!["Abstraktes Bild", Gerhard Richter, 1994](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/79/75/797513dce1051e9a02ef0555dcc77499.jpg?itok=PpmMkN9x ""Abstraktes Bild", Gerhard Richter, 1994")
Choir Fight may be the best jazz fusion group on Milwaukee's east side. Their sound is reminiscent of Freddie Hubbard's work during the Creed Taylor years mixed with influences from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. As they describe it themselves on their website (click here), their music places greater emphasis on "emotional content rather than technical facility". They will be a breath of fresh air for those who are looking for a less conservative approach to jazz, but one that retains a certain degree of composed elegance. The reader is invited to check out these samples from the upcoming album (click here) that will bear these words out.
Most of their upcoming album was recorded during a live performance at the Jazz Estate. The event was a lively one, and the levity of the performance comes out on the available samples. There are also hints of urban rough sophistication that is present in some ways at the Jazz Estate that may have helped to bring out those qualities on the album. As many well-traveled jazz musicians have remarked in the past, the JE has as much of the feel of a well worked jazz club as many other established clubs around the country.
The efforts of the musicians behind Choir Fight are certainly to be welcomed not only for broadening the palette of musical styles available in Milwaukee, but also for the path they seem to be finding between loose improvisation and composed sophistication.
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