KATALYST JID013 OUT NOW
Over the last decade, the Los Angeles-based band Katalyst has carved out a name for themselves as bearers of the community-driven jazz scene, popping up on major releases while remaining an integral incubator for outstretched corners of the emerging sound. The group members have become favorites of Jazz Is Dead, appearing on stage with legends like Ronnie Laws and Lonnie Liston Smith. Bandleader Greg Paul can be heard with Gary Bartz and Roy Ayers on their respective releases with the label. Here, the nascent superstars convene with maestros Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to document their chameleonic pallet and ever-growing profile as one of the most exciting emerging groups in the genre, all featured here on Katalyst JID013.
“Where they are now is where Earth, Wind & Fire was before they named themselves Earth, Wind & Fire, or even early Headhunters,” reflects Muhammad. “They are of that ilk, and watching those guys to me is the equivalent of watching a young Max Roach or a young Herbie Hancock; but they are not that. They are Katalyst, they are themselves.”
Katalyst is a collective of contemporary producers, composers, session musicians, and writers featuring pianists Brandon Cordoba and Brian Hargrove (brother of the late Roy Hargrove), saxophonists David Otis and Corbin James, trombonist Jonah Levine, trumpeter Emile Martinez, percussionist Ahmad Dubose, drummer Greg Paul, and bassist Marlon Spears. The web of influences that ties Katalyst together immediately leaps from the headphones on tracks like “Reflections” and “Corridors,” which channel the Soulquarian energy of James Poyser and the late Roy Hargrove, as well as Jazz-Funk astral travelers like Lonnie Liston Smith and Norman Connors.
