GREAT ON PAPER – 8PM & 10PM

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), Isaac Wilson (keyboards), Simón Willson (double bass), and Robin Baytas (drums), GOP taps into the jazz tradition without getting too ideological or self-conscious about it.

With influences ranging from Steve Coleman to Paul Bley to Stevie Wonder, GOP has no interest in disguising its catholic tastes. Call them what you will—a postmodernist mélange, abstract sound-fashioners, jazz charlatans—GOP takes no prisoners and doesn’t apologize for stepping on anyone’s feet.

Kevin and Robin hail from the occasionally underrated state of New Jersey; Isaac is a native of LA; and then there’s Simón, a Chilean. They converged in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music and quickly began deconstructing jazz standards to build their strange, personal language as a band. GOP remained a practice room project for a few years—a secret jazz-school lab experiment for musicians’ ears, only—until their first gig at a house concert, after which came the unspoken consensus that they finally had something worth sharing with the world.

A proudly Boston-based band, GOP has performed at local art spaces such as The Lily Pad, the Harvard Advocate, the Signet Society, and Jordan Hall. The band has also taught jazz improvisation workshops and masterclasses at local high schools and post-secondary institutions. In March, 2015, GOP recorded its first album at Sear Sound in New York City, and will embark on its first East Coast campaign in August.