OUT TO BRUNCH is an avant-garde percussion and electronic-oriented band formed in 2023 by Jon Elbaz (keyboards), Elias Stemeseder (synthesizers), and Lamy Istrefi (drums & percussion) to push the boundaries of what can be described as the all-sound music of the future.
Hailing from NYC with roots in Morocco, Austria, and Kosova, each musician puts their eclectic and skillful playing styles on full display. Out To Brunch’s improvisational focus aims to transport the listener to new realities of time and space, deciphering their relationship to sounds of the past, present, and future.
As John Cage wrote in the 1939 Dance Observer article, Percussion Music and Its Relation to Modern Dance, “Percussion music is revolution. Sound and rhythm have too long been submissive to the restrictions of nineteