CHRIS SPEED YEAH – NO

Reed player Chris Speed performed with about all the heavyweights of the New York ‘downtown scene’ and like them, Speed is a musical gourmand. The style of Yeah-No, crystallized out of free improvisation during their first rehearsal around 1996, contains free jazz, folk music from the Balcans and rock. Speed played so often with drummer Jim Black that they speak the same musical language and Cuong Vu is one of the most remarkable and exciting young trumpet players of the moment. ‘Infectious melodies, effective harmonies and tricky rhythms are the norm…’ (The Wire).