Humbird, 58 Belvedere
media release: $25. At Leola Hall (Sauk Prairie River Arts Center: 105 9th St, Prairie du Sac, WI 53578)
HUMBIRD:
It feels good to be right. We crave the satisfaction, the ease. But what about when you’re not so sure? When you’re unsteady, angry, swayable, and doing your damned best anyway? There’s something refreshingly humane about that uncertainty; about having the guts to try, even if you might be wrong.
This is the central tenant of Humbird’s third full-length album, Right On, a radical ethos in this soap-box age, and an effort worth turning up the amps for, resulting in the project’s most electric, playful, mettled record yet.
Siri Undlin (the songwriter behind the moniker) and her collaborators tracked live and to tape over the course of two muggy weeks in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. For a collection of songs unafraid of ambiguity, it’s music that bares its teeth. Anger and dismay sizzle in response to current events. Heartbreak feels like sandpaper, while wildflowers bob and sway in an ever-expanding universe.
58 BELVEDERE:
58 Belvedere merges the traditional improvised jazz trio sound with hip hop and electronic music using extensive post production on Vista Cruiser. The new album, out February 24, showcases guitarist Dean Granros, once hailed by the
New York Times as a “visionary oddball,” stepping into new sonic territory with the trio. Minneapolis jazz trio 58 Belvedere will release its sophomore record, Vista Cruiser, on February 24 and as the name suggests: fire up your engine. The horizon is wide as you journey from fragments of the smoky downtown basement jazz clubs of yore to the cosmic reaches of experimental cowboy jazz. While the trio has been playing together consistently for over a decade around the midwest, Vista Cruiser represents a significant departure from a traditionalist approach to making a jazz recording.