Album Notes

Three Squared is a quartet formed out of love for freedom in music-making. A predominant feature of our writing is improvisation, a concept drawn largely from the Jazz tradition, but blended with countless influences from our individual musical paths. Antwon Owens, Matt King, Jim Disner and Nathan Walter make up the ensemble; a fresh fusion of the "nu" jazz sound in America. The original music is pulled from the exotic sounds of Persia, Japan, Latin America, House Music & Blues; then infused with the feel of Jazz!
Three Squared began performing as a quartet in 2006. We met as students at Metropolitan State College of Denver, and studied with the fabulous trumpet player Ron Miles and extraordinary saxophonist/composer Fred Hess. Heavily influenced by Ron, Fred, and other modern instrumental artists such as John Zorn, Bill Frisell, and Don Byron, we hope to perpetuate the evolution of American music through composition and performance.
All of the members of the quartet are composers with distinct styles, and complementary improvisational techniques. Not only are improvised melodic solos different every time, but the tempos, rhythms, harmonies and accompaniments often are, too. Jumping off from the tradition of Ornette-style group ad-libbing we incorporate ethnic scales and rhythms, as well as classical, electronic, ambient and rock aesthetics into highly sympathetic improvisations within the compositions.
As an ensemble our central objective is to demonstrate to an audience the way jazz has influenced other styles of music. We achieve this by performing in multi-bill concerts with artists from different genres. This has also helped us appreciate how other musics influence and inspire the progression of jazz as an artform.