As part of Cuneiform Records 25th Anniversary Celebrations,
Cuneiform Records and Sonic Circuits Present
For the first time in the Washington Area…
C o s m o l o g i c
Jazz/Improv Quartet from San Diego, CA
Friday February 20, 2025
@
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center
8230 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD
see www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org for directions
15$/10$ for students w/ ID, children under 12 free
doors 7:30 pm
show 8:00 pm sharp
enter through side door on Ripley St
access via Red Line Metro (Silver Spring Station)
Limited parking in lot in front of building or metered parking on
Georgia Ave
“Forget commercial labeling, this is real contemporary jazz.”– Jazz
Weekly
“a group whose time for greater exposure is long overdue. Accessible
yet forward thinking, this is contemporary West Coast jazz at its most
heartfelt and adventurous” – All About Jazz
Cosmologic is:
Jason Robinson – Tenor Saxophone
Michael Dessen - Trombone
Scott Walton - Bass
Nathan Hubbard – Drums
www.cosmologic.org
www.myspace.com/cosmologic
Cosmologic in their ten years together spanning three albums,
traverses the broad terrain of creative jazz and improvised music,
integrating high-energy playing, intense introspection, rich grooves,
open textures, and collective alchemy. Central to the group’s sound is
a commitment to developing challenging and original compositions.
While profoundly dedicated to improvisation, Cosmologic also performs
complex pieces that are composed by an individual member and then
transformed through extensive group work. This process often leads the
quartet into complex musical landscapes, while drawing on the
individual strengths of each member. With nearly a decade of
experience together, Cosmologic continues to extend their repertoire
of original music, in an ongoing search for new ideas. Cosmologic has
just released a new record on Silver Spring’s Cuneiform Records that
has been acclaimed in press worldwide, receiving reviews in Jazz
Times, Cadence, Signal to Noise, Rockarilla (Italy), and MusicaJazz
(Italy).
Cuneiform Records is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2009.
Internationally renowned, the label has released 280+ recordings from
its Downtown Silver Spring headquarters.
What the press has said about Cosmologic:
Reviews of Eyes in the Back of My Head (2008)
“Over the ten years Cosmologic has existed, they’ve learned not only
how to play high level original contemporary improvised music, but
have attained a unique style few stable or working groups have
attained…. The fearless attitude that this group exhibits in taking
chances, yet remaining quite listenable, is a rare thing. Another
aspect of Cosmologic is that they can play to younger audiences in
the midst of discovery, while also appealing to the 50s-and-older set
that craves both the “new wave” of the ’60s and an updated non-
electronic sound. Bravo to Cosmologic for making no compromises,
playing some truly fascinating upper echelon progressive jazz
music.”- Michael Nastos, All Music Guide.
“Free jazz upstarts from San Diego strike a balance between complex
form and forceful abandon on their fourth outing…. Thoughtful
writing and bold instincts make this a compelling listen.”- Bill
Milkowski, Jazz Times
“While the group’s strongest antecedents are in free jazz, the
composerly emphasis gives it a distinctive character, the pieces
often favoring punchy ensembles and contrasting them with unusual
moods and textures, including extended techniques…. The band’s
handling of these compositions is anything but static, making use of
turbulent collective improvisations and intensive free blowing in
order to both explore and break through the primary moods. It’s well-
designed and well-executed music that opens in a variety of
directions.”- Stuart Broomer, Signal To Noise.
“They have been together for almost 10 years… That experience
together shows in the extra-fine post-Bop they play so well. These
are all originals… and there are many fine duets and ensemble
passages here, as Cosmologic seems to be about the group and not the
soloists. This doesn’t mean there aren’t strong solos…. [but] it is
their great group sound and cohesiveness that recommends
Cosmologic.”- Phillip McNally, Cadence.
“Clearly, time spent in a regularly working unit—rare these days—has
served the writing and the playing of Cosmologic and its members very
well.”- Clifford Allen, All About Jazz.
“The musicians mold a singular mindset, which is a component that
radiates throughout this starkly inventive and superfine progressive-
jazz statement. As a tight-knit and largely expressive unit, they
come at you from all angles. It’s a highly-disciplined group, where
they also specialize in loose-groove like expansions. Sparked by
youthful vigor and a continual reengineering methodology, they fuse
unorthodox time signatures with spirited soloing jaunts into the
grand schema…. No doubt, this is a band for the new age of jazz.
Their charismatic and rather impudent mode of delivery bears the mark
of distinction. (Heartily recommended!)”- Glenn Astarita,
JazzReview.com.
“The prestigious label Cuneiform could hopefully bring to Cosmologic,
with this new release, much deserved greater noteriety for the San
Diego-based quartet, which has succeeded in producing better
interpretations of free-jazz in a new and and updated way, filled with
new and innovative meanings. The point of departure is always the
composition, with well defined themes that provide a strong foundation
for discipline and coherent improvisations that work well within the
songs’ architecture..”- Enrico Ramunni, Rockerilla magazine (Italy).
Reviews of III (2005)
“Cosmologic music is initiated by individual members and then
doggedly worked and reworked until its internal logics are available
for genuinely creative improvisation…. More than impressive.”-
Brian Morton, The Wire
“The third and newest album by this talent-rich San Diego quartet is a
gem of crisp ensemble-playing and finely calibrated
improvisations…”- George Varga, San Diego Union Tribune.
“III doesn’t so much stand as a document of the history of jazz as a
brochure for the infinite varieties of modern improvisation….
Incredibly rewarding… Sure, it takes a little work but, for every
cerebral exercise the listener is required to work through, there’s a
funky-as-all-hell payoff.”- Daniel Spicer, One Final Note
Tags: Cosmologic
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