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“Devin Gray is a polymath: inventive drummer, intrepid composer, chief of a burgeoning record label. Gray continues his ascension with ‘Melt All the Guns’… The title might suggest a recording where frustrations boil over into blurts and squeals. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The protest music that the trio makes is akin to meditative paintings, vivid in scope with microscopic-level attention to detail.” — Brad Cohan / JazzTimes on the debut Melt All the Guns EP

Devin Gray — doubly based in the dynamic, divergent artistic hubs of Brooklyn and Berlin — has made a name for himself over the past decade-plus as a drummer and composer of textural ingenuity, lithe groove and uncommon energy. He has led multiple bands in the studio and on the road, prime among them Dirigo Rataplan (featuring him alongside veteran luminaries Dave Ballou on trumpet, Ellery Eskelin on saxophone & Michael Formanek on double-bass) and Relative Resonance (with standout saxophonist Chris Speed, pianist Kris Davis & bassist Chris Tordini). Behind his solo album Most Definitely, Gray has also toured on both sides of the Atlantic playing unaccompanied drum shows of indefatigable imagination, with All About Jazz calling him “an amazing percussionist.” Another of Gray’s key bands is Melt All the Guns, a trio project that first released an eponymous EP in 2021, with the group’s name reflecting the frustration that so many have felt over the seemingly endless gun violence in the United States. Still, Gray experienced online pushback from gun enthusiasts from just the band name alone. Yet, as noted by actual jazz critics both in Europe and the U.S., this trio’s music isn’t shrill, nor is it depressed; rather, it’s a subtle, intrinsic kind of protest music that resonates with the love of life, full of color, spirit and invention.

Gray and virtuoso American trumpeter Ralph Alessi were complemented on the first release by top New York pianist Angelica Sanchez. For the full-length Melt All the Guns II — to be released via the drummer’s Rataplan Records digitally and on CD on Oct. 4, 2024 — Gray and Alessi are joined by a French pianist who might be a new name to many jazz fans: Myslaure Augustin (with her first name pronounced “Meez-Lor”). From hard-grooving opener “East Berlin 2024” to ruminative, balladic highlight “No More Walls,” the album’s performances brim with melodic hooks and rhythmic pull. Beyond the socio-political stance of the group’s name and some of its song titles (whether “More Meritocracy” or “Audre Lorde Straße” which is named for a Berlin street that recognizes an American poet, feminist and civil-rights activist), the sensibility of this trio is “all about positivity, with the idea of exploring and sharing,” Gray explains. “Wordless music is more or less abstract, and the band name and song titles are just small, common-sense gestures, of course. But I think it’s important to show that you have the courage of your convictions.”

Inspired by iconic drummer-leaders from Art Blakey and Tony Williams to Jim Black and John Hollenbeck, Gray is “a musician-drummer rather than a drummer-drummer,” as the UK’s Jazzwise magazine pointed out. He’s “interested in making music that is deeply evocative... shaped by a fizzing, often restless push-pull energy.” Gray has continually honed his knack for convening bands and composing pieces that inspire improvisers on stage and in the studio.Reflecting on the chance for a progressive-jazz trio recording to turn a few heads nowadays, Gray concludes: “In a world ever-more consumed with social media and AI, this music is something truly handmade, an artisanal, human creation. We still need these things to wake us up, aesthetically and culturally, heart and mind.”

Devin Gray’s Melt All the Guns II
Ralph Alessi - trumpet (USA)
Myslaure Augustin - piano (FR)
Devin Gray - drums/composition (USA)

Thank you for listening!

Melt All the Guns II

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