Music is becoming more and more hypenated. It's a simple fact - there's a fusion going on that makes newly coined genres like alt-country and trip-hop roll off the toungue like honey. Flippomusic Globaljazz hops on the hypenated bandwagon with their version of ethno-jazz. The bandwagon is only a technical one you see; the crowd Flippomusic is joining is a grammatical, not musical, one. Because Flippomusic is doing what should be done with music, taking long since played one strings and plucking them a new way, finding a new sound that uses the past as a foundation, rather than as a traceable pattern.
Okay, so yeah, the marriage of jazz and world music isn't entirely new. What is new about it is the sound that materializes. Flippomusic creates a sort of global stylings that carefully blends the exotic with the American, splicing together Eastern rhythms and brassy saxophones. The imported sounds are far-reaching, drawing from the Middle East, India, South America, Indonesia, Asia and Africa.
Flippomusic Globaljazz is the brainchild of David Flippo, a keyboard child prodigy who shifted his attention to jazz in the mid-80's. The fusion part came into being while Flippo was completing his doctorate in Composition/Piano at the University of Michigan and a Masters in Music at the Eastman School of Music. Flippo met up with international musicians, attending concerts as eclectic as his music has become. After studying under world greats, Flippo founded Flippomusic Globaljazz in 1992.
Since then, the group has performed at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "East meets West Festival" in addition to numerous jazz fests around Chicago and Chicago-area clubs including Hot House, Park West, Morseland, Heartland Cafe, Beat Kitchen and Underground Wonderbar.
Flippomusic released its second album, Infinite Gods, in February 2000.
Flippomusic Globaljazz is: David Flippo (piano, keyboards, melodica, chromatic kalimba), Dan Hesler (saxophones, flute), Donn DeSanto (electric bass), Heath Chappell (drums, percussion) and Aras Biskis (congas, djembe, dumbek and African talking drums).
KATE SCHWARTZ
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