Highly influenced by alternative rock, avant-garde jazz, and electronic music, American drummer Jim Black has explored countless group configurations alongside a wide range of artists.
His twelfth recording of original songs, Better You Don’t, is his second with The Shrimps — a sharp, eruptive Berlin-based trio featuring Danish altoist Asger Nissen and German musicians Julius Gawlik on tenor saxophone and Felix Henkelhausen on bass.
The buoyant “The Sheila” captures Black’s subversive knack for rock-inflected textures, channeling raw energy and spontaneity. These qualities come alive through a motorik-like rhythm that heightens kineticism, a sturdy, funky bass groove, and loose, creative saxophone…