Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber brings their "barely containable mix of euphoric funk, space jazz, power-packed rock, sweet soul and avant-garde experimentation" to the Joe Henderson Lab for what promises to be a genre-bending sonic adventure. This New York-based ensemble has been called "a multiracial jam army that freestyles with cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis' On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix' moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland."

Founded in 1999 by the late Village Voice critic and guitarist Greg Tate and co-led by bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, Burnt Sugar has built its reputation through "raucous live performances" that honor post-modern masters from Duke Ellington to Sun Ra, Parliament/Funkadelic, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The band's secret weapon is their use of Butch Morris's "conduction" system — a method of directing improvisation through hand gestures and eye contact that allows the ensemble to "perform like a single, multi-phonic organism" with "stop-on-a-dime cohesion."

The current nine-piece lineup features three vocalists (Shelley Nicole, Bruce Mack, and Miss Olithea), horn players, keyboards, guitar, drums, and Nickerson's signature "bubble" bass. Keyboardist Leon Gruenbaum brings his invented Samchillian — "the world's first relativistic music keyboard" — along with synthesizer and talk box. Drummer Marque Gilmore, who has toured internationally with the band, describes their approach: "We have a lot of fun, and you're going to see us throw little tricks at each other and surprises. We'll definitely be pulling some stuff completely off the top. The motto of the band is, 'We never play the same thing once.'"

Saxophonist "Moist" Paula Henderson, who has toured with Melvin Van Peebles and performed at SFJAZZ before with Reverend Vince Anderson, notes the deep musical connections: "We've all been playing together for many, many years, so it's like muscle memory. It's a collective of musicians, and like a big family."

Expect Burnt Sugar to "caramelize" the psychedelic sounds of the 1960s through their signature blend of conduction and repertoire that can range from classic songs to very obscure B-sides, all reimagined through their experimental soul-jazz-hip hop lens. The band's 22 recordings on their Avant Groidd Musica label document their mission to "freely move amongst many styles, eras and genres" — a philosophy that has attracted notable collaborators including pianist Vijay Iyer, guitarist Vernon Reid, and Captain Kirk Douglass from The Roots.