Jazz quartet rocks live, blurs structure with improvisation

By John Benson

In Pittsburgh Friday, jazz group blink. experiments with the energy of rock.

Lots of labels under the jazz umbrella is how bassist Jeff Greene describes his new quartet, blink., which comes to Garfield Artworks in Pittsburgh on Friday.

“I hear the terms post-rock and post-jazz thrown around, and one of my big influences is Tortoise from Chicago,” said Greene, calling from his Windy City home. “They’ve become a post-rock kind of sound where it’s all instrumental music but they incorporate electronics and more rock.”

He added, “I don’t think of us as a typical jazz quartet, but people might look at us and think there’s the alto saxophone and no singer. It’s really just a straight-ahead jazz group.”

Formed in 2006 with the idea of exploring new musical ideas within the construct of improvisational playing, blink. — Greene (acoustic and electric bass, samples, harmonium), Quin Kirchner (drums, percussion, glockenspiel), Dave Miller (electric guitar) and Greg Ward (alto saxophone) — recorded its debut effort, “The Epidemic of Ideas,” late last year. Yet it wasn’t until this past summer that the 12-track effort was released.

“The way the record ended up sounding, I was pleased,” Greene said. “It didn’t make me think that it’s clearly influenced by Yes or others like maybe progressive rock bands. There are lot[s] of guys I know who are very influenced by progressive rock bands like King Crimson or Yes.

“So our album is very much like a jazz fusion sort of thing, but I’m really satisfied that it’s not obviously pigeonholed as one thing.”

Greene said he approached blink. with the same mind-set employed by many indie rock acts. That is, just getting out, playing shows and touring regionally. Specifically, the bandleader said he booked many gigs at rock clubs in hopes of broadening its audience.

From there, the plan worked as the act jelled. Not only did this include creating a fan base around its hometown of Chicago but also bringing the members together in the right improvisational mind-set to record “The Epidemic of Ideas.”

While in concert blowing the minds of music fans may be a stretch for blink., Greene said the quartet often dispels any preconceived notions with its potent live show.

“I think people are going to see a group that if you’re a jazz fan, and you’re into experimental jazz and experimental rock, you’ll see an approach to the way we write music and the way we interact that is really different from what a lot of bands are doing,” Greene said. “We blur the lines a lot between what is clearly structured songs and what is clearly improvising.

“I think we are successful when we play live in bringing a sort of dynamic energy that you would expect from a rock band. But [we] also have a lot of subtlety and range and interaction that you get from a jazz group. So it turns out to be pretty different from what people expect or what people are used to, that’s for sure.”