Resent Reviews of Bright Land!
"The Crooked Jades provide pin-droppingly exquisite soundbed for the haunting baritone vocals of Jeff Kazor and the Keening, lonesome accents of Lisa Berman." UNCUT magazine UK
"The Spirit of Harry Smith's great anthology of American folk music infuses everything. But the 20 songs, the majority of which are traditional, are invested with an energy and vigour that makes the sensibility sound entirely contemporary." Songlines UK
"A mesmerizing mix of primal and “cutting edge” energy, The Crooked Jades’ latest CD, Bright Land, surpasses even their critically acclaimed past six albums– sounding as if it has come straight out of the soul of Appalachia." FOLKWORKS
THE CROOKED JADES SOUNDTRACK fOR BRIGHT LAND wITH KATE WEARE COMPANY
Jade Note Music CJ009
This San Francisco-based band boldly goes where no old-time string band has gone before. The
Crooked Jades new release “Bright Land” is a soundtrack of 20 songs and tunes for a 50-minute
work of contemporary dances set to old-time music composed and re-arranged by The Crooked
Jades. The project all started when acclaimed New York-based modern dance maven Kate Weare
came out to see the Jades on their “Shining Darkness” tour at Café du Nord in San Francisco. A
stranger to the band at the time, they all noticed her right away because she was inspired to get up
and dance, not to a fast-driving fiddle tune like most audiences, but to a mournful Roscoe Holcomb
ballad called Moonshiner. Later she told the band that she was moved by the skill, edge and depth of
their music and felt inspired as a choreographer. So that’s what sparked this unlikely collaboration.
And it really came to feel like the perfect union as the band was in turn inspired to reframe composi-
tions to join Crooked Jades’ hypnotic old-time music with Kate Weare’s boldly poetic modern dance.
With the Bright Land project (partially funded by The Warren Hellman Foundation), The Crooked
Jades continue their mission to move old-time music out of segregation and show its relevance in
modern times. With a traditional foundation they create their unique and soulful sound by interweav-
ing the roots of Americana with the diverse musical influences of Europe, Asia and Africa, playing
with a thrilling energy and innovation which has critics comparing them to everyone from The New
Lost City Ramblers to Nick Cave and Tom Waits. Their evocative, cinematic music has appeared in
soundtracks for Sean Penn’s Oscar-nominated film Into The Wild and the PBS documentary Seven
Sisters: A Kentucky Portrait.
The Crooked Jades, called “the finest string band in America” (Boston Herald), will be on tour for CD
release dates up and down the West Coast in September and October 2012 followed by national and in-
ternational dates. Leader and songwriter Jeff Kazor (guitar, lead vocals) will be joined by co-founder
Lisa Berman (slide, banjo, harmonium, lead vocals), Erik Pearson (banjo, harmonium, slide, vocals)
and Elise Engelberg (fiddle).
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