiting in the wings, these guys are poised for great things.

Cleveland Jazz Project debuts Experiment 1 this Thursday, August 14 at 8PM at Nighttown in Cleveland Heights, 12387 Cedar Rd. Learn more about the foursome at http://www.myspace.com/clevelandjazzproject and http://www.nighttowncleveland.com.

Hear a sample of CJP's track "Experiment #1" by clicking here.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com

Wanna get reviewed? Send your band's CD (less than 1 year old) to: Cool Cleveland, 14837 Detroit Avenue, #105, Lakewood, OH 44107

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