On the cusp of the new year, Epicenter, by Chris Nightcap's Bigmouth, is on another "best of" list for 2015. This time it is number one! Dave Sumner, the excellent writing/reviewing force on "Bird is the Worm," selected Epicenter as the top album of 2015. He writes:
It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered an album that synthesizes the mix of modern influences into a jazz recording like Chris Lightcap’s Epicenter. It is both a statement on where things are at and a forward-thinking treatise on where jazz could next go. It’s a vision of massive clarity and of unified precision. It’s not a process of add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and let’s see how you can mess with these different influences and shift things around and bring out different elements… that type of approach is well and good, but much in the same way of Todd Sickafoose’s 2008 release Tiny Resistors before it, Epicenter is the total picture.
Totally agree.
You can listen to my conversation with Chris on the premier episode of "Alloy: A Mixture of Music and Conversation." Chris and I talk about Epicenter--from influences to motivations to collaborating with incredible musicians. Highly recommended listening.
Hearty congratulations to Chris and all the folks involved in creating Epicenter. Well done and I can't wait to see what comes next!