With programming Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the North Sea Jazz Festival didn't just sign on a band with a striking name. It's also one of the most progressive acts of this year's edition. The American quartet, describing itself as a "A Terrorist Be-Bop Uber-Jass Ensemble", will truly uphold that handle while playing in Ahoy. The four musically trained, New York-based musicians are inspired by the entire spectrum of jazz and various abstract improvisation forms. Creative leader and composer of this "dirty jazz" is bassist Moppa Elliot, who is also a music teacher at a primary school. Humor is an important motivator for the foursome, as is proven not only by their album titles, like Shamokin!!! (2006) and This Is Our Moosic (2008). The covers of these albums are sympathetic parodies of the sleeves of the long-play records of their great role models Art Blakey and Ornette Coleman.
