Trumpeter / Composer Jon Crowley to Release New Album  
I Walk Amongst the Humans on March 11 (Destiny Records)
 
John Beaty (alto sax), Noah Berman (electric guitar), Max Maples (drums), Ben Thomas (bass), Brad Whiteley (piano, Fender Rhodes)
 
Album Preview Show - February 28 @ Rockwood Music Hall, NYC (7pm)
 
 
For his fourth album I Walk Amongst the Humans (March 11 / Destiny Records), jazz trumpeter and composer Jon Crowley cites the Northwest alternative rock sound of the early 2000’s as a touchtone for his music.
 
“I wanted to truly explore the rock phrasing, the rock language, what part of the beat the melody lies on,” Crowley says.  Referencing bands such as Death Cab for Cutie and Pedro the Lion, “I resolve my melodies in a similar way.” 
 
Bypassing traditional jazz clubs in New York City, Crowley and his working band - John Beaty (alto sax), Noah Berman (electric guitar), Max Maples (drums), Ben Thomas (bass), Brad Whiteley (piano) – are often billed alongside noise rock at Pianos and Rockwood Music Hall in the Lower East Side. 
 
I Walk Amongst the Humans upends the traditional jazz form, in both composition and recording.  Jon compares “In Dreams,” written for Whiteley, to a piano sonata, where horns become the accompaniment.  Many of the guitar, piano and bass lines are highly composed, allowing Berman and Whiteley to create intricate accompanying textures on guitar and piano.  
 
Intensity is what drew Crowley to his frontline partner, John Beaty. “We have a really good contrasting thing happening,” Crowley says as he describes the profound physicality of the alto player’s solos. Creator of the term “stretch music,” most associated now with Christian Scott, Beaty and Crowley met each other during their time at NYU. A piece like “Other Lives” is built around Crowley’s understanding of their yin-and-yang nature. “I can be a little more delicate, and work my way into a solo,” explains Crowley, “while John’s going to go to this place of fire and energy, so I just write the song around that.”
 
The album was recorded in multiple four-hour sessions spread over many months.   The trumpeter compares it to a series of sprints, not needing to pace one’s chops over a long day of recording. That intensity is audible from the first track, “Still Here.”
 
A native of Malvern, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia), Crowley relocated to New York City to study with trumpet guru, Laurie Frink.  Since her passing in 2013, Crowley has become a renowned educator in his own right (and continues to teach Laurie’s brass method).
 
Catch Jon Crowley and his band February 28 at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2, 7pm.
 
 
 
 
Contact: 
Carla Parisi
Kid Logic Media
973-563-8204