BWW Reviews: GOGO PENGUIN Blazes at The Ironworks

The enviable and rare distinction of selling out a ticketed show at the TD Vancouver Jazz Festival is awarded to a trio that premiered their band in Canada the night before they stepped beneath The Ironworks spotlight.

Down the street, the 18,000 person-capacity Roger's Arena jumped with FIFA fans. Another few blocks away, Erykah Badu began to sing for her thousands of lovers.

GoGo Penguin is fresher than salmon caught at sea. Their sound, especially impeccable from the studio, is unbelievably fine-tuned, synchronous. Every song is a delectable auditory feast.

With incisive execution, they have honed a style likened to the melodic masterworks of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and the Avishai Cohen Trio. They've already joined the crew, so to speak, on the high ground of the jazz domain, as fans await three new albums to be released on the Blue Note label.

Interestingly sparse on improvisation, GoGo Penguin is a practice in compositional integrity. While much of contemporary jazz prides itself in arrangements sounding absolutely improvisatory, GoGo Penguin embraces artifice, and plays with it.

Often admiringly perceived as reflecting electronica-saturated pop music culture, they groove polyrhythms overtop signature EDM beats, while adding the tasteful intelligence and physical skill required to perform this way acoustically.

As rock eclipsed folk, and hip hop jazz, such acts as GoGo Penguin embody the transcendent mergence of what is simply heard today in music.

Jazz has an organic potency, a flexible nature that is transformative. For that reason, GoGo Penguin has not only appeared like a radiant blaze on the musical horizon, but has also gained a proud listenership.

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