Blue Cranes
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
[Jan. 9] Many musicians combine influences from modern jazz and indie rock, but this quintet has honed a sound that roots exploration in song forms.
Jen Downer
Yes, they hail from Portland and their latest record, Swim (Cuneiform), was produced by the Decemberists’ Nate Query, but don’t approach the Blue Cranes looking for irony or affectation. So many musicians combine influences from modern jazz and indie rock that it’s become almost meaningless to define a band that way, but over the course of full albums this quintet has honed a sound that roots exploration in song forms. The band’s raw expressiveness foregoes the need for a vocalist, while keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn and the sax tandem of Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham provide enough charged melodicism and taut electricity to stand in for a guitarist. What sets Swim apart is the churning emotion at its core. You don’t have to know that the group’s members went through a variety of life-changing experiences in recent years to hear the darkness and hope, the foreboding and grit that have seeped indelibly into their music.
Thu., Jan. 9, 8 p.m., $10, Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.
