“More deep fun from Big Five Chord!… Definitely recommended.”
Tim Niland, ‘Music & More’ 10/28/16
“[Each of the ‘2016:EPs’ clocks] in at around twenty five minutes and each one keeps you riveted throughout. This is an excellent group and the music that they play is both high in energy and emotionally engaging, which works well in these short compact bursts of music, and over the long haul.”
Bill Milkowksi, ‘Downbeat’ December 2016
★★★★
“Glimpses into a Grand Vision
While [Lundbom] does occasionally dial up distortion tones and skronk in audacious fashion, he primarily plays with a clean tone, while exhibiting a remarkable fluency and sense of freedom… Lundbom’s obvious love for the melodic free-jazz stylings of Ornette Coleman is apparent from his ambitious and gripping interpretations… Throughout the set, Lundbom draws on his broad experience as a sideman and collaborator to add swathes of color from outside the jazz world. …That sense of drama and narrative carries through to [“2016:EPs”] and the guitarist stakes out some original territory… This is courageous improvising and syncopated swing from a new crew of like-minded renegades.”
Chris Robinson, ‘Outside-Inside-Out’ 10/16/16
“[The ‘2016:EPs’ release strategy] strikes a balance between an older view of the album as larger holistic statement and the contemporary consumption of music in individual portions of digitized bytes. …It’s a strategy I don’t believe I’ve seen before, and it is the foundation for what is arguably one of the finest albums of the year. …[Lundbom’s] music doesn’t foreclose any possibilities or interpretations. They are wide open and offer lots of room for exploration. …Especially compelling is the subtle mix of a variety of grooves and tempos and phrasing, which are often stacked upon or juxtaposed against each other. …The performances and compositions across each EP are of a uniformly high and creative level, and the use of a Coleman tune each in one further unifies the set. This is free jazz…in a way where the common framework and reference point encourages each player to be free to employ a variety of vocabularies and take things in new directions.
…Just because one does not take oneself too seriously does not mean one is not serious. …I find that the group’s irreverence – when combined with its restless creative energy, serious chops, inventiveness, risk taking, and respect for the tradition – is what draws me to their music, and why I find it so compelling. …And that’s what JL&BVC has done yet again: respecting and drawing from tradition while having unique and important individual voices use and warp that tradition to create something fresh. Their aesthetic is not either/or. It’s both/and, and it’s this dialectic relationship that makes Big Five Chord one of the most vital and sparkling groups working today.”
Karl Ackermann, ‘All About Jazz’ 09/12/16
★★★★
“Lundbom and his Big Five Chord stand ideas on their head and break them down, reformulating the basic elements like a chemical reaction. Nothing is wasted or diluted on ‘Make the Changes.’ Edgy and stimulating, the music often plays on thin ice, doubling down and managing not to fall through. Perhaps the best thing that this group, and their EP collection (‘2016: EPs’), shares with its kindred label mates MOPDtK, is the ability to have enormous amounts of fun with liberating free playing while observing to just enough sanity to be accessible.”
Paul Acquaro, ‘Free Jazz Blog’ 09/03/16
★★★★
“[Big Five Chord] is a powerhouse of ideas and chops, and little of it goes to waste. ‘Play All the Notes’ begins with ‘Comedy Gold,’ a no nonsense free jazz explosion featuring an intense wrenching duet between Irabagon and Murray. …[The EP] features all the notes while straddling line between modern and free jazz. …[‘MacGuffin’] underscores [Lundbom’s] deft ability to balance inside and outside playing. …Over the course of the four EPs, the playing is immaculate, unstrained and accessible.”
Chris Spector, ‘Midwest Record’ 08/30/16
“Pretending to be normal jazz, it’s as left field as any MOPDTK set even if the soloists get to kick it out a little more. Off kilter but on the money throughout right from the start as ‘Salt Peanuts’ becomes, appropriately, ‘MacGuffin,’ jazz’s sense of adventure is alive and well here. Check it out.”
Mike Shanley, ‘Shanley On Music’ 07/13/16
“Lundbom doesn’t stop, churning out a new release practically every year. And why should he, since the 13-year old Big Five Chord…continues to do exciting things with the guitarist’s sometimes audacious compositions.”
Karl Ackermann, ‘All About Jazz’ 06/08/16
★★★★
“Full of precarious diversions that [go] beyond well-mapped terrain. The group approaches the unfamiliar with cleverness, misdirection, and at times, a full-frontal assault on the senses. …There’s been a tendency to describe Big Five Chord as if they were sometimes treading a line between something intangible and progressive jazz. But that underplays how the group distinguishes and supports the individualities of its members, maintaining unpredictability without losing concentration or musical playfulness. Whether Big Five Chord is executing a plaintive bluesy passage or scorching their eyebrows in a freefall, ‘Play All the Notes’ wastes nothing and gives in abundance.”
Jeff Simon, ‘The Buffalo News’ 06/04/16
★★★1/2 (out of four)
“Splendid music by one of the coolest and boldest jazz bands around… The asperity of Lunblom’s [sic] soloing is powerful but what makes the EP’s irresistible is the counterpoint of Irabagon and Exclamationpoint. If you want to know where the jazz vanguard lives and absolutely flourishes in current jazz, try these guys.”