The Band


last edited 28 December, 2015:

 Here's the sleeker, slightly more generic mid-'10s but more press-friendly landing page for Great On Paper, the band. We sincerely hope you do enjoy

Great On Paper, The Band, Jazz Quartet, Boston Collective, with Kevin Sun, Isaac Wilson, Simón Willson, and Robin Baytas, New England Conservatory and Beyond!
Out February 11, 2016, on Endectomorph Music.
Pre-order it now! 

 And read all about it.

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The above is happening, and we want to make music for you, anonymous blog visitor. RSVP on FB if you'd like: The Jazz Gallery (NYC), Tumulty's (NJ), Twins Jazz (DC)

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8.7.15: Anything more is a bonus. Thank you!

5.29.15: 77%! One more '7' and we've hit jackpot!

5.20.15: 42%! The meaning of the universe is...

4.21.15: 10%! Starting to see land!

4.10.15: 4%! Getting closer!

4.9.15: 3%!

4.5.15: 2% of target reached!


No, it's not Kickstarter, nor PledgeMusic, nor GoFundMe, nor IndieGoGo, but we'd sincerely appreciate some help from you, Internet denizen and patron of the arts (and soon-to-be patron of GOP, we hope). Here's the story:

 Last month, we were offered the deal of a quarter life-time to record at a top studio in NYC for basically peanuts, and so we bused down there immediately and cut a bunch of tracks of our original music, paying for our generous studio engineer plus the editing and mixing out of our own pockets before the deal expired for certain logistical reasons. 

 But now, alas, we are at an impasse: we've run out of band funds to put the record through mastering, physical reproduction (i.e., CDs), designer fees, distribution, and so on. 

 We're looking at a final price tag of ~$2000.

Check out some clips from the album and consider diverting a few dollars from the slush fund to help us get this music out to you and the wider world. 

Even if you're not in the mood to shell out a couple of dollars to a bunch of twenty-something post-music school students, we'd appreciate if you could share the video or this landing page with your friendly neighborhood jazz/creative music fan. 

 Donate Become a GOP patron now and secure, for all time, your copy of the digital album fresh off the 0s and 1s for $10 ($20, and we'll send you the compact disc, replete with what we hope will be extraordinary album art and liner notes to enrich your listening experience).

          G           O           P          

Founded on the principles of equality, freedom of speech, and reckless exploration, Great on Paper is an improvised, four-person party that goes into musical situations without an exit strategy. Featuring Kevin Sun (saxophones, EWI), Isaac Wilson (keyboards), Simón Willson (double bass), and Robin Baytas (drums), GOP is a typical jazz quartet configuration with a distinctly atypical bent towards the avant-garde and the folkloric, and taps into the jazz tradition without getting too ideological or self-conscious about it.
Great On Paper Jazz Quartet — Kevin Sun, Isaac Wilson, Simón Willson, Robin Baytas
Photo by Jesse Weiner
GOP performs mostly original music that is somehow both formally sophisticated yet, in moderate doses, pleasant to listen to. With numerous musical influences that range from Steve Coleman to Paul Bley to Stevie Wonder, GOP has no interest in disguising its catholic tastes, and the band’s co-mingling of diverse musical sensibilities allegedly lend it an air of refinement and worldliness. As one anonymous reviewer has said, “At their show in December, that new band GOP really put the ‘Status’ in ‘Status Quo!’” Call them what you will—a postmodernist mélange, abstract sound-fashioners, jazz charlatans—GOP takes no prisoners and doesn’t apologize when it steps on your feet; it just keeps on moving right along. 
Great on Paper was the 2013-14 Jazz Honors Ensemble for the New England Conservatory of Music and was coached by Ted Reichman.

 Learn more about each member of GOP: Kevin Sun, Isaac Wilson, Simón Willson, and Robin Baytas.

—L—I—S—T—E—N—


— Stompin' at the Savoy (Edgar Sampson)

— The Wide One (Kevin Sun)

— Solar (Chuck Wayne / Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson / Miles Davis [?])

