Album Notes

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On any given Friday night, a tucked away bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side blares with an eclectic mix of singer/songwriter, deep house DJ and funk, all in the course of an evening. Within this particular hour, the packed house moves to danceable grooves and drum 'n bass, nods to sophisticated jazz and sways to funk and soul flavored rhythms; but it's not coming from a DJ or the night's roster of bands..it's coming from one trio: QB3.

QB3 is Christopher 'Root' Heinz (drums), Fred Gerantab (guitar) and Emek Rave (bass), 3 friends and like minds from Queens, New York. The trio's collective ability to mix solid grooves and melodies with masterful improvisation has gained quite a bit of attention just about everywhere they've set foot. Combining groove, funk, jazzy lines and and electronically influenced beats, the group nods to many different elements of their musical DNA from John Scofield to The Pixies, but it's indisputable that QB3 has honed their own niche in this heavily saturated musical capital of the world.

QB3's debut CD, The Form Of Space, combines a wide range of attitudes across 7 original tracks under the trio's signature umbrella: from straight out jam and live drum 'n bass to deep ambient and experimental sounds, the CD is not just a reproduction of QB3's live performance, but an entity all its own. The trio took special opportunities while in the studio environment to invite special guests and further expand on new ideas and sounds.

Perhaps the most obvious addition is the fiery and percussive keyboard work of composer/producer Peter Fish, who joins the group on 5 songs and co-produced the recording. Fish, a veteran jazz keyboardist and composer (and one of the most in-demand composers for film & TV), has produced & performed with an impressive roster of musical legends including Carly Simon, Johnny Winter and Delbert McClinton. Fish's special interest in the group and long-time friendship with guitarist Fred Gerantab inspired a collaboration that would be a key element in this recording. Fish's Manhattan facility (Tonic Digital) was the stomping ground where the record took shape through the ingenius engineering of veteran engineer/producer John Arrias (Roy Orbison, Barbara Streisand, HEAT [motion picture]), and renowned record/film engineer Anthony Erice.

Vocalist Audrey Brand's sultry and powerful vocals lend a new level of depth to the live drum 'n bass track, Boom! Brand's ability to move effortlessly between blues, rock and chant inspired the group to add this vocal element.

From the ominous opening bass notes of 'Electric Monk' (one of the group's staple songs) to the ending title track, The Form Of Space takes the listener on a wild ride. The track 'Knee Deep Devotion', another one of the group's live favorites, features Gerantab's 'organ-like' guitar weaving within the saturated layers of Fish's B3, against the backdrop of grinding bass and drums. While 'Before Dawn' (one of the group's few 'ballads'), builds from somber to powerful crescendo, songs like 'Wake Up Call' exhibit the fiery bop-inspired improvisation that the group's dedicated audience captures in the making show after show. 'Every 26' are a taste of the group's broad experimentations with ambient textures, and features the exotic sounds of an 11-string fretless guitar.

The Form Of Space has been long in the making, and the group's incredibly synergy and vision has yielded a recording that stands alone.