Jessica Lurie Ensemble - Shop Of Wild Dreams (2009) FLAC

Renowned multi-instrumentalist Jessica Lurie’s current elastic ideas have evolved from a range of musical settings - from baroque flute to avant-garde jazz with Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums (formerly known as the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet) to The Living Daylights, one of Seattle’s favorite underground musical exports to the so-called “jam band” circuit

Her regular New York band is a group of individually stellar players—bassist Todd Sickafoose, drummer Allison Miller, keyboardist Erik Deutsche and guitarist Brandon Seabrook plus special guests Elizabeth Pupo-Walker on percussion and Tina Richarson (a fellow Tipton) on baritone and tenor saxes—who heighten the playful, risk-taking elements of Lurie’s diverse musical influences. Whether it’s Seabrook’s manipulation of tape recordings or co-producer Sickafoose’s affection for stretching out a melody to see where it goes, together, the group creates music that’s as strong-willed as it is ethereally pretty.

Shop of Wild Dreams features ten original tracks inspired by personal journeys that both took her around the world and forced her to look deep within herself. Although the material was originally written in 2007, Lurie says much of the music changed during the recording process, as new ideas for arrangements or improvisations emerged and she opened herself up to the possibilities of the moment. And in her case, that moment meant any combination of singing, playing flute, tenor or alto sax, accordion or baritone ukulele.