Dime Grind Palace

Sex Mob is back with a new album and a larger cast of friends than ever. Dime Grind Palace is the dancehall where everything Sex Mob has done to this point becomes fully defined, like a reverse prism concentrating the full spectrum of jazz past and present into a brilliant, focused beam. Foremost among the collaborators this time out would have to be friend and spiritual mentor Roswell Rudd, a musician who never forgot that jazz should not only swing, it should never neglect a sense of humor, even when both feet are firmly planted in the avant-garde. Kindred spirits indeed. The tunes were all cut live in the studio, with leader/slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein running the show as always. There may have been charts for some of the songs, but no rehearsal; Bernstein conducts on the fly with a crazed mixture of eye contact and hand gestures. Only a handful of tunes are played strictly by Sex Mob; most cuts have several extra players on them, although the main soloists are still Bernstein on slide trumpet and Briggan Krauss, one of the most original and demented alto players there is. Hats off to Scotty Hard behind the boards, who is not only able to capture the freshness and excitement of these sessions on tape, but also adds subtle treatments at times and mixes the improvised (and, at times, very trippy) transitions into the other material seamlessly. Dime Grind Palace is another showcase for Sex Mob doing what they do best: providing a damn good time for one and all. [A Japanese version added a bonus track.]