Hazmat Modine
Hazmat Modine is an American blues and roots music band from New York that was founded in 1998 by Wade Schuman and Randy Weinstein and since 2006 gained greater prominence. By combining different music styles such as blues, rock steady, calypso and Klezmer and numerous live performances in North America, Europe and Asia, the band has made a name for himself in the world music genre.
The name of the band is made up of " Hazmat ", an English common portmanteau word for hazardous material, so dangerous, and the name " Modine " together, a reference to the as Modine known, mostly commercial fan heaters of air conditioning unit manufacturer Modine Manufacturing Company. Schuman felt this reference as appropriate, as the instruments of his band would produce " a lot of hot air."
Band History
Band founder and lead singer Wade Schuman ( b. 1962 ) is regarded as an excellent harmonica player and has worked as a session musician on Joan Osborne's four- time Grammy -nominated album Relish in 1995 and most recently on the excellent with the Grammy 2010 album High, Wide and Handsome by Loudon Wainwright III.
After moving from Michigan to New York end of the 90s, the art teacher at the New York Academy of Art, and award-winning painter began putting together a band to realize his own musical ideas. In Randy Weinstein, the longtime second harmonica player of the band, he soon found an ally. They built Hazmat Modine its present form, consisting of a core group of eight to nine members, of whom regularly participate in various guest musicians and former band members. The band is composed of experienced studio and live musicians from various genres of music. To play on the tuba, for example, the renowned jazz musician Joe Daley.
The interaction and the call and response passages of the two harmonica player Wade Schuman and Bill Barrett (or Randy Weinstein on the first CD of the band) are a recurring feature in the songs of the band. In addition, numerous other wind instruments are used, such as tuba, trumpet, saxophone, sarrusophone and more exotic instruments such as Sheng or claviola. These are usually accompanied by drums, percussion and various guitars ( acoustic and electric guitar, Hawaiian guitar, Banjitar ).
In 2006 ( in Europe until 2007), the debut album Bahamut, the material had been recorded in the years 2003 to 2005 and could penetrate up to # 12 in the category Top Blues Albums on the Billboard Charts. The name of the album makes reference to the shape of the fish Bahamut from Arabic mythology, swimming, allegedly carrying the whole world on his shoulders in unprovoked waters.
Critics certify the band great originality in terms of the mix of different music styles. While in some moments by the blues sounds of the 20s and 30s, you could listen to the impression of an Eastern European Brass Band at other times. With three tracks on Bahamut also contribute to the friendly singer of the Tuvan band Huun Huur - Tu, which are known for their characteristic overtone singing. Schuman said in an interview that the diverse influences of the " melting pot of New York " would be reflected in the music of his band. He himself had been strongly influenced by earlier blues music, but I have also preoccupied with Romanian folk music. The other band members, however, would also bring Cuban, Jamaican, jazz and klezmer influences to the band.
2009 left co-founder Randy Weinstein, who had participated in the 90 years on various boards of the jazz singer Karrin Allyson and co-author of the book "Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Harmonica is the band to its own jazz project that Randy Weinstein Group to start. He was replaced by Bill Barrett.
The band can look back on live performances in more than 20 countries, such as at WOMEX 2007 in Sevilla, the Stockholm Jazz Festival 2009 and the jazz festivals in Berlin and Vienna. In spring 2010, the already fourth European tour took place in 2007. The second album called Cicada - with guest contributions from Natalie Merchant, the Kronos Quartet and the Gangbé Brass Band from Benin - was published in April 2011.
Discography
- Bahamut (2007, JARO )
- Cicada (2011, JARO )