Search - B Sharp Jazz Quartet :: Searching for the One

The B Sharp Jazz Quartet is a democratic combo of four young men from Los Angeles, but the clear leader is drummer Herb Graham Jr. Not only did he produce and arrange the quartet's third album, Searching for the One, but he also wrote or cowrote 8 of the 10 pieces and wrote the liner notes as well. And it's Graham's aggressively impolite rhythms that lift B Sharp out of the retro-jazz rut and make it a distinctively original and energetic band. Unwilling to merely keep time, Graham constantly elaborates and alters his drum patterns, pushing his bandmates into the Coltranesque free jazz of "Twelve Tone Blue," into the funk riffs of "The Call," and into the Third World exoticism of "Faranal." --Geoffrey Himes