Kamikaze Ground Crew Postcards From The Highwire CD

Kamikaze Ground Crew has for just over twenty years served as an instrumental oasis for some of the most well-regarded and accomplished players on the downtown New York music scene. Originally formed on the west coast as a seven-piece “circus-turkish-cartoon jazz”-playing horn band, Kamikaze Ground Crew soon evolved from its circus roots into a vehicle for original composition, made up entirely of band leaders in their own rights. Original members Doug Wieselman (clarinet, saxes, guitar), Gina Leishman (saxes, keyboards, vocals), Steven Bernstein (trumpet) and Peter Apfelbaum (tenor sax) were joined by Kenny Wollesen (drums), Marcus Rojas (tuba), and Art Baron (trombone) once the west coast founders had all resituated in NYC. From that time until now, the band re-forms itself whenever their respective recording and touring schedules allow them the time. The core of the band's repertoire is made up of original compositions, most of them coming from co-leaders Leishman and Wieselman, but also complemented by others from Steven Bernstein and Peter Apfelbaum. The common thread can be found both in their construction of adventurous and original works and in their unique take on unlikely jazz and rock classics. “Postcards From The Highwire”, their new recording,offers a set of skewed habaneras, extended widescreen compositions, covers of Robert Johnson and Sly Stone, and a Shakespeare song. To listen to these tracks is to ride an acoustic express train as it crosses a broad and diverse terrain of enticing possibilities. The members’ past credits are long and varied, from Carla Bley to the Lounge Lizards to Lou Reed. Today's listeners can hear Kamikaze members live, leading or supporting such groups as Sex Mob (Bernstein, Wollesen), the Millennial Territory Orchestra (Bernstein, Apfelbaum, Wieselman), Hieroglyphic Ensemble (Apfelbaum), Bill Frisell's Trio(Wollesen), Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Band (Baron),the Metropolitan Opera (Rojas), on movie and television soundtracks (Weiselman, Bernstein, Rojas, Leishman), and in opera and theatre scores (Leishman, Wieselman). Members of the band have worked with John Zorn, Tom Waits, Lester Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Henry Threadgill, Antony and the Johnsons, Don Cherry and Hal Willner, among many others.