Taylor Ho Bynum’s PlusTet
Enter the Plustet on Firehouse 12 Records available here!
“Bynum has adapted the big band to send some messages about the collective effort, historical awareness, present focus and defiance of convention that it will take to make the world work in this contemporary moment…4 stars.” (Bill Meyer, Downbeat)
“Enter The PlusTet is a powerful statement of intent from a fiercely talented crew. Building a 15 piece ensemble around his regular sextet, cornettist and composer Taylor Ho Bynum writes with an orchestral flair that recalls Ellington, Mingus and Chris McGregor…approaching the big band tradition with the appropriate combination of irreverence and love.” (Stewart Smith, The Wire)
“The music is the child of Threadgill and Braxton as well as Miles Davis or Max Roach…rich, fascinating, challenging, all of it.” (Will Layman, PopMatters)
“The humanity of the music shines through strong and bright, a feeling that there is a perfect confluence of creativity that runs a mainline from the heart of the musicians to the last fading notes to reach the listeners ears. 2016 Album of the Year!” (Dave Sumner, Bird is the Worm)
“As in a dream, Bynum proceeds by segues, not hard cuts. Transitions are important to his music, and here we may detect a bicyclist’s progress again, the way one is constantly readjusting legs and lungs to a road’s changing angle of ascent or descent. How you’ll wheeze uphill one minute and whee downhill minutes later, with corresponding transitions in tempo. It’s the kind of pacing Bynum knows in his bones.” (Kevin Whitehead, ToneAudio)
“While Enter the PlusTet isn’t overtly political, there is an undeniably political dimension to the recording and the project in general. In these somewhat divisive times, Ho Bynum and company show that diversity and collective purpose can co-exist, that in healthy, multi-phonic communities accommodation can be made for different voices to speak freely without the whole of which they’re a part collapsing or imploding.” (Textura.org)
“Offers the same ambitious sprawl as Braxton’s early work…showing exceptional facility with a diverse range of styles and smartly presenting them in a large ensemble setting.” (Martin Johnson, The Wall Street Journal)
“A rich textural odyssey featuring a 15-piece orchestra…It’s a grand statement.” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times)
“A dense, rousing, and emotional album, Enter the PlusTet feels, beyond just its size, like a culmination of Bynum’s many projects and ideas…five stars.” (Lee Rice Epstein, Free Jazz Blog)
“Best of 2016” lists from Cisco Bradley, Jazz Right Now; Will Layman, Pop Matters; Karl Ackermann, Hrayr Attarian, and Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz; Yahvé M. de la Cavada, El Pais (Spain); Franpi Barriaux, Citizen Jazz (France), and the NPR Jazz Critics Poll.
Taylor Ho Bynum PlusTet (4K) from Dylan McLaughlin on Vimeo.