Industrial Jazz Group at Cal State Bakersfield's Dore Theater April 3, 2009

On Friday, April 3, at 8pm at Cal State Bakersfield's Dore Theater, the16-piece Industrial Jazz Group (IJG), a wacky "big band" featuring the music of composer Andrew Durkin, will be returning to its home state special all-ages campus event.

The internationally renowned IJG, now entering its ninth year, has developed a reputation for comical, quirky, genre-defying performances of what Durkin calls "avant garde party music." Critics consistently cite the group’s broad, entertaining appeal; as Tom Bowden of Educational Digest once said, "Durkin writes music that people who think they hate jazz would like." Scott Yanow of LA Jazz Scene, who compares the IJG to Holland’s Willem Breuker Kollektief, enthusiastically calls the group "both a crack up and a memorable musical experience," and the IJG’s quirky sonic stew was once summed up by Brandt Reiter of the LA Weekly’s simultaneously "cerebral and swinging, ambitious and accessible, challengingly complex and unabashedly fun."