Artist description we play music, and our instruments seem to lend themselves to "jazz" playing. but everybody's got their own distinctive voice, and compositions (when employed) are usually loosely structured. above all, Society Giants is about group improvisation, but also about playing as a true band, rather than as a group of musicians brought together to play somebody's compositions. we might cover a Sun-Ra tune or two, but otherwise we're all original and everybody contributes compositions

Musical Influences Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Archie Shepp, Roscoe Mitchell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Machine Gun, musics of Africa and the Middle East, Sun-Ra, James Brown, Fela Kuti, AMM

Similar Artists Lounge Lizards meets Art Ensemble of Chicago at Sun-Ra's house

Artist History formed as the result of a miraculously successful want ad that I (John Kennedy) ran after returning to New York from a trip to Guinea (in West Africa) and a short tour of East Europe playing drums with the JFK Trio. I wanted to form a band of great musicians with big ears and a desire to encompass the entire language of music into our playing

Group Members Tony Jarvis - (tenor sax, elec. bass, flute, wurlitzer, etc.) Grew up fast, studying tenor with Roscoe Mitchell. Then spent a couple of years and albums with the SST punk/funk outfit Tar Babies (whose drummer went on to form Tortoise and Isotope 217). He's played with punk luminaries Jay Mascis and Mike Watt as well downtown jazz staples like Brad Jones (los cubanos de postizos). Older now, wiser, too, and plays because he means it. "Doctor" David Smith - (trombone, flutes, wurlitzer) Harvard man who plays like a freakin' dixieland hurricane. Subtle, too. And "out there." Studied with current "free" trombone dandy Steve Swell. The doc's got plenty to say, just like his heroes Roswell Rudd, George Lewis and Archie Shepp. Jeremy Danneman - (alto sax) Our own little Mt. Vesuvius, as tempered by Schoenberg (done smoother than Jif). Founding member and composer for the only klezmer band in the state of Delaware, he's played and recorded in New York and Tokyo with Yutaka Shimono's Hole World, and with vocalist/pianist Tao Karako at Manda-la 2 in Tokyo. But he admits that all along he was waiting somewhat impatiently for a band just like Society Giants to coalesce out of the ether. John Kennedy - (drums, percussion, electronics) A veteran of Houston's experimental, noise, rock and improv scenes, he bought his first drumkit just as his ambient noise band Cyclops Joint was being critically acclaimed by College Music Journal, File 13, Option and college radio playlists around the nation. He's toured Europe doing electronic improvisation and most recently as the hitter-and-striker-of-things for the JFK Trio. The "mad scientist" that punched in the secret code that spat out Society Giants, he plays jazz like John Bonham would have if Han Bennink had taught him everything he knew. (but "a cross between Ed Blackwell and Sunny Murray" isn't far off the mark.)

Instruments tenor sax, alto sax, trombone, flutes, wurlitzer, drums, percussion, objects, electronics

Albums coming soon

Press Reviews coming soon

Additional Info working for the salvation of mental kind at a cool club near you (assuming you live in New York City)

Location New York, New York - USA

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