Hooper Piccalero: WTF?

Boston jazz Dadaists Hooper Piccalero (Matt Plummer, bass trombone; Derek Beckvold, bari sax; Lauren Strobel [seen left], trumpet; Danilo Henriquez, trumpet.) will be at Cornelia Street Cafe September 18th as part of Dave Douglas's Festival of New Trumpet Music.  Their brilliant track "What the Fuck" synthesizes the phrase--what else? "What the fuck?"-- into an overlapping and repetitive memorandum, turning the meaning of the words into everything and nothing at once.  When the  interlocking rhythms finally break and the horns make their entrance, the utterance disassembles but the sentiment remains.  The song recalls an insouciant, less topical version of Steve Reich's "Come Out" (Real Audio from DJ/Rupture's show) a 1966 phase-effect piece commissioned for a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six, six black teenagers accused of murder during the 1964 Harlem riots.  What the fuck?: the question that is the answer to everything. On second thought, maybe it is topical.

Here's hoping they play the song where they call NPR's Steve Inskeep's phone and leave their horn-centric free scree as the voicemail message (See "No Vignettes" below, recorded live in April 2007).  Still waiting for this to show up on Morning Edition.

Hooper Piccalero - What the Fuck
Hooper Piccalero - No Vignettes

(Thanks to HP for permission to post these!)

Comments

[Michael]

Oh my god, this band's name is totally a reference to a character in the "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode "The Ghastly Grinner." That's some crazy shit.

[Hippie Zingo]

WTF???

I LOVE HOOPER PICcALERO !!!!! They make me so happy, and laughy.

.

sounds like Balinese kecak ("monkey chant") to me