Kipple – “Flashes of Irrational Happiness ” – [Evander Music]

Boundary-stretching dissonance meets loose, weird funk. This music tends to have an interesting beat that people can maybe dance to; look out for some strange dancing, though. Composer/clarinetist Aaron Novik wrote all of the material and conducts the ensemble but doesn’t actually play on the CD. He lets some well-known locals (Graham Connah, Ches Smith, Myles Boisen, Moe! Staiano, etc) lay it out there for us. The coolest element is probably the dueling electric pianos atop spare funk beats, similar to what Hancock/Corea/Zawinul were doing with Miles Davis back in the day; Kipple also includes other keyboards, electric guitar, electric and acoustic bass, left/right tandem drummers, vibes, marimba, theremin, Tom Nunn’s infamous Bug, giant worms, traffic noises, sirens… I told you it’s weird! It’s also smart and a lot of fun.