Music
Press
"After a few demo-style releases, funk-jazzers Chill 7 are releasing a properly bold groove fest with Buzz's Fat Tire. In the dozen original tracks, they blur the lines between jazz, jam band, and psychedelic rock with soulful sax, trippy wah-wah guitar licks, slap-happy bass runs, and big, big drums."
- Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine
“Are we ready for the next next next Average White Band? Not a question I can answer, but in the continuing search for the Ultimate Jam (see The Necks, Disco Biscuits, Garaj Mahal, Deep Banana Blackout, et al) I think the somewhat more R&B-influenced Chill 7 should be considered a worthy pilgrim as well.”
-Ken Egbert
- Jazz Is Now
While there is live jazz that sooths and live jazz that seems just right as background music, there is also that rare jazz that makes you lean back in your chair and accidentally swear. Such is the Twin Cities jazz quartet which is grounded in jazz both new and old-cool bop stuff with rock energy, understated but with obvious discipline.”
- Mankato Free Press
“Steely Dan. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Coltrane. And Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That’s quite an array of influences to bring to one band. But Chill 7 has been doing it pretty successfully for four years, bringing its unique post-modern instrumental music to the Wine Café in Mankato the third Friday of every month.”
-Amanda Dyslin - Mankato Free Press
“The comparisons to Medeski, Martin, and Wood here are obvious. Nice groove...you have the funk jazz feel down. Musicianship is great, the band is right in the pocket, driving this along. The changes are good. Bass player is making me envious of his chops. Sax player is interesting. I love the little instrumental breakdowns and rhythmic punctuations you've put in this tune.
I would go see this band in a second. Makes me feel like dancing around the house. Great work.”
- Garageband.com
“And while the Chill 7 musicians state that their current direction is more toward funk grooves than modern mainstream jazz, the arrangement of tracks seems to suggest a different aesthetic framework—one moving from youthful funk and R&B toward sophisticated structures that more clearly celebrate their roots in Coltrane and Miles, but from a 21st century perspective. Certainly, there is a very danceable vibe throughout the recording, but beyond the delightful rhythms exuding Latin and Middle Eastern flavors is an edgier core of creative improvisation and an undercurrent of the great jazz bands of the 60s and 70s.”
-Andrea Canter - Jazz Police
“Similar to the way The Red Hot Chili Peppers expanded rock ‘n’ roll and Sublime mixed genres to make a new one, Chill 7 is erasing the lines of jazz and drawing new ones. These lines take the technical mastery of classic jazz and add an attitude to it so hip, that afterwards all you want to be is ‘cool.’”
-Thomas Dean
- MSU Reporter
”Chill 7 is a modern jazz band, specializing in funk and jam based music that is rooted in rock, funk and blues. While they do cover the jazz standards, they have a non-traditional flair that is both inspiring and pleasing. Traditional jazz venues that book and attract jazz bands and fans are finding there is more to this band than the normal jazz standards….. The music was fresh, artistic, and surprisingly energetic…not something I had expected from a jazz quartet.”
-Mike Sjulstad
- Applauze Magazine
Buzz's Fat Tire Album Review
"Chill 7 is a misleading name for the guitar- and sax-led jazz group celebrating the release of its first studio CD Thursday at the Dakota. Not only is the band a quartet (not a septet), but its music is anything but chilly. The new disc, "Buzz's Fat Tire," is loaded with acidic grooves akin to Soulive and gritty funk a la the Meters."
-Chris Riemenschneider
Music Critic - Star Tribune
November 3, 2006 - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"What can I say about Chill 7 that hasn't already been said? Actually, plenty, given that this young band might be one of the best kept secrets and unjustifiably overlooked combos on the scene. One reason might be that they refuse to pursue genre pigeonholes and continue to follow their collective muses. They swing, they jam, they rock their way through live sets with abandon. Each recording places them in new territory as well. Check "Buzz's Fat Tire", and let the tunes speak for themselves. Simply put: that's what these guys do! Listen."
