Since 2014, contemporary jazz band Spin Cycle has been bringing their original music to clubs and concert halls across the US and Canada. Co-lead by Scott Neumann and Tom Christensen, the band highlights their flexibility, reach and capacity to surprise their audiences. On any given song, you might encounter the modal influence of John Coltrane, the second-line funk of New Orleans, or the edgy experimentation of free jazz. 

Featuring guitarist Pete McCann and bassist Phil Palombi, both bandleaders and well-respected artists in their own right, Spin Cycle has spent the last 7 years touring, recording, and providing educational workshops at colleges. The band’s fourth CD will be released soon on their label, Sound Footing Records.

There is, to be sure, plenty of musical variety provided by Spin Cycle, with compositions by Christensen, a consummate multi-instrumentalist who mostly plays tenor saxophone, and by Neumann a versatile and expressive drummer. Having performed in all kinds of settings including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Jazz Mandolin Project, the Gil Evans Project, Madeleine Peyroux’s touring group, Broadway pit bands and with Cecile McLorin Salvant, Rufus Reid and Maria Schneider the co-leaders know how to bring out the intimacy of a ballad as well as the soulful feeling of swing.

Recent Press

About Assorted Colors

From the moment the group dives head first into the lead off track, the playful angular and hard-swinging “Break Tune”, the intensity never relents, until Christensen completes his exhilarating tenor workout on the athletic closer “Fit Bit”. Characteristics that made the group’s initial release so appealing – strong melodic hooks, rock solid grooves, advanced harmonies and aggressive, deftly executed improvisations – have been refined by two years of intensive touring and are displayed even more cohesively on “Assorted Colors”. Spin Cycle is on a roll with momentum to spare.

Ed Enright, Downbeat

Assorted Colors is loaded with swinging melodies and grooves and all the stuff that real players once had to master just to get the chance to step up. Another winning set throughout, the mainstream listener is sure to be bouncing his seat after getting a load of this latest hard hitting addition to the sitting down jazz shelf. Well done

Midwest Record Review

Spin Cycle is one of freshest groups on the scene today. With a quartet composed of some of New York’s best players, great solos abound from start to finish.

Rochester City Newspaper

About Spin Cycle

Spin Cycle’s self-titled debut CD is an all-original program of 10 tunes—six by Christensen and four by Neumann—that captivate with bright melodic lines, deep-seated grooves, catchy rhythmic devices and sophisticated harmony. Improvisations run wild, as soloists embrace aggressive and daring ideas from the realms of modal jazz, free-jazz, second-line and soul, not to mention good old-fashioned swing.

A cohesive unit that commands an exceptional stylistic range and exhibits a go-for-broke attitude…..Spin Cycle has the potential to connect with a broader national audience as well as international listeners. 

Ed Enright, Downbeat

This is one seriously high octane release hard charging, straight ahead jazz fans will love.  With chops and energy to spare, this is a set that certainly knows how to hit all the right notes .

                                                                                    Midwestrecord.com

 Spin Cycle is a free-wheeling, take-no-prisoners roller coaster ride accentuating their willingness to venture free and edgy.

                                                                                    Mike Greenblatt, Classicalite.com

                                                                                    

 

                                                                                    

Photography by Dennis Connors at https://www.instagram.com/denconfoto/