Elliott Sharp – guitars, tenor sax / Eric Mingus – vocals / Curtis Fowlkes – trombone /
Alex Harding – baritone sax / David Hofstra – bass / Tony Lewis - drums

There is hardly another artist who is active in so many areas of music than ELLIOTT SHARP. He has written works for orchestras and string quartets, which have been performed by the Kronos Quartet and the Soldier String Quartet; with his Band Carbon he redefined the Jazzcore; together with Ned Rothenberg and Samm Bennett he formed the avant-garde Trio, Semantics; he has improvised with John Zorn, Zeena Parkins, Christian Marclay, Marc Ribot, Joey Baron, DJ Soulslinger and many others; with his Tectonics project he brought the triumphs of Techno and Drum ‘n’ Bass together with experiences in free improvisation; he has celebrated pure rock power with such bands as the Boodlers, Bootstrappers or most recently Raw Meat; formed the guitar trio, Guitar Oblique, with Vernon Reid and David Torn; and his State Of The Union compilations he regularly takes stock of the New York scene – just to name a few of his activities. In addition to all of these innovative bands and projects Sharp also occasionally returns to the traditional. His folk-rock band, Mofungo, is legendary. With his band TERRAPLANE he has been piloting the abyss of the Blues for some years now.

When Elliott Sharp speaks about the Blues, he does not mean translating the Blues into futuristic corset, regardless of how it is defined. He looks for authenticity, continuity and stability in his Blues. His songs are of archaic beauty. Yet, he does not copy the alleged Romanticism of the pre-modern cotton fields. His Blues aren’t playing in the Mississippi Delta or on Chicago’s South side, but in the witch’s cauldron of the Hudson Delta, the most famous island of which is named Manhattan.

TERRAPLANE is more than just a vehicle for Elliott Sharp. It is a New York all-star band. Alex Harding (Roy Hargrove, Aretha Franklin, Sun Ra All-Star Project) plays baritone saxophone, and Sharp himself takes over the tenor sax. Rounding off the horn arrangements is Curtis Fowlkes (Lounge Lizards, Jazz Passengers) on trombone. Tony Lewis is on drums. Bass is played by the avant-garde legend, Dave Hofstra, known from such bands as The President and the Microscopic Septet. Behind the microphone is Charlie Mingus’ heavyweight son, Eric Mingus, one of the greatest blues singers of our day. Sharp allows his fellow musicians every bit of freedom to move their own ways within the songs without breaking out of the context of the band. The spectrum reaches from minimalist soli to explosive Electro-Blues.

“My Blues are New York Blues and, at the same time, extraterrestrial Blues. I don’t want it connected to specific places. Nonetheless, all of the musicians are from New York. The grooves and accents set by the musicians in their soli are related to New York. What I love about Terraplane is that so many of the aspects of my work come together in this band. I don’t want to revive historical Blues, but to play music that feels alive.” Elliott Sharp.