Wax Poetic Plays Spiced up Jazz
NYC Musicians Bring Their Hyrbrid Sound to the Midwest
BY CHRISTINA MORGAN

This Saturday, Johnson House will host the New York City band Wax Poetic, a highly original collective of jazz musicians who implement everything from hip-hop to jazz to soul in their music. 

The group, the brainchild of Swedish/Turkish saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin, formed in 1997 and continues to impress music critics the world over. Perfecting their urban sound, Wax Poetic’s diverse vibrations reflect the multi-ethnicity of the Big Apple resulting in what they call “urban world music.”

(photo by Jenny Rushlow)

Wax Poetic was born during jam sessions in the legendary East Village nightclub Save The Robots where some of the city’s most talented musicians often play. Musicians from all genres –– turntables, samplers, vocalists, jazz instrumentalists –– would come to the jam sessions and slowly the jam sessions grew into a band/project with musicians coming and going. 
“The idea for Wax Poetic is to reflect my own life. It reflects exposure to different cultures and living in New York,” Erashin said in an issue of the Boston publication Weekly Dig.
Since it’s inception four years ago, Wax Poetic has gone through a number of personnel changes, having some 17 different members. “Because of who I am and who I surround myself with, I’m used to a lot of different influences. I’m just trying to express who I am,” Ersahin told Weekly Dig.

Wax Poetic comes to Oberlin in the middle of the midwestern portion of their tour and will head back to the East Coast before they leave for Turkey and Israel in May. The current make-up is Wax Poetic’s fifth edition, consisting of Carolyn Leonhart on vocals, Val Jeanty on samples and spoken word, Paul Orgunsalo on bass, Thor Madsen on guitar and electronics, Dana Murray on drums and Ersahin on saxophone and keys. 

Since the release of their self-titled debut album on Atlantic Records last June, Wax Poetic’s hybrid sound has been catching the attention of some of the country’s biggest magazines.
“[Wax Poetic] seamlessly blends the music stylings of techno, hip-hop, world music, soul together to make a unified sound. Their self-titled debut album is a perfect example of how all forms of music can be interpolated into one another,” said a reviewer in the August 2000 issue of Vibe.
What began as a jam session is now a full-blown band signed to a major label with a sound that has been defined as “like RZA had been in the studio with Miles Davis when he recorded Bitches Brew,” by Black Radio Exclusive. Wax Poetic’s original sound should keep Johnson House jumping for all those who attend the Saturday performance.