Dave Douglas & High Risk
Iowa City Pentacrest— Friday, July 3 at 9 p.m.
Dave Douglas and his new quartet, High Risk, represent a step forward for electronic jazz, and a progressive, forward-thinking choice for a Friday night headliner at the Iowa City Jazz Festival.
Douglas is a well established trumpeter and composer with myriad projects and albums dating back to the late 1980s. His newest venture with High Risk started at last year’s Red Bull Music Academy when he and electronic producer Shigeto (part of influential label Ghostly International) hit it off and decided to collaborate. The band also includes bassist Jonathan Maron (of acid jazz standard bearers Groove Collective) and drummer Mark Guiliana, whose bands Beat Music and Heernt fuze jazz with indie rock, and whose resume includes stints with Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello and Matisyahu. With their powers combined, High Risk released their first album as a collective last month following four months of preparation, just one improvised studio session and another four months of post production.
Equal parts melody, rhythms and ethereal sounds, this quartet is something of a beautiful mystery, and a can’t-miss addition to this weekend’s lineup.
