Led Bib
Live (numbered ltd ed.1000)
BDV 2770

1. Flashing Indicator
2. Work Prospects
3. Stinging Nettle
4. Memories Can't Wait

all compositions by Mark Holub except 4. by David Byrne

Recorded at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street London Aug 2 2007

Mark Holub - Drums
Liran Donin - bass
Toby McLaren - Keyboards
Chris Williams - alto sax
Pete Grogan - alto sax

"Sun Ra didn't die in vain." John Bungey (The Times - review of Live album)

"Jazz has never sounded so snarlingly dangerous"  (Metro)

"The wild and manically driven London-based quintet Led Bib are often described as "punk-jazz", but that doesn't do them justice. The ecstatic wailing of the two saxes and bandleader Mark Holub's furious drumming may seem completely unhinged, but there's method in the madness, and a keen musical intelligence. It's especially evident on this mini-CD, which has new versions of three tracks that first appeared on the 2005 album, Arboretum. A whole range of new colours and harmonies have been woven into the originals, and their headlong rush is inflected with unexpected turnings and digressions - though interestingly this multiplies the energy, rather than lessening it. Alongside them is a blistering new number appropriately entitled Stinging Nettles. And it's good value. "
Ivan Hewett (The Telegraph)

The twenty-something quintet release Led Bib Live, their third album - a limited edition (just 1000 in circulation) and individually numbered mini album - in March 2008. Recorded at Pizza Express Soho last August it documents the band's emerging new sound. Earlier tracks from their first few albums ‘Arboretum' and ‘Sizewell Tea' are revisited, developed and swung into new dynamic territory. This is a band that has grown together and individually - Liran Donin on bass, Toby McLaren on keys (and the strange noises that emanate from that little box), Chris and Pete on alto saxes, and of course, the inimitable manically grinning bandleader Mark Holub careering off into the the next improbable improvisation, on drums.

What they say about Led Bib...

“Gritty, raunchy jazz from a group who deserve to be checked out” 
Brian Morton The Wire 

“…If you don't go near jazz because it just isn't damned noisy enough, then come back to life to try the deliciously uncivil new Led Bib album... Led Bib are jazz, though, through and through, crammed with horn and blast, and as much swing as sweat” 
Paul Morley Observer Music Monthly - April 2007

"anyone intrigued by the sonic possibilities explored by Ladyland and Polar Bear or the leading lights of the New York Downtown scene should check it out." The Scotsman

"They represent a new generation of jazz musicians, blessed with the technical know-how of a music college degree and the sexiness of rock n' roll."
Blues and Soul

 “Proof that groovy dirty jazz isn't just the preserve of downtown New Yorkers”
BBC Radio 3

“Like crossing the road in a reverie and being run over by a passing bus - but in a pleasing way.” Richard Godwin Evening Standard

“Hard-drivin' skronky, honky free jazz which heavily references Ornette Coleman and John Zorn.”
John Lewis Time Out

“With its mixture of the silly and the grimly serious, its screwball determination and up yours defiance it is Led Bib in a nutshell.”
Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise, on Sizewell Tea.

"As with most things, you can blame post-modernism. But what irks about the punk-jazz trend, apart from music college grads squawking like they're down and dirty Bowery boys, is hearing something that wasn't that great in the first place, done so much worse. Drummer/ composer Mark Holub's quintet Led Bib have an unusual two-alto front- line, add Soft Machine-prog to the normal Ornettelite, and there are even electric bass solos. But Soft Machine had Elton Dean, who was a master. Having sat cross-legged through the original without having much fun, I'm unwilling to concede that this has not much reason to exist at all." Phil Johnson (The Independent)

For more info contact: [email protected] 0207 377 9868 or [email protected] 0207 3779892

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