Patricia Brennan Septet (MX)

Patricia Brennan Septet (MX)

Friday, 3 July, 9 pm – CD Park
Day pass Park CD: presale (until 30 June): EUR 20, on the day: EUR 24
Festival pass: EUR 115

Patricia Brennan, vibraphone; Jon Irabagon, alto and sopranino saxes; Mark Shim, tenor sax; Mike Rodriguez, trumpet; Kim Cass, double bass; Mauricio Herrera. percussion; Dan Weiss, drums

Patricia Brennan gravitates towards large ensembles. Septets and tentets are the settings in which her compositions – shaped by the percussive, deeply layered harmonic textures of vibraphone and marimba – fully come to life. These settings are, in a sense, extensions of her core quartet, More Touch, augmented either by a string or a brass section. For this septet, she draws on top-tier improvisers, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Mark Shim. In this new constellation, Brennan explores uncharted musical terrain as though exploring new solar systems – quite literally. As an amateur astronomer, she translates stellar constellations into chord progressions and melodic patterns, constructing new sonic dimensions and alternative worlds.

She grew up in Veracruz, Mexico, a coastal city known for its rich heritage and a culture shaped by Afro-Caribbean influences. Patricia Brennan instinctively incorporates this musical tradition – characterised by distinctive rhythmic structures, with the marimba at its core – into her music. Her work blends Mexican folk heritage, classical music, the urban complexity of contemporary jazz, and experimental improvisation shaped by the New York City scene, which played a formative role in her artistic development. She approaches composing with an orchestral sensibility stemming from her classical piano training – having begun studying piano at the local conservatory at the age of four, inspired by her father, an amateur percussionist.

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Patricia Brennan’s last two albums have met with widespread critical acclaim. The music on Breaking Stretch has been described as “unbridled, almost geological, as if echoing tectonic plates shifting beneath the surface,” and it topped jazz album-of-the-year lists in DownBeat, The New York Times, and NPR. Last year, her fourth album, Of The Near And Far, was released on Pyroclastic Records, the label of fellow pianist Kris Davis, with whom she collaborates frequently. This fourth outing was hailed as a “quantum leap” in her body of work, for its “beyond-category” music that feels “almost cinematic”.