Fight the Big Bull

Masterminded by guitarist Matt White of soulful southern rock quartet Great White Jenkins, Richmond band Fight the Big Bull was formed six years ago, centered around a five-piece horn section and anchored by Jenkins drummer Pinson Chanselle, Bio Ritmo bassist Cameron Ralston and Agents of Good Roots percussionist Brian Jones. While based in Virginia, the ensemble should be no stranger to Triangle music fans: After recording with bedroom folkie and former Durham resident David Karsten Daniels on the Thoreau-inspired album, I Mean To Live Here Still, the mighty nonet lent its instrumental heft to last year's collaborative interpretation of Alan Lomax's Sounds of the South at Duke University with Megafaun, Justin Vernon and Sharon Van Etten. Beyond the Bull City, Fight the Big Bull has fostered plenty of partnerships in the jazz realm, where it's played alongside both Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark and New York slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

Given its impressive résumé of collaborations, Fight the Big Bull gets by—and gets noticed by its musical allies—for its own inventive take on progressive jazz, which typically takes on free slants. While powerhouse horns and hypnotic, polyrhythmic grooves are the signature of the group's wild, hard-hitting passages, it avoids overindulgence by building to that point as a climax. Masters of dynamics, Fight the Big Bull's subtly shifting moods reach those moments only after hitting a straightforward jazz swing that grows from a sparse beginning.

At times, White's dizzying guitar leads and Chanselle's pounded beats make the case for jazz-rock fusion as well. White hasn't left behind his Americana heritage, either: Fight the Big Bull's been known to lead raucous sing-alongs of The Band's "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down" during live sets, even recording a take on "Jemima Surrender" for last year's All Is Gladness In The Kingdom with Bernstein. —Spencer Griffith