Originally assembled with the help of a French American Jazz Exchange grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the trans-atlantic trio of drummer/vocalist Guillermo E. Brown, bassist Keith Witty, and saxophonist Christophe Panzani has performed throughout New York and France simply known as
Thiefs. Fully acoustic to fully electronic, Thiefs creates a hybrid of electronica, hip-hop, and the limitless possibilities of jazz.
As
Ben Ratliff of the
New York Times puts it "Thiefs is looking for new ways to extend jazz sound and, to some extent, jazz vocabulary. It combines the sound of trap-set and digital percussion; R&B vocals and squelchy voice-related samples; splintered dance music; and contemporary, calm, serious melodic improvisation. It keeps changing the frame, making a startling mash of natural and synthetic, resonant and fractured."
