Album Notes

"When jazz was young, it was dance music. What Commotion and other bands like them are doing is closing the circle. Yes, they play with a high musical intelligence, but they also make the body move" -Tom D'Antoni (The Oregonian)

Portland's Commotion has kept heads turning and asses shaking since it's 2007 formation. How do they turn heads? With impressive improvisation and live sound experimentation! And asses shaking? With deep, driving, danceable, organic grooves that draw inspiration from music throughout the globe!

The group features some of Portland's most progressive and versatile musicians- Ben Darwish-keys, Chris Mosley-guitars, Sam Howard-bass, Russ Kleiner-drums, and a rotating cast of killing horn players and percussionists. Members of Commotion also perform with artists such as Ohmega Watts, Curtis Salgado, Blue Cranes, Echo Helstrom, and March Fourth Marching Band to name a few.

Here's a review of the group debut self titled album:
[GROOVY JAZZ] Pianist Ben Darwish is best known as one of Portland’s brightest straight-ahead jazz players, but his band Commotion’s debut album is hardly jazz as we know it. But, as Miles would say, “so what?” As with Davis’ once-panned, now-praised On the Corner, Commotion’s steady beats, danceable grooves, wide-ranging musical wanderings and irrepressible sense of fun make it an ideal summer album.

Darwish’s vintage electronic keyboards make some numbers (all originals composed by Darwish, bassist Sam Howard and guitarist Chris Mosley) reminiscent of ’70s fusion excursions, minus the meandering self-indulgence. Commotion breezes through guitar rock (“Hip Joint”) to the Herbie Hancock-style “Intencion Sexual” to the up-tempo “Fiasco,” which sounds like a lost ’70s jazz-rock classic. The strutting horns (trumpeter Greg Garrett, saxman John Nastos, trombonist Daniel Lamb) and punchy percussion (drummer Russ Kleiner and local world-music maven Chaz Hastings on tabla and congas) provide rich textures that pump up the deep grooves like a 1990s home-run hitter on steroids.

Whatever the category, Commotion rocks the headphones, but this loose-limbed summer music really needs to be experienced somewhere you can animate your nether regions without knocking over the furniture or frightening the house pets. BRETT CAMPBELL- Willamette Week (PDX)