Forging a new logic: Chris Speed

Sound collisions of this type are hard to imagine. Take a little of western groove-rock, a crazy sax that alters between melodic and chaotic, throw in a few surf rock-style wailing guitars, and a sprinkling of Eastern European polyrhythms and gypsy music. That's just a start to the list of influences that Chris Speed draws on in his diverse oeuvre.

"Iffy" is Chris Speed's newest and long overdue debut on Knitting Factory Records. As a guiding member of Knitting Factory Record's group Pachora, Speed is no stranger to the avant-jazz world. His many appearances at the downtown Knitting Factory club has set him firmly in the wings of something larger. Speed's many appearances with a variety of influences has allowed him to show off his improvisatory sounds, and his almost telepathic interplay with the most outlandishly spiky-sinewy sounds. His newest work features themes that are more like a relaxing bath of intricate folk melodies dancing in contemporary hues.

Where Speed's past records explored Middle Eastern and Balkan styles, Iffy stamps a new musical terrain that combines soulful tunes and ambient grooves with surfer blues and gritty textures. Speed uses his organ trio to drive his compositions almost towards an Eastern Drum n' Bass genre, yet he retains the exploratory polyrhythmic improvisation of his past recordings.

Raised on classical music, playing piano from age five, adding clarinet at age eleven, Speed switched gears to improvisation after being smitten by jazz and the tenor saxophone in high school. Speed went on to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston. During that time he co-led the band Human Feel, worked at Tower Records, and discovered gypsy music from Eastern Europe, which opened the door to the world of folk music, and inspired the formation of the Balkan influenced band, Pachora.

Since moving to New York in 1992 Speed has become an active voice in new music, serving in the bands of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, Dave Douglas, and Erik Friedlander, while working as well with colleagues Ben Perowsky, Briggan Krauss, Skuli Sverrisson, Jamie Saft, Jim Black, and John Hollenbeck.

Speed's own band features percussionist Jim Black, bassist Skuli Sverrisson and guitarist Brad Shepik, Sverrisson, and Cuong Vu. Earlier album currently available, "Deviantics"(1999), and "Yeah, No" (1997), are both on the Songlines label. Pachora's newest albums "Unn" and "Iffy" are on Knitting Factory Records.

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