Insomnia Brass Band are evidently doing well in Germany – they won the “Band of the Year” award from the Deutscher Jazzpreis in 2023, and here they are with their 2024 release Crooked Alligator (TIGER MOON RECORDS TMR 015).
Trio of Anke Lucks, Almut Schlichting and Christian Marien continue to make this joyful blaze of colour using just trombone, baritone sax and drums – they also compose tunes and melodies, very tight melodies, and keep the tracks short and snappy, as befits the alligator motif. They claim to fold in elements of punk rock, funk and bossa nova into their personal batter mix…hmm…while they’re certainly inventive as heck with their cross-rhythms and syncopated snaps, it’s all done with such efficiency and precision that they’re in danger of omitting the calor gas when they start to bake. To put it another way, their limbs aren’t quite as oiled up as a Bootsy Collins, and João Gilberto would stick by his decision to work with Stan Getz in 1964.
Maybe some way from “free jazz”, but it’s great fun. Each punchy stroke lands with the punch of the brush of an expressionist painter; although Insomnia Brass Band may lack the mordant bite of Dix or Grosz (they don’t hate humanity as much), they come close to a form of latterday Dada absurdity, portraying life as a playful pageant or circus of madness. (16/06/2024)