Description
“Sporting avant flourishes and grooves galore…Todd Clouser’s A Love Electric liberally mixes jazz, funk and rock with compelling results.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune
“If categorized in a record shop, you’d likely find Clouser’s records in the jazz section, but he covers a lot of ground. Some tunes start as straight jazz then develop into a slightly freer situation. There are frenetic pieces that are fascinating in their wildness yet still carry great melodies that hit on several levels.” – Vintage Guitar
“Clouser spices the all-American vibe of guitarist Bill Frisell with some Jimi Hendrix fire.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
Baja, Mexico-based—by way of Minneapolis—guitarist Todd Clouser and his band, A Love Electric, make their recording debut for The Royal Potato Family with 20th Century Folk Selections. The album, which is part of a series of releases planned for 2012 by the fast emerging young jazz artist, collects eight interpretations of songs he calls “folkloric in nature.” Ranging from his anthemic take on protest singer Malvina Reynolds “Little Boxes” to a psychedelicized, guitar freak out on the Beastie Boys iconic “Gratitude,” Clouser displays a muso’s appreciation of songs and styles through the lens of jazz-inspired improvisation. His reading of “The Needle And The Damage Done” by Neil Young deconstructs its haunted melody to uncover even deeper sorrow in the storyteller’s tale, while a gorgeous straight-ahead take on Nirvana’s “All Apologies” replaces Kurt Cobain’s classic lyric with the dark moan of a trumpet. Special guests joining A Love Electric on 20th Century Folk Selections include trumpeter Steven Bernstein on a version of Buddy Holly’s classic “Everyday” and percussionist Cyro Baptista throughout the album’s eight tracks.
Todd Clouser is a revered jazz name south of the border in his adopted home of Mexico, where regularly performs at the country’s biggest jazz clubs and festivals. He spent the majority of 2011 on the road touring the U.S. In doing so, he worked his band into a razor sharp unit capable of a telepathically melding jazz finesse and jagged rock energy into his own instantly identifiable sound. As the results captured on 20th Century Folk Selections prove, a major new voice in the idiom is on the rise.