-Kevin O'Connor
Music Director 88.5 KBEM FM - Jazz88
Discography
Chill 7 - Buzz's Fat Tire LP (Released November 2006)
Chill 7 - Limited Edition Preview CD (Released 2006)
Chill 7 - Serving Time [Recorded Live at The Wine Cafe] (Rleased 2005)
Chill 7 - Probable Cause [Recorded Live at the French Press Jazz Cafe] (Released 2005)
Chill 7 - Live at The Dakota Limited Edition (Released 2004)
Chill 7 - Big Fish Eat Little Fish (Released 2002)
Photos
Bio
Chill 7 began when saxophonist Josh Brinkman and guitarist Michael Burand met at a jam session in Minneapolis in 2001. The two were new to the
cities and started playing jazz standards together. They added drummer Tom Garrington and bassist Steve Garrington and began playing smaller venues throughout the twin cities including a weekly gig at Barley John's Brew Pub. The group quickly began to incorporate sounds beyond the
traditional jazz standards. Burand started to incorporate rock and blues borrowed from Slash and Stevie Ray Vaughn, while Brinkman was
experimenting with funk overtones borrowed from P-Funk and the Funky Meters.
The result was a slow but steady evolution from jazz to a groovier funk/jazz/rock/blues hybrid that culminated in the group's first album, "Big Fish Eat Little Fish" released in 2002 at the Cabooze in
Minneapolis. The album was a collection of originals featuring funk grooves with bebop improvisation and energy. The disc received great reviews and one of the tracks was chosen as one of the best of 2003 by Kevin O'Connor at 88.5 KBEM.
Shortly after the release of "Big Fish Eat Little Fish", the Garrington brothers left the group, and Chill 7 eventually hired its current bassist Jason Swanson and drummer Andy Artz. Although Swanson was trained in jazz and classical music, he also brought an influence of 80s metal to the
group. Artz brought a rhythmic complexity and talent for arranging that gave Chill 7's tunes more structure and discipline. With the addition of
Artz and Swanson, the group took off and released two live albums in a year, "Probable Cause" and "Serving Time." The group also began to play
bigger and better gigs such as the Dakota, the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, the Cabooze, and Jazzmine's. The group began touring the
upper Midwest with the rare ability to play jazz and rock/jam band venues. The group's amazing versatility allowed it to play for a classy
dinner crowd and to throw down the funk in a college bar.
From 2003 to 2006, the group also began to partner with artist Brant Kingman. Chill 7's funky yet artistic sound was perfect for dancing at
Kingman's parties, which have become legendary raves. The band and the artist quickly developed one of the hippest underground scenes in the
city, full of art, funk, sexuality, acrobatics, and politics.
Chill 7 is hot and has just released its hard-hitting album "Buzz's Fat Tire" to rave reviews and a slew of television and radio appearances. The album is unlike anything else on the scene. It has been described by some as new post-modern instrumental music that has yet to even be
defined... danceable like rock or 70s funk, with an underlying discipline and musicality like jazz, with a soul like blues, but with an edge like metal.
Undefined? That is the way Chill 7 would like it. The group seeks to erase the stereotypes associated with rock, funk, jazz, or jam band music. The music is cool and hot, black and white, old and new. But, whatever you
want to call it, it makes you groove, makes you chill.
INFLUENCES:
Parliament, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Steely Dan, Guns
n' Roses, Pat Martino, Led Zeppelin, Charlie Parker, the Funky Meters,
Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix, Primus, Ohio Players, Sonny Rollins, Tower of
Power, Dexter Gordon, Galactic, Joe Henderson, Bela Fleck and the
Flecktones, John Coltrane, Average White Band, the Jazz Messengers,
Dennis Chambers, Jimmy Smith, Maceo Parker, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Kenny
Burrell, Sly and the Family Stone, Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley,
and Soulive.
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