By Diana Cordero //
Jaga Jazzist with Taylor McFerrin //
The Independent – San Francisco
June 18th, 2015 //
Norway experimental jazz octet Jaga Jazzist packed The Independent last Thursday in front of a surprisingly engaged audience.
The band occupied the entirety of the stage, which barely fit all eight members, and their multitude of instrumentation (each player rotated between 2-3 instruments throughout the night) during a set that pretty much included two hours of catchy, cinematic jazz music. With no singer, drummer and main composer Martin Horntveth acted as the group’s spokesman as he greeted the crowd and introduced each song.
To top it all off, Jaga Jazzist make visuals with yet another instrument. The lighting is specifically designed to accompany every track they perform, which turns their shows into a complete audiovisual experience worth catching — unless you suffer from epilepsy — because these guys can play fast and so are the strobe lights, of course.
Warming up the crowd was Brooklyn-based producer Taylor McFerrin, who played a very well-received 30-minute set.
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