High Risk by High Risk

released June 23, 2015

Personnel:

Dave Douglas, trumpet
Jonathan Maron, electric and synth basses
Mark Guiliana, acoustic and electric drums
Shigeto, electronics

Production Credits:

Recorded by Geoff Countryman at The Bunker, Brooklyn, NY on October 10, 2014
Assistant: Andy Plovnick
Mixed by Steve Wall at Gardentone, Jersey City, NJ.
Mastered by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios, NYC, NY.
Produced by Dave Douglas
Associate Producer: Geoff Countryman

Artwork and Design by Stephen Byram
All photos courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
except the tray photo courtesy of NASA / STSCI

All compositions and arrangements by Dave Douglas (Dave Douglas Music / BMI)

Press Quotes:

“Where one influence ends and another one begins is a mystery, and that’s what will guarantee High Risk‘s status as a wholly unique album. With any justice, it will also serve as a template for future electro-jazz.”
- John Garratt, PopMatters ★★★★★★★★☆☆

“Simultaneously chill and surprising, it’s the sound of a group discovering a valid language, and then proceeding to push the limits of that new aesthetic.”
- Seth Colter Walls, Pitchfork

“A hallucinatory and surprisingly organic collaboration between the trumpeter and electronic musician Shigeto.”
- All Music Favorite Jazz Album 2015

“Many of the tracks, like the opening “Molten Sunset,” begin with Shigeto summoning a kaleidoscopic, shimmering rainbowscape that Douglas and his band ride ever cloudward.”
- Matt Collar, All Music ★★★★☆

“It is a high-wire act, a "high risk," to be out there, so starkly exposed… there's a serrated groove to this music, even a lyricism and the blues.”
- Fred Kaplan, Stereophile

“The music is always infectiously grooving and kaleidoscopically coloured, and it gets the balance right between jazz-based melody-making and contemporary beats and edginess.”
- Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen

“Trumpet veteran Dave Douglas and his younger allies build their tunes from the beat up, with producer Zachary “Shigeto” Saginaw standing out for his unusually organic-sounding electronics.”
- Alexander Vardy, Georgia Straight

“Far from an affair with just the trumpet of Douglas, High Risk is just as much the work of electronic artist Shigeto. Together the pair, along with Jonathan Maron and Mark Guiliana, birth a multi-genre fusion of jazz and electronica. Highly improvised, it’s unpredictable nature leaves the listener to abandon any idea of classification, ineluctably leaving us to embrace the beats and layered avante-garde experimentation. This isn’t just for jazz fanatics; anyone with an inkling toward creative, inspired music should apply.”
- New Noise Magazine

“Figuratively and literally, Douglas has a blast. His three bandmates tear into his seven originals with harsh beats and innovative textural adornments both crisp and wafting, a sonic template that provides him the choice to either spar or soar, and both strategies generate ideal showcases for his often-underappreciated brass chops.”
- Britt Robson, JazzTimes Magazine

“Voluminous soundscapes and swelling patterns like oceanic waves find Douglas’ blustery and sensitive horn flowing within the band's shifting and sonically rich program of beats, noises, thoughtful music, and creative embellishments.”
- Mark F. Turner, All About Jazz ★★★★☆

“Beats blend with sharp improvisation, samples and manipulated sounds with hard-crafted groove, mystery and funk and things unexpected. It’s an exciting race to the edge of jazz’s modern frontier, and no place for the foolhardy or unprepared.”
- Nick DeRiso, Something Else!