Comprised of Finnish guitar prodigy Olli Hirvonen, bassist Marty Kenney, and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, along with Krock on saxophones and clarinets, Liddle is a modern jazz quartet dedicated to performing new compositions which the New York Times describes as “muscly, warped original music, informed by metal, serialism and the jazz avant-garde.” With a highly anticipated recording coming out on Outside in Music on April 26th 2019, Liddle will be embarking on a national tour in support of that album in May.

Best known as the brain behind the critically-acclaimed big band behemoth, Big Heart Machine, Brian Krock is a fierce and probing improviser on the saxophone and a central force in the creative music community in New York City. After years steeped in the world of large ensemble jazz (as documented on his critically-acclaimed 2018 recording Big Heart Machine), Krock initiated his exciting new quartet- LIDDLE- as an opportunity to focus on the group improvisation and collective interchange that is a hallmark of the jazz tradition.

Saxophonist/Composer Brian Krock Pares Down his Powerhouse Big Band, Big Heart Machine, to its Virtuosic Core on liddle. The debut of Krock’s quartet, due out April 26, features the core members of BHM plus special guests Matt Mitchell and Simon Jermyn on a set of challenging, intricate compositions that draw from a wide spectrum of inspirations With the self-titled debut of his ferocious big band Big Heart Machine, alto saxophonist Brian Krock emerged as a composer of staggeringly complex and aggressively invigorating music. On his much-anticipated follow-up, liddle (due out Apr. 26), Krock scales down the size of the ensemble but not the intensity of his sound. The album’s brain-twisting sonic labyrinths are mapped from the blueprints of such circuitous thinkers as James Joyce, Elliott Carter, Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne and Steve Coleman, with a brutal twist of attitude from Krock’s power metal and prog roots.

The key members of liddle also provide the beating heart of Big Heart Machine: Krock’s longtime bandmates Olli Hirvonen (guitar), Marty Kenney (bass), and Nathan Ellman-Bell (drums). To this already volatile mixture Krock adds the explosive piano mastery of Matt Mitchell, creating a potent quintet capable of playing with impassioned feeling as well as blistering virtuosity. Though Big Heart Machine was Krock’s first project to see the light of day, Liddle was formed first, with the larger ensemble built upon its intricate framework. Hirvonen is one of Krock’s closest collaborators; the two met shortly after both moved to New York (Krock from Chicago, Hirvonen from Finland) and bonded over a shared love of shredding metal guitar and jazz. Kenney and Ellman-Bell came along a few years later, both subbing in a band that Krock co-led. The quartet’s piece “Heart Machine” gave the big band its name, while the small group was christened in relation to its sibling using a homonym provided by James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

https://www.briankrock.com/