Sexmob

Still thriving and evolving 27 years after its founding, the visionary quartet Sexmob continues to explode all preconceived notions of what an instrumental jazz band can be. Emerging from the Knitting Factory scene of the mid-’90s, slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein, alto/baritone saxophonist Briggan Krauss, upright/electric bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen have changed the game with their raw, improvisatory groove and swing, endlessly inventive arrangements and uproarious sense of fun, exhibiting high musical standards while blithely blowing past all rigid boundaries of genre and taste. From their 1998 debut “Din of Inequity” onward, they’ve formed one of the truly enduring and substantive artistic bonds of their time, a quartet chemistry (often plus guests) that retains every bit of its freshness and capacity for surprise. “At this point,” declared NPR First Listen, “Sexmob is a collective ideal.”