Plus Tapes

Chicago post-jazz quartet Leaves thrive on the unassuming. For four years, they’ve appeared in the city’s many low-key jazz joints, setting up quietly, making heads turn throughout the mellow set and exiting without much fanfare. It wasn’t that they were self-effacing or ignorable (quite the contrary if you were lucky enough to see the live show), the group just existed solely for creating a particular sound devoid of gaudy style or pretension or hype. That sound? Modern Creative tinted with Chicago post-rock. Melodic drones offset by post-bop soloing. Bill Frisell jamming with Lee Konitz and Robert Wyatt at John McEntire’s Soma Electronic Music Studios It’s music that while not primed for mass appeal, has the tendency to charm its way into your subconscious and massage out all the cramping anxieties. It’s a shame this is their final recording. And true to form, the disbanding of the group will be as quiet as the conception. Luckily, those of us paying attention are left with an excellent eulogy.

Press

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Leaves is a Chicago-based band that reflects many aspects of the city’s experimental jazz and folk scenes. In combining melodic and textural structures into their improvisations, the band allows each element to become a natural extension of the others. Each member is actively involved in Chicago’s diverse music scene, creating and contributing to the groups Colorlist, The Horse’s Ha, Silenses, Leafbird, and L’Altra.

“Guitarist Tyler Beach and Saxophonist Charles Gorczynski articulate lovely contrapuntal melodies and kaleidoscopic harmonic explorations, occasionally creating a pleasant tension with a mix of static figures and dissonance. Drummer Charles Rumback and bassist Dan Thatcher support the front line with graceful shape-shifting patterns…” —Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

“Tonal, minimal music reminiscent of Town and Country“ — TimeOut Chicago