Mark de Clive-Lowe’s east coast tour lands in Boston, in Brooklyn – Bric JazzFest 2018: Videos

A pianist and jazz technologist who fuses acoustic and electric sounds, he appears yesterday as part of the Bric JazzFest Marathon.

Along with his keyboards and live electronics, the band on tour features Teodross Avery on saxophones, Corbin Jones on bass, and Gene Coye on drums. We recently caught up with de Clive-Lowe and his band at Cafe 939’s Red Room in Boston, for the latest intstallment of The Checkout: Live at Berklee.

Months ago, we also talked with de Clive-Lowe about Live at The Blue Whale (Ropeadope) — his most compelling recording to date, and one of my favorite jazz albums from last year. It’s the only recording I know of where a bandleader samples his own musicians in an improv scenario, in real time.

In this podcast, Mark discusses some of the artists he likes to sample from, including saxophonist Marcus Strickland and trumpeter Keyon Harrold. Then he pays tribute to some of his jazz heroes from the past: Yusef Lateef, Sun Ra, and the still-thriving Ahmad Jamal.

Finally, we also detailed de Clive-Lowe’s approach for a Jazz Night In America video short, in which he equated his artistry to the hip-hop term known as “the needle drop.” He finds unexpected moments in a live situation, immediately clones them, manipulates those fragments through a variety of sequencers, and filters them back to his ensemble to render an orchestra of sound.