Bay Area Jazz-Funk Quartet Times 4 to Release Third CD,
“Eclipse,” on June 1

After seven years of
playing together, Times 4 has truly found its groove. And when
“Eclipse,” the group’s third CD for their Groove Tonic Media label, is
released nationally on June 1, the foursome hopes that their tight
grooves and improvisational prowess will find new appreciation beyond
their San Francisco Bay Area base.

(Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) May 17, 2010 — Over the last
seven years, Times 4 has
established itself as one of the most exciting live attractions on the
San Francisco Bay Area music scene. Whether playing major venues under
their own name or opening for national touring acts on festival stages,
Times 4 has made a solid impression.

Their tight grooves and improvisational prowess have also translated
well to disc. Times 4’s third CD “Eclipse,” due out June 1 from their
Groove Tonic Media label, finds the group really coming into its own.
“The communication between the members has become much stronger,” says
soprano and tenor saxophonist Lincoln Adler. “There is a real unity in
the way we support each other in both solos and ensemble playing.”

“We believe that this CD really reflects Times 4 coming together as a
band,” adds bassist Kevin Lofton. “It was truly a collaborative effort.”

Literally collaborative, in that most of the disc’s selections were
co-composed and arranged by the group, which also includes keyboardist
Greg Sankovich and drummer Maurice Miles. For the first time on record,
the band has added non-originals to their program as well: John
Coltrane’s “Naima,” and “Eighty One,” the Ron Carter/Miles Davis
composition from Davis’s 1965 “E.S.P.” album. “We just did them Times
4’s way,” says Maurice.

Coming up with a simple tag to categorize Times 4’s style isn’t easy.
“Times 4 has ended up between genres,” Adler observes. “Because we just
decided to play the music that comes from our hearts, we didn’t turn on
the style filter when it comes to composing, so there’s funk, there’s
jazz, and there’s a lot of improvisation. I’ve always been a bit
frustrated with the urge to classify music by style. My favorite mixes
will go from jazz to classical to Afro-Cuban to R&B to pop to
African to tango to lots of things in between.”

Sankovich calls the band’s music “a Bay Area concoction.” Miles
describes it as “contemporary with an edge,” and for Lofton it’s “a nice
hybrid of cerebral jazz with more of a backbeat.”

In its early days, Times 4 was fortunate to land a steady gig at Straits
in San Jose that, over a two-year period, enabled them to refine their
improvisational approach to jazz, funk, and soul. All Music Guide wrote
of their 2004 debut “Seductivity” that it “succeeds as both funky dance
music and a fine example of the funkier side of jazz.” Material on that
CD and its follow-up “Relations” (2007) drew heavily from open-ended
jams created on the bandstand.

For “Eclipse,” the four musicians took their time coming up with the
disc’s collective compositions. But the actual recording went quickly;
the album was completed in a two-day session at Berkeley’s Fantasy
Studios. Sankovich had the opportunity to use several of the facility’s
vintage keyboard instruments, including an acoustic grand piano that had
been played by Bill Evans. “I kissed it first,” Greg quips about
playing the grand.

Times 4 functions as a democracy in which in each member has an equal
voice. The group’s uncanny musical cohesiveness is an outgrowth of that
process. “As musicians,” Sankovich says, “we try to listen to the spaces
of conversations, more than to the actual words. We try to listen to
the groove. When everybody is firing on all cylinders, then we know
we’ve got a decision.”

In addition to performing a CD release event on 6/2 at San Francisco’s
new Coda Jazz Supper Club, Times 4 will also be appearing at the Headly
Room in San Jose on 7/9, the Sunnyvale Jazz & Beyond series on 7/10,
and other dates now in the works.