Edgy electric guitar improvisations…

Electric guitarist Sean Moran plays a critical role throughout, with his hard-laced solos blending a rock sensibility with a free aesthetic.

The group is a chamber ensemble making music in the era-defining category of the uncategorizable, its work a hybrid of jazz, classical, folk, and pop musics from around the world. Exuberant, virtuosic, and light-spirited, the Four Bags make smart music with a quiet, joyful intensity..I’m loving the group’s new CD, Forth

“What a strange lineup for a jazz quartet: trombone, accordion, guitar, and woodwinds. But what vibrant, compelling music. This is as hip as chamber jazz gets. To drive the point home the quartet even covers a song by the French electronic duo Air.”

Guitarist Sean Moran, in particular, is a curious player who stands out even within such a curious group (The Four Bags). His electric playing seems to be informed largely by post-rock atmospherics (think delay, trem picking, all the rest) and classic film soundtracks (a little noir here, a little Morricone there) – it’s a daring fit within the accordion/clarinet/trombone/guitar schematic. At one point, the group segued from a classic French waltz into one of Moran’s own compositions, which featured a hilariously chug-y metallic breakdown fit for any number of contemporary hardcore groups to ransack.

Mr. Moran, a forward-thinking guitarist, focuses on his nylon-string and his own compositions in this new ensemble. (Small Elephant)