We thought Aarhus and Paphos were Europe's cultural capitals this year, but no, now Sexmob is also butting in. Cultural Capital is the title of their ninth album which serves the band surrounding slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein to explain much and nothing, celebrate their 20-year anniversary, and to suggest New Orleans for cultural capital. And even though the illustrious combo may sometimes sound like a sextet, they are a quartet – the very quartet who, 20 years ago, rocked the legendary New York Knitting Factory every week with Prince, Madonna, and James Bond songs in freakjazz format. Later, Abba, Nina Rota, and all sorts of corny numbers were added to the repertoire, and the band did not pledge allegiance to any musical flag, only to having undaunted fun playing.
On Cultural Capital, adventurous and cunning trumpeter Steven Bernstein, former musical director of John Lurie's cult group Lounge Lizards and much sought-after arranger in all musical camps, for the first time attacks the jazz world with nothing but his own compositions.
Without pathos and deadly serious, but by artfully criss-crossing jazz, shuffle, funk, blues, contrapuntal manoeuvres, and cheerfully deconstructed improvisations, the band, whose individual members are all musicians of distinction in their own right, are celebrating the charismatic stylization as a brand, a brand which intertwines everything and which does not answer to the jazz police.