The Soil and Pimp Sessions

The “death jazz” band is popular among KJHK jazz shows

by noah ottinger

What would you get if you put John Coltrane in a Japanese club and asked him to convert all of his anger into four minutes of song?  Or what if you asked Johnny Rotten to pick up a saxophone and asked him to cool down a bit? Well, you would probably have something close to Soil & Pimp Sessions.  After getting a start playing jazz between DJ sets in Tokyo, the self-declared “death jazz” sextet Soil & Pimp have made their mark in the music world. They have long since been one of my favorite groups.

While Dave Bruebeck offers listeners a sympathetic hand to hold, Soil & Pimp is a fist in the face. While the swing era ushered in new types of dance, Soil & Pimp is the influence of the over zealous and the incapable.  They are nothing if not energetic.  They are horns blowing themselves shrill, a keyboardist who keeps it funky (check out the intro to WE WANT MORE!!!), and a call leader who punctuates it all with intermittent shout outs.  They style they play in is aggressive and loud.  They toy with very upbeat vibrant tempos and often times walk a line between fusion jazz and ska.

If you’ve ever tuned into Jazz in The Morning on Wednesdays, then you are likely to hear more than a few of their songs blaring through your speakers.  To be sure, this band breath so much life into every one of its instruments, that “death jazz” might not be an appropriate genre for them.

Jazz in the Morning airs every weekday from 6-9 a.m.