Positive Catastrophe is the brainchild of Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) and Abraham Gomez-Delgado (percussion) and they are excited to be playing at Cuneifest's Jazz Day (November 20, 2011 at An Die Musik) , Cuneiform Records' two-day avant garde music festival label showcase in Baltimore. Taylor is one of the most impressive of the latest crop of up and coming jazz musicians and Aib has long been expanding the boundaries of Latin-based music and jazz. Together they have come up with Positive Catastrophe: a trans-idiomatic ten-piece little big band that successfully connects the dots between Sun Ra and Eddie Palmieri and beyond! The group enlists a bevy of New York's most adventurous jazz and salsa musicians, all of whom are composers and leaders in their own right. The full line up is: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn, co-leader), Abraham Gomez-Delgado (vocals, percussion, co-leader), Jen Shyu (vocals, erhu), Matt Bauder (tenor sax, clarinets), Michael Attias (baritone sax), Mark Taylor (french horn), Reut Regev (trombone), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Alvaro Benavides (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums). With the exceptional musicianship of all of these players and their fluidity in multiple genres, a unique instrumentation that hints at a traditional jazz and salsa big bands yet includes french horn, erhu, and rock guitar, and a pair of dramatic vocalists that are comfortable singing in three languages, Positive Catastrophe creates a truly boundary-crossing kind of new music.
