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Matt Langley, tenor sax - Jeff Galindo, trombone Boston is blessed to be home base for one of the most fiery, uncompromising, and adventurous jazz bands on the planet, led by pianist/composer Karayorgis, with tenor saxophonist Matt Langley, trombonist Jeff Galindo, bassist Jef Charland, and drummer Luther Gray masterful improvisers all.
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"It's easily one of the best jazz records I've heard this year." "Splendid recording." "An album that absolutely pulsates with extraordinary brilliance from end to end."
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Live review by Stu Vandermark "Last January's debut at the Lily Pad by this uncompromisingly adventurous group was among the most impressive performances of the year. Now they're back, led by compelling pianist/composer Karayorgis, with fiery saxophonist Matt Langley, astonishing trombonist Jeff Galindo, and the splendid rhythm section of bassist Jef Charland and drummer Luther Gray." System Of 5 showed up at the Lily Pad 5/30 and tore the place apart again. I’ve written about this quintet before, invariably with glowing terms. Things haven’t changed. Except the band is better than ever. I was listening to the music and thinking about how fine the outfit is when the peculiarities of the personnel hit me. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the band is how different the musical character of each musician is. For example, Jeff Galindo--continuing on the same path established by such important New England trombone forebears as Roswell Rudd and Gary Valente--comes out of the tradition of street parades, the circus, and tailgate. That powerful tradition is there, right in your face. And, just as Messrs. Rudd and Valente did before him, Jeff uses those technical devices to push his solos and those of fellow band mates into the Now. Matt Langley approaches a solo quite differently. He offers an idea, turns its angles into the sun, hammers it sometimes startlingly, and wrestles with it until he has revealed--to himself and his audience--the very essence of that initial kernel. Different but also beautiful. You look at Jef Charland playing bass and inevitably think, “old school.” You get the feeling that you could travel through time with him and plunk him in the middle of the Basie or Herman band circa 1945, and everything would be copasetic. That grounding gives Jef an edge. When a band mate makes a passing historical reference, Jef is there with a backward glance even as he pushes the music into the future. Luther Gray is on a different journey, a different search. Quite apparently he’s on a quest to discover the percussion within the percussion. He knows it’s in there somewhere and he pursues the elusive goal relentlessly. I’ve seen him on occasion go through a dozen cymbals changes in one evening. What was he looking for? The same thing he looks for every time he sets up his kit: the percussion within the percussion. And because his search really is a different take on what all profound musicians search for, everyone else in the band is right in there digging in with him. Leader Pandelis Karayorgis is one of a kind, and a host of jazz critics have picked up on that fact. But you watch him play and you don’t care what anyone has said. He plays beyond the words. Yes, words such as “machine” and “computer” come to mind because of the technical facility and the mind-bending originality of his ideas. But those words do not work. Mostly because what ultimately comes out of his piano reaches down to the emotional and psychological core of who we are, often with frightening acumen. And with all that, he is the band leader, the man who was smart enough to put this package of disparate and brilliant musical voices together. The other guys in the band are smart enough to take him up on the challenge. And what about the folks in the audience? We’re the lucky ones... "As far as new music is concerned, some may say that chord changes are dead. But, for example, such band leaders as Eric Hofbauer and Garrison Fewell fight that current--and convincingly so. And if you want further convincing, you can find no better example than Pandelis Karayorgis’ System of 5. The first time I caught System of 5 (although I don’t believe the quintet had that name yet) I wrote in Cadence, “This is the real deal.” Here it is a couple years later, and I finally got to witness the band’s music again. Everything I said then remains true. This band--Pandelis, Matt Langley, Jeff Galindo, Jef Charland, and Luther Gray--blew me away again 2/21 at the Lily Pad for the very same reasons I specified in the magazine review. But, of course, it was not the same. Most (if not all) of the charts were different from the ones on that first outing. And I think the band has grown since then. (Maybe it’s just my ears that have grown.) For example, the power of the connection between arrangement and improvisational freedom is even more apparent to me now. As I pointed out in my last review of this quintet, the arrangements are non-standard; some might say intricate. The musicians really have to be on the ball to keep track of things. Because of that fact, one might guess that there would be an overriding pressure on all concerned during a set of music. Perhaps it’s ironic, but the opposite appears to be true. A terrific combination of arrangement, sidemen attitude, and leadership (i.e., “Let the horses loose!”) has resulted in some of the most freewheeling adventuresome improvising I’ve heard from any band in recent years. I listen to and watch this band and I’m aware of experiencing the excitement I felt when I first heard Miles on Columbia Records in the mid-1950s or Raphé Malik at the Willow in the late 1980s. This is take-no-prisoners music, and the lucky ones will die--to catch System of 5 in person. If you are reading this outside the sound of my voice, pick up the group’s hatOLOGY CD for a taste (and crank up the volume)..."
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