Loz Speyer – trumpet, flugelhorn
Martin Hathaway – alto sax, bass clarinet
Stuart Hall – guitar
Dave Manington – double bass
Andy Ball – drums
Maurizio Ravalico – congas
Time Zone thrives on the idea of crossing the lines between different rhythmic grooves/ musical languages/ cultures/ time zones, exploring the sounds which occur when two distinct musical elements collide, fuse and interact.
“Imaginative fusions of Cuban dance forms and pungent contemporary jazz…. Hathaway’s soulful alto sax sound and Speyer’s trumpet phrasing (like Miles Davis in a salsa brass section) make a flexible front line, and on tracks such as the opening Conjunto and the jubilant Miracle Maricel, a restless, New York-downtown contemporary-jazz feel blends effectively with the intricate Cuban grooves… A typically shrewd fusion of the time senses of two quite different cultures.” John Fordham, the Guardian
This is bilingual music with Jazz and Afro-Cuban elements re-assembled, as in collage, or mutated to fit odd meters, more common in eastern Europe, and yet it still feels Cuban… and then the groove can change suddenly, like turning a corner, a new view opening up, another way of looking at things… unusual, deeply humourous music expressing some of the surreal complexity of life in Cuba, and of human life in general.