Photo credit: Peter Varshavsky |
“This project is a continuation of what we’ve been working on, collaborating with artists from musically different worlds, which feels organic to us because the three of us come from completely different places to begin with,” says Johnston in a recent news release. “We have this hunger to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Working with strings is like venturing into a different culture where we have to compromise and ideally arrive at something we wouldn’t have otherwise. Hopefully, no matter where the music goes it always sounds like us.”
The project was originally conceived as a collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet, but when scheduling became too daunting, the Nice Guys decided to proceed with Turtle Island’s founding cellist Mark Summer and powerhouse Danish-born violinist Mads Tolling, who joined TIQ in 2008 and has toured and recorded with Stanley Clarke. They rounded out the quartet with violist Dina Maccabee, a longtime Nice Guy collaborator, and violinist Anthony Blea, a player equally versed in Latin jazz, European classical music and pop.
A major force on the Bay Area creative music scene for the past decade, Johnston has collaborated with heavyweight improvisers such as guitarist Fred Frith, ROVA Saxophone Quartet and bassist/composer Marcus Shelby. Along with the Nice Guy project, he’s also releasing a bracing free jazz session on Porto Franco with a quintet of Windy City masters “Gone to Chicago.”