BELLOWS FALLS — The acoustic jazz ensemble Rhythm Future Quartet has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today's musical universe.
The foursome will be doing just that in their Stone Church Arts' performance in the Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St., on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
According to a news release, the group, named for a Django Reinhardt tune, will offer up “a newly minted sound, influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet wholly contemporary.”
Led by violinist Jason Anick and guitarist Olli Soikkeli, with Max O'Rourke on second guitar and Greg Loughman on bass, the quartet performs “dynamic and lyrical arrangements of both Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw upon diverse international rhythms and musical idioms.”
The band's self-titled debut album revisited classic jazz and Gypsy jazz favorites, but Travels, the quartet's current release, “concentrates on group originals that make captivating use of musical sources from outside the conventional Gypsy jazz terrain.”
“Travels reflects both the accumulated knowledge garnered from the group's worldwide touring as well as the international influences that inspired new rhythmic and harmonic possibilities within their compositions and arrangements,” concert organizers write of Travels, named one of the best jazz albums of 2016 by All About Jazz and The Huffington Post.
Anick, an award-winning composer and one of the youngest professors at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has shared the stage with an array of artists, including Grammy-award-winning guitarist John Jorgenson, Stevie Wonder, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and Tommy Emmanuel.
Soikkeli recently made the move from Scandinavia to New York City, where he quickly became a top-call guitarist in the Brooklyn jazz scene. He has performed alongside rising star Cyrille Aimée, world-renowned Gypsy jazz guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, Bucky Pizzarelli, and many others.
O'Rourke was the winner of the 2015 Saga Award from DjangoFest Northwest, and at 21 has already toured and recorded with many of the top American Gypsy Jazz musicians, including Jorgenson and Gonzalo Bergara.
Loughman, a top-call bassist in Boston, has been heard with such luminaries as Sheila Jordan, Curtis Fuller, and George Garzone.