Octobop at Downtown Jazz

Octobop - Cool jazz. Images of the early days on the West Coast when new ideas, harmonies, ensemble playing and great improvisation were all happening. Recreating and updating that experience is the mission of Octobop. Performing and promoting the music that began with The Birth of the Cool -- and the innovations of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Dave Pell, Jimmy Guiffre, and Howard Rumsey among others -- Octobop makes cool jazz hot again. Lisa Engleken is a fearless singer with a daunting stage presence. Part freight train, part junkyard trombone, the tumbleweed Engelken alternately locomotes and floats through a myriad of moods & vocal styles, spicing her tunes with Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian...

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Octobop - Cool jazz. Images of the early days on the West Coast when new ideas, harmonies, ensemble playing and great improvisation were all happening. Recreating and updating that experience is the mission of Octobop. Performing and promoting the music that began with The Birth of the Cool -- and the innovations of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Dave Pell, Jimmy Guiffre, and Howard Rumsey among others -- Octobop makes cool jazz hot again. Lisa Engleken is a fearless singer with a daunting stage presence. Part freight train, part junkyard trombone, the tumbleweed Engelken alternately locomotes and floats through a myriad of moods & vocal styles, spicing her tunes with Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian. But operatic and theatrical training couldn’t polish off the rough edges as she wields her acrobatic 3-octave range like a weapon, like a wand, intensified by sheer joy, crankiness and irony.

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