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"I have followed Multifarious since 2019 and invited the trio to Katowice JazzArt Festival (Poland) due to the originality of the project and high-level of all the three musicians. I strongly support the project and wish to see it at global and jazz showcase events like jazzahead! or WOMEX"

- Martyna van Nieuwland (Music Meeting Festival, Netherlands)

"Also on the program on Sunday is Multifarious, a trio of banjoist Paul Elwood, saxophonist Sue McKenzie and cellist Susan Mayo. Free improvisation is the core of this adventurous trio, so it can get pretty wild at times, but Multifarious can also hook together perfectly and swing super tight at the cutting edge".

- www.mixedworldmusic.com (Music Meeting Festival, Netherlands)

"Incidents, the debut EP by international trio Multifarious, is a glorious collision of disparate influences and aesthetics from around the world, hurled together to create something daringly new from the unexpected possibilities of saxophone, cello and banjo. Of course, the banjo is forever associated in the popular imagination with the American rural bluegrass tradition but it’s worth also remembering the extent to which it’s a key voice in the Berber folk music of Morocco. That’s suggested on opening track ‘Kachina,’ on which Paul Elwood’s swiftly plucked banjo and Susan Mayo’s nimble cello pizzicato create a trance loop with hints of gnawa, over which Sue McKenzie’s soprano sax flutters like banners on a desert city’s walls. ‘Ghaer Mulki’ pushes even further east, with an Arabian lilt from the sax, complemented by the steely, microtonal whine of bowed banjo, and a camel-ride clop on cello.

 

‘Incident at Max’s’ brings things back closer to a contemporary jazz milieu, with a complex head arrangement straight out of the New York down town scene, giving way to loosely cascading group improvisation, while ‘Nice Folks’ throws time travel into the mix, conjuring a strange twist on early 20th century speakeasy jazz. Throw in flashes of klezmer, subtle nods to Indian raga and the ever-present hum of irresistible hoedown momentum and you have a dizzying global trip for headphone explorers."

 - Daniel Spicer (Music Journalist)

"I could listen to them all day!" - Richard Winham (WUTC Radio))

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