Mitch Marcus Quintet
Countdown 2 Meltdown
Porto Franco Records
www.jazzubed.com
By George W. Harris

Bay Area Tenor saxist Mitch Marcus leads an idiosyncratic quintet with
Sylvain Carton/as, Mike Abraham/g, George Ban-Weiss/b and Tomas
Fujiwara through a Decalogue of originals that take post bop small band
music to its edgy precipice without completely falling over the cliff.
The band is high on soloing and sound effects, keeping melody and
restraint to an absolute minimum. Tunes like “Jimmy’s Delight” have
tricky time signatures, while “HH” careens like a bobsled ride. Jarring
and in your face, MMQ is for the art major in all of us.