The Muffins
| The Muffins | |
|---|---|
| Origin | United States |
| Genres | Progressive rock, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation |
| Years active | 1973–1981 1998–present |
| Labels | Random Radar, Cuneiform, Cuneiform |
| Associated acts | Fred Frith |
| Website | www |
| Members | Dave Newhouse Billy Swann Thomas Scott Paul Sears |
| Past members | Michael Zentner Stuart Abramowitz |
The Muffins are an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981. In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005, and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009. In 2010, The Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival.
The Muffins are largely an instrumental band inspired and influenced by avant-garde jazz, progressive rock, 20th-century music, and the English Canterbury scene. They work in an "underground genre" Perfect Sound Forever called "the avant-garde side of latter-day US progressive jazz-rock", and place "the joy of creation over commercial concerns".The Rolling Stone Record Guide called them the "spiritual American cousins of Henry Cow and Soft Machine", and AllMusic described their music as a "unique blend of Canterbury progressive, fusion, improvisation and much more."
In 1973, keyboardist and saxophonist Dave Newhouse, guitarist Michael Zentner and bassist Billy Swann, disillusioned with the state of American rock music at the time, decided to form their own group. They moved into a large farmhouse in Gaithersburg, Maryland they called the Buba Flirf house, and turned for inspiration to a new "Canterbury" style of music (Soft Machine, Caravan and others) that was coming out of England at the time. In 1974, saxophonist Thomas Scott joined the group. Although Scott came from a classical and big-band jazz background, he also had an affinity for Soft Machine and other British progressive rock groups like Gentle Giant. After a succession of drummers, Stuart Abramowitz joined on drums in 1975, but left in July 1976, along with guitarist Zentner. The remaining trio decided to continue without a guitarist and drummer, and started exploring improvisation. In late 1976 they found an "adventurous" drummer Paul Sears, who not only relieved the other members from shared percussion duties, but also, according to Scott, "open[ed] the Muffins up."
...
Wikipedia