TIME ZONE Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugelhorn Martin Hathaway - alto sax, bass clarinet Stuart Hall - guitar, violin Dave Manington - double bass Andy Ball - drums Maurizio Ravalico – congas
“...a probing crossover composer’s intelligence, in which time signatures are shuffled and idioms overlaid... a consistently intriguing set, underpinned by the churning polyrhythms of drummer Andy Ball and conga-player Maurizio Ravalico… Nobody writes music quite like Loz Speyer, and he’s long deserved a bigger stage, and the resources to match." John Fordham the Guardian
TIME ZONE plays an innovative "deep fusion" of Cuban music and Jazz - soulful, catchy and rhythmically sophisticated. The second album "Crossing the Line" features Time Zone's unique take on traditional Afrocuban rhythms. Cuban elements are re-assembled, as in collage, or mutated to fit odd meters - bilingual compositions where the groove can change in mid flow, like suddenly turning a corner, a new view opening up, another way of looking at things.
This unusual, deeply humourous music expresses some of the surreal complexity of life in Cuba, and of human life in general. Speyer's compositions for Time Zone result from the collision of Cuban culture with his own, and from the band's extensive experience and research into both musical languages, Cuban as well as Jazz.
“An ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context with no compromise to either culture. The result is gritty, graceful sounds with a dark-light intensity.” Kevin Legendre, Echoes
VIDEOS Time Zone compilation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5yB-8KoEIM Lista de Espera - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pGC4_nuJ0