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Illinois Entertainer Album Review (02/11)
Even if you don’t care for modern prog, you have to respect Graham Czach’s herculean solo effort, Lucid. Self-produced and released (and also featuring the ambitious Czach on many instruments), he’s built an edificial album drawing on the fantastical realms of Pink Floyd, Yes, the third side of the third Extreme album, Saigon Kick, and The Mars Volta. Multi-suite pop songs abound, as do florid Beatles-based melodies in a tale that loosely binds lost love and environmentalism...It’s an opus of which to be very, very proud. – Kevin Keegan
Chicago Tribune Interview/Feature (10/15/10)
Graham Czach's debut album, 'Lucid,' a personal statement
By Andy Downing, special to the Tribune
Link to Chicago Tribune article
Even at just 31, Graham Czach is already a music lifer. Born and raised in suburban Palatine, Czach started playing stand-up and electric bass at the tender age of 7, forming his first rock group, the Skalawags, when he was just a freshman at Fremd High School. "We almost got a record deal but were sort of all over the place at the time," says Czach, who started the group with current Umphrey's McGee drummer Kris Myers. "If we had actually made that deal ... I would probably already be dead. I was way too young."
Going on to describe himself as "extreme" and "a bit of a wild man," a wizened Czach adds: "I learned the hard way with a lot of stuff, man. I've got a lot of gray hair already."
Listening to Czach's...
"Graham Czach takes a solo that stakes his claim on Chicago's grand tradition of great bass players."
- Neil Tesser (Jazz Critic - Jazziz, Jazz Times, Playboy, Chicago Reader, Sun-Times and more)
"..bassist Graham Czach and drummer Robert Tucker hold down the fort as solidly as any rhythm section on the scene today."
- Matthew Warnock (www.allaboutjazz.com)
“Providing solid, yet exciting support on the bass, Graham Czach is making his name as one of Chicago's best and most in demand young bassists,..”
–Brad Walseth (jazzchicago.net)
”Across 10 originals, the emphasis is on group interplay, with active basslines and lively arrangements… Among the standouts is pianist Nelson, who gets the nod more often than not… There are a fair number of introspective moments on ‘Falling Together Falling Apart’, thanks again to Nelson’s knack for getting off the beaten path, but there is the occasional up tune that suggests these guys might be used to people dancing at their shows. ‘Electric Cowgirl Boogaloo’ is just such a number, featuring some bouncy funk swing with saucy playing from Ward along with lots of spritely lines from Czach, his bass playing a driving if delicate force. In the end, what makes this disc enjoyable is the way the 26-year-old Koppel takes a conventional form (mainstream jazz) and makes something of it, breaking up the material, avoiding the tendency to just write blowing vehicles and, when his own guitar isn’t happening (e.g., ‘Falling Together’, ‘Our Tribe’), letting his sidemen take most of the spotlight.” - John Ephland, Downbeat, December 2009.
“…his first opportunity to reach a larger audience. He didn’t disappoint… Koppel approached the recording in a way you d have hardly expected from most guitarists in their mid-20s. Instead of taking the biggest baddest solos on every tune, Koppel stepped back away from the spotlight to showcase his own terrific compositions, as well the admirable interplay and creativity of his high-end associates. Koppel s quartet features a spectacular young pianist named Matt Nelson, soon to record an album under his own name; he also brought in guest saxophonists Geof Bradfield and Greg Ward, two of the city s most engaging and exciting soloists. The result: an exceptionally mature album by a young guitarist you’ll surely hear more from in this...
“The group’s songs are musical snowballs, opening as minimalist skeletons – a buoyant bass line or a lone, repeated guitar chord – before picking up keyboards, horns and various percussive elements. Gathering momentum, the songs thunder to a hip-shaking climax.” –Chicago Tribune
“…The band cooks hard, slotting economical solos into its taut ensemble grooves…. [They] displayed plenty of chops and energy…”
–Chicago Reader
“…Afrobeat, political music first inspired by the Nigerian Fela Kuti, whose sax flirted with Coltrane while his band hustled like James Brown’s; check out Brooklyn’s Antibalas orchestra or Chicago Afrobeat Project.”
–Esquire Magazine
"Native Fiction has an original sound and a craftsmanlike approach to writing and singing, and I approve of all that."
- Philip Pullman (Dark Materials and Golden Compass author - www.philip-pullman.com)
"There's a certain irrreverence to being uncatagorizable, the songs of Native Fiction draw you in and sound like nothing but the future."
-Doug McBride Owner Gravity Studios Chicago, IL
"Native Fiction has the motivation to take the world by storm, playing like a veritable tempest. With members hailing from Oak Park, Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Antioch, the group includes Phil Sheaff on guitars, Matt Nelson on keyboards, Graham Czach on bass and Brad Dickert on drums (as well as nonstage band member Matt Nishan, who writes, records and mixes concerts). With all of its stage members contributing vocals, Native Fiction creates an impressive chorus of primal-sounding music. There is nothing fake about the Fiction lineup. They throw themselves wholeheartedly into playing their wild sound with gusto. Native Fiction plays romantic rock with epic scope. They're not exactly straight-up rock, nor are they a jam band or prog rockers. They say their influences include Floyd, Zappa and Miles Davis, as well as Ravel and Neil Young, but they don't sound anything like any of those particular artists. They do draw on their roots to create a fitting tribute to what has come before them. "First Case Scenario" is a little bit of everything, conveyed in dramatic guitars, sweeping melodies and fierce vocals, sometimes pretty, always practiced. And everything Native Fiction does with their music is exactly what they want to do. That kind of mastery is impressive."
Author: Allison Augustyn, Pioneer Press
