WWW.JAZZREVIEW.COM
By Tim Hamm

"a futuristic combination of urban beats and big band horns"
"The supporting players are all excellent, and they are doing a great job of supporting this adventurous musical experiment"
"If you feel a bit daring, pick up this disc and enjoy a truly pioneering effort by some of the best in the genre."



THE IDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
By Sholto Byrnes, 20 June 2004

Few are as expert at combining jazz harmony and orchestration with programmed beats as producer Geoff Wilkinson, who was responsible as part of Us3 for "Cantaloop", the 1993 reworking of Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island". Combining horns with attitude and crisp drum rhythms, his new venture is a darkly compelling success topped with the sardonic treacle of another old Us3 bandmate, saxophonist Ed Jones. There's even a terrific revamped version of Michael Jackson’s "Billie Jean". What more could you ask for?



KEYBOARD (USA)
By Janell Umemoto, June 2004

From the collaborators of Us3 comes a project where saxophonist Ed Jones (ED) and producer/programmer Geoff Wilkinson (GE) combine sounds of contemporary jazz with 21st Century beats. This extraordinary CD features keyboardist Jim Watson (Us3, Incognito, and now touring with Zero 7), Jessica Lauren (analog synth queen of London and player of choice for many West London "broken beat" producers), Leon Greening (budding up-and-comer), and Jonathan Gee (of the Monk Liberation Front). The songs give not only a nod, but an honorable bow to jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Duke Ellington, Don Ellis, Stan Kenton, and Miles Davis. Recorded in Emagic Logic and MOTU Digital Performer, ED/GE utilized a number of analog keyboards — ARP Solina, Minimoog, Moog Prodigy, Roland MC-202 and 303, and a rare Roland Paraphonic 505, among others. The results are genius and fresh. Ed’s horn playing is great, and the true musicianship of ED/GE shines on tracks like "King Don" (where they tackle Don Ellis’ fiendishly shifting time signatures),"Billie Jean"(a Michael Jackson cover), and "Quasimodo"(Miles Davis meets hip-hop). ED/GE produces a wonderful new sound and successfully accomplishes big band meets beats.



Q
By Linton Chiswick, March 2004

A new project by British saxophonist Ed Jones (the "ed" in ed/ge) and Us3 programmer/producer/DJ Geoff Wilkinson (the "ge"), ed/ge combine big band and Apple Mac to make a new and exciting sound. Most of the tunes are originals, but with plenty of ingenious references to jazz sounds reborn through hip-hop and drum'n'bass: Quasimodo hints at ‘60s Miles Davis; King Don references Don Ellis; Bounce has a Bag’s Groove pattern. Throughout, the band is sharp and Jones is an inspired soloist. Most of all, the project demonstrates Wilkinson’s extraordinary musicality and imagination.



IDJ magazine
By Cal Gibson, December 2004
5 star review of 12" single by ed/ge – Quasimodo/Quasimodo (Richy Pitch Remix) b/w Las Vegas Tango

First offering from Geoff Wilkinson's new imprint sees him team up with Ed Jones for a cool stroll through the gently swaying funk fields. 'Quasimodo' kicks off in downbeat mode, coming as it does with a tasty Richy Pitch rerub, but the real gem is as ever on the flip as Gil Evans' 'Las Vegas Tango' gets updated in fine style: soulful, melancholic, late night blues for the beboppers in the place. As the man says: "Everything belongs to me because I am poor, miserable, cold and broke." 5/5





ARTS: Ed/ge Jazz Café, London. By Mike Hobart. Financial Times; Nov 19, 2003

Last Friday was the opening night of the London Jazz Festival, when South Bank concert halls and smoky bars alike will present the panoramic variety of musical approaches that characterises a confident and outward-looking contemporary jazz scene. At one end of the spectrum, jazz is a recognised art form that attracts funding and sponsorship. The other end is inhabited by musicians such as ed/ge, who were brought up on the rhythms of contemporary club music and have reinvigorated jazz at its roots.

ed/ge are a collaboration between saxophonist Ed Jones and producer Geoff Wilkinson. They have a long working history, scoring international success with the group Us3 in 1993. By sampling 1960s Blue Note records and adding rappers and jazzy solos, they introduced a new generation of clubbers to jazz. ed/ge continue this process, adding fairly conventional but well-crafted big band brass arrangements to Wilkinson's samples.

On disc, the formula works well. Their CD A View From The ed/ge is a fine, unpretentious and atmospheric reworking of the big band tradition, with knockout versions of Gil Evans's "Las Vegas Tango" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". The expert scoring for three trombones, four trumpets and four saxophones brings out the rich sonorities of a working brass section. The individual soloists are exciting and the clarity and power of sampled beats gives balance between brass and rhythm.

Live, the band suffered from first-night nerves and an initial failure to match the clarity of Wilkinson's samples with the amplification of the brass. The trumpets sounded muffled and when Jones switched to the more delicate, but earthy flute, he struggled to be heard. By the end though, the band triumphed, drawing in an initially unresponsive audience.





The Guardian review of first ever ed/ge gig at The Spitz, London, October 13 2000 by John L Walters

Computers are a fundamental part of contemporary sound culture, yet their strengths tend not to apply to real-time music. In the studio, they have economic clout and operational flexibility; live, they're inflexible and boring to watch. That's why pop programmes are full of dancing and costumes. ed/ge is a newish way of dealing with this issue - there are nine horns, a synthesizer (the versatile Jim Watson) and a computer on stage.

ed/ge stands for Ed Jones and Geoff Wilkinson. The latter was part of the studio team Us3, who struck gold (and platinum) a few years ago when they looped the catchiest bits of some old Blue Note records and added noises to make ersatz fusion epitomised by Cantaloop, a clever recycling of Herbie Hancock's Canteloupe Island that swiftly became a ubiquitous lifestyle soundtrack. Jones is an impressive jazz reed player/arranger whose CV includes many Us3 sessions.

The debut gig of this new partnership of boffin and blower was part of the Serious Sampler series, which enables experimental ventures such as this to go ahead with a good sound system in front of a small, clued-up audience. If you experiment, you expect to win, fail and make some discoveries, and all that happened on Friday.

Though it was Wilkinson's stage debut, he resisted the temptation to don glitter and feather boa and instead sat impassively at a computer monitor, chewing gum, keying commands to trigger a whole set's worth of rhythm tracks. Jones' arrangements ranged from simple riffs to the complicated busyness beloved of American college jazz bands.

A couple of numbers had Jones' opening cadenza weaving in and out of a spoken word "story of jazz" sample before the beats crashed in. A brave attempt to cover Gil Evans' sublime Las Vegas Tango was thrilling, if over-respectful. A Cuban-influenced number allowed Watson to pay homage to Ruben Gonzalez before the trumpeters shot into overdrive. But these are early days for a band that, given a fair wind (and some smarter software?), may get looser, wilder and tighten up.