Onyx Collective

Onyx Collective lyrics

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If Onyx Collective, the nebulous jazz ensemble whose name you may have overheard in downtown Manhattan, seems elusive it is because they often are. Onyx shows are unannounced and usually impromptu affairs. The cast of performers is interchangeable, as is the kind of music that they play. Though an often rotating cast, Isaiah Barr, saxophonist, sometimes vocalist, and de facto leader of the band, and Austin Williamson (on drums) are regularly joined by Joshua Benitez on keyboard, Jack Guliemetti on guitar, Felix Pastorius and Spencer Murphy on electric bass, and Dean Torrey and Walter Stinson on upright bass, with Maxwell Deter providing most of the visual art. Nick Hakim, Princess Nokia, Julian Soto, Dev Hynes, Wiki, and other New York mainstays have performed with the band. In September of 2016, Onyx Collective released Second Avenue Rundown, a collection of live recordings released via Supreme and Know-Wave. A little over a year after Second Avenue Rundown, they made their official debut with the release of their EPs Lower East Suite Part One and Two in 2017. The recordings found on the projects are predominantly taken from live performances the band played across the city. Lower East Suite Part Three marked the first time that the group shared an entire project of recorded music that is written rather than improvised.