—D—A—T—E—S—

Upcoming

Great On Paper, Summer East Coast Campaign 2015:

Great On Paper (Postmodern) Jazz Quartet – East Coast Summer Campaign (Tour) 2015 - The Jazz Gallery, Bohemian Caverns, Twins Jazz – Kevin Sun, Isaac Wilson, Simón Willson, Robin Baytas
  • Monday, August 17, 2015 at 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. - sitting in with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001 — $10 (intermission set)


Come and Gone
G.O.P. & Earprint Live at The Lily Pad Banner
  • October 28, 2014 - The Harvard Advocate Presents: Earprint + GOP @ The Harvard Advocate, 21 South Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138
  • April 5, 2014 - Double Bill: GOP + iiii @ The Signet Society, 46 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • April 1, 2014 at 7 p.m. - Great on Paper Show @ Jordan Hall (New England Conservatory), 290 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02215
  • March 26, 2014 at 8:30 p.m. — GOP @ the Signet Society, 46 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • March 26, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. - Great on Paper performance and improvisation workshop at Milton High School, Milton, MA 02186
  • March 25, 2014 at 10 a.m. - GOP performance and improvisation workshop at Harvard University Music Building, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • March 10, 2014 at 8 a.m. - Great on Paper performance and improvisation workshop at Brookline High School, Brookline, MA, 02445
  • Feb. 6, 2014 at 7 p.m. - Great on Paper for "NEC at the Harvard Club" @ The Harvard Club of Boston, 374 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215

—C—O—N—T—A—C—T—

Great on Paper is available for performances and improvisation masterclasses, and also would very much appreciate your feedback! Get in touch with the band at: 

greatonpaper.music@gmail.com


—A—B—O—U—T—

Robin Baytas is a drummer and 2014 graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, and is now based out of Montclair, NJ. In high school, Robin performed and developed relationships with local legends Billy Hart, Steve Turre, Christian McBride, Geri Allen, and Claudio Roditi. He currently freelances around New York, performing frequently at venues such as The Blue Note and Bar Next Door. 
Kevin Sun is a saxophonist, 2014 graduate of Harvard College, and 2015 graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music. Kevin was the 2013 Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition winner and the 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition winner in the jazz saxophone category. He was previously the editor of Jazz Speaks, the blog of The Jazz Gallery, a nonprofit jazz cultural center in New York City.
Isaac Wilson is a pianist and composer. Isaac performs regularly as both a leader and as a sideman around the greater Boston area, and graduated in the spring of 2015 with a Bachelors degree in Jazz Performance; he will be attending Berklee College of Music as a member of the inaugural class of Masters Jazz Program candidates. His teachers include Ran Blake, Frank Carlberg, Fred Hersch, Cecil McBee, Alan Pasqua and Edward Simon, and he has studied classical piano with Stephen Drury, Jeffrey Lavner, and Sophia Rosoff. 
Simón Willson is a bassist hailing from Santiago, Chile. Simon attended the Escuela Moderna de Music preparatory program in Santiago and decided to pursue his musical studies at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, where he completed his undergraduate degree in the spring of 2015. Apart from keeping a busy sideman schedule, Simon composes music and has taught several students and masterclasses in his home country. He plays every Friday and Saturday in trumpeter Jason Palmer's band at Wally's Café Jazz Club.

Great On Paper Jazz Quartet - Kevin Sun, Isaac Wilson, Simón Willson, Robin Baytas
(Jesse Weiner, again)

—P—R—E—S—S—

 "He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen"   
– Hunter S. Thompson on Richard Nixon, "He Was a Crook" (Rolling Stone, June 16, '94)     
"Sometimes what looks good on paper is a disaster in practice" 
– Charles Blow on Bobby Jindal, "Gov. Jindal's Implosion" (New York Times, March 23, '15)
"...well equipped with knowledge both in and out of the canon"
– New York Times (August '15)
"... [they] can essentially play anything they want. The results are as diverse as shuffling through anybody's iPod"
– Ethan Iverson, pianist of The Bad Plus (liner notes to Great On Paper, forthcoming)
"It sounds great on paper, but the new way companies are paying millennials has a real problem"  
– Ylan Q. Mui, "Companies have found something to give their workers instead of raises" (Washington Post, July 28, '15)

"...a musical big tent" 
– Kevin Laskey, "Big Tent Collective: Great On Paper" (Jazz Speaks, August 10, '15)  
 "...great in person"
– Rio Sakairi, Artistic Director, The Jazz Gallery, on "Great On Paper"
  "It looks innocuous on paper"
—Gunther Schuller on the parallel seventh-chord progression in the opening to "Froggie Moore", Early Jazz
 "This looks like a stretch on paper"
—Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen, on Noah Preminger's Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar

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