The Kudu

Kudu, a collective based in New York, unites Sylvia Gordon on vocals and bass with Deantoni Parks at the drums and keyboardists Nick Kasper and Peter Stoltzman, merging jazz, soul, and electronica into an intoxicating urban hybrid. Parks produces live percussion that frequently emulates programmed rhythms and drum'n'bass patterns, while Kasper and Stoltzman generate shifting textures and grooves from their layered keyboard array. Gordon anchors the sound through her songwriting and richly expressive voice, elements that have come to define the group. Their first album, the self-titled Kudu, appeared in 2001 on the New York label Velour Recordings. Favorable notices and an expanding audience within the jam band scene, a movement whose stylistic openness widened through the 1990s, followed. Visibility increased sharply after the 2006 release of Death of the Party.