The Crooked JadesThe Crooked Jades are on a mission to reinvent old-world music for a modern age, pushing boundaries and blurring categories with their fiery, soulful performances. Innovative, unpredictable and passionate, they bring their driving dance tunes and haunting ballads to rock clubs, festivals, traditional folk venues and concert halls across America and Europe. Known for their rare and obscure repertoire, beautiful original compositions, inspired arrangements and eclectic, often vintage instrumentation, The Crooked Jades began with band leader/founder Jeff Kazor's vision to revive the dark and hypnotic sounds of pre-radio music. With this old-time foundation, the band has created the unique Crooked Jades sound by exploring the roots of Americana and interweaving the diverse musical influences of Europe and Africa. Filtering these old-world sounds with universal and ancient themes through a post-9/11 lens, they seek to make sense of the future. A collective of West and East Coast pickers with equal parts attitude and respect, always led by Kazor, the band performs with a thrilling energy that has audiences on their feet dancing and critics comparing them to everyone from The New Lost City Ramblers and The Pogues to Gillian Welch, Nick Cave and Tom Waits. The current lineup of the Crooked Jades is Jeff Kazor (vocals/guitar/ukulele), Leah Abramson (vocals/ukulele/harmonium/guitar), Sophie Vitells (fiddle/vocals), Charlie Rose (bass), and Rose Sinclair (banjo/banjo uke/minstrel banjo/slide guitar). Adjunct members include Josh Rabie (fiddle/mandolin), Jennie Benford (mandolin/guitar) of Jim & Jennie & The Pinetops, Lisa Berman (slide/banjo) and Stephanie Prausnitz (fiddle) of The Stairwell Sisters, Megan Adie (bass), Tom Lucas (banjos), Erik Pearson (banjos, slide) and Adam Tanner (fiddle/mandolin). The Crooked Jades have 5 critically-acclaimed CDs, the latest full-length CD "World's on Fire" released in February 2006. Catalog:
Jade Note Music CJ206 "World's on Fire"© 2006 Bios:Jeff Kazor (leader, lead male vocals, guitar, ukulele, harmonium etc.) founded The Crooked Jades in San Francisco in 1996. At 10 years old, he began accompanying his father who played old-time fiddle tunes on the harmonica at home in Santa Cruz, California and exploring his dad’s record collection (the Folkways Watson Family album imprinted on his soul) . He has spent a lifetime developing an ear for the old sounds, and an acute sensitivity to their relevance in modern times, writing poetic original old-time songs and creating brilliant rearrangements of traditional tunes. Recently he discovered that old-time music is in his blood as well as his soul—his Australian mother was adopted at birth and recently discovered that her birthmother (Jeff’s grandmother) played the banjo after emigrating with her family to Australia from Limerick, Ireland. Along with an immersion in the old-time world through camps and workshops on the east and west coast in the 1990s, Jeff has collected a massive record collection and has educated himself in musicology through vinyl. While mining the music’s traditional origins, Jeff has never stopped listening to music of all genres, time zones and eras (except for new country) leading to a deep and wide understanding of music and its connections across categories. He collaborated with indie alt-country guru Richard Buckner on The Unfortunate Rake, Volume 1 and 2 opening the way to Americana and Indie radio listeners. And the folk world recognizes the Crooked Jades as one of the best of the new generation of string bands (Jeff and the band are currently being profiled and filmed for an upcoming 4-part television series (co-production of the US and Britain's BBC) to represent the cutting-edge modern folk music scene. Charlie Rose (bass) grew up in Kansas where he was first exposed to string band music through bands like the Freight Hoppers, the Wilders, and Split Lip Rayfield at the legendary Walnut Valley festival in Winfield, Kansas. A talented and adventurous multi-instrumentalist, he has moved around the United States playing with bands including the Asylum Street Spankers and South Austin Jug Band of Austin, Texas. Charlie joined the Crooked Jades in 2007 at the recommendation of Uncle Earl’s Abby Washburn. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts where he is in demand with artists such as Tony Trischka and Adrienne Young. Rose Sinclair (banjo, slide guitar) is the newest member of the Crooked
Jades. Rose was a founding member of Green Linnet recording artists,
the Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet, an influential neo-traditional
string band that toured extensively in North America and Europe during
the late '80s and early '90s, and was featured on A Prairie Home
Companion, Mountain Stage, E-Town and Voice of America. Rose has
taught at folk music camps on both coasts and appears on various
recordings. She has toured as a multi-instrumentalist sideman with
Robin & Linda Williams, James Leva and Memory Theater, Rani Arbo &
daisy mayhem, and Martha Scanlan. At home in western Massachusetts, Leah Abramson, (female vocals, harmonium, ukulele, guitar) comes to The Crooked Jades from Vancouver, Canada. As well as performing her own folk-noir compositions with The Abramson Singers, Leah sings and plays guitar with DYAD, an Appalachian-influenced post-trad trio on the Canadian folk circuit. Leah is also known in Canadian indie music for her recording work as a vocalist with artists like Octoberman, Montag and Roger Dean Young & The Tin Cup. Leah is deeply rooted in her artistic community, collaborating with artists, filmmakers and musicians. She is also a founder of Copperspine Records, a musicians’ recording collective formed to give artists support in their creative endeavors. Sophie Vitells (fiddle) first heard old-time music when a friend took her to hear a |
BookingU S A Jon Larner EUROPE Rainer Zellner UNITED KINGDOM Loudon Temple ManagementJon Larner PublicityKyra Baele
Creditsphotos: Tom Erikson |
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