“Lena…. can eat most of her peer saxophonists on this planet for breakfast, lunch and dinner in one gulp. ….” – Keith Copeland, Jazz Percussionist

Drawing inspiration from musical traditions such as 21st Century New Music, Middle-Eastern, Jewish, Eastern-European, jazz, and Western classical music, the Feathery Quartet’s emphasis is on musical communication and spontaneous compositional decisions, where each member of the group is a soloist and an accompanist at the same time.

Featuring:
Lena Bloch / Tenor Saxophone, Russ Lossing / Piano, Cameron Brown / Bass, and
Billy Mintz / Drums

Lena Bloch
http://www.lenabloch.com/
Five years ago Lena’s own project came to life, when she met the nucleus of her recent quartet: bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Mintz, both stellar musicians with tremendous experience and deep understanding of music. Pianist and composer Russ Lossing joined the group, presenting original music, written by Lena and Russ.
Lena Bloch mocks the “sophomore jinx” myth with her second CD release, “Heart Knows”. Her debut, “Feathery”, drew a good deal of praise. With her saxophone intertwined with a responsive rhythm section, Bloch paid tribute—in part—to pianist Lennie Tristano, via her relationship with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. On “Heart Knows”, Bloch moves in the same loose groove, adding flexible Middle-Eastern motifs, and stretching her own compositional skills to the limits, having penned four of the eight tunes on the disc.

Russ Lossing
http://www.russlossing.com/index.html
Russ Lossing’s risk-taking dynamics as a composer and innovative jazz performer find him appearing in many different types of venues and concert halls . He has been a figure in some of the world’s leading jazz festivals. Lossing has played all the major jazz venues in New York City including the Village Vanguard as a member of the Paul Motian Quintet.
Lossing’s brief but intense study with John Cage in the early ’80s and his more recent 12 year association with Paul Motian continue to inform his music at present. He has composed 21 film scores from avant-garde shorts to full length documentaries for PBS, BBC and world broadcast performances, as well as dramatic features both foreign and domestic.

Cameron Brown
http://www.jazzhalo.be/musicians-files/cameron-brown/ Bassist, composer and educator Cameron Brown began his career in the 1960s, recording in Europe with George Russell and Don Cherry. In the 1970s he recorded live in Montreux with Archie Shep and made a DVD with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in Orvieto.
Brown spent the 1980s with George Adams, Don Pullen and Dannie Richmond; thereafter, with Dewey Redman and Joe Lovano and Idris Muhammad. He performs frequently in duo with one of his early mentors, Sheila Jordan, and with Lovano’s Nonet, Don Byron’s Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jason Rigby, Jay Clayton, Valentina Marino, Niels Vincentz and Billy Mintz, and as leader with “Cameron Brown and the Hear and Now” and “Cameron Brown and Dannie’s Calypso.”

Billy Mintz
http://www.billymintz.com/
Mintz performs with the Hal Galper Trio, Roberta Piket Trio, the Russ Lossing Trio, and the Mark Feldman-Sylvie Courvoisier Quartet, among others. In recent years, he has taken on the role of bandleader and composer, leading the Two Bass Band, a ten-piece ensemble which features his compositions and arrangements. Mr. Mintz also gives solo drum set performances extensively on both coasts of the US as well as internationally. Billy’s debut CD (2013) as a leader, is with the Mintz Quartet.

French Twist:
https://youtu.be/ptOEOQgzW0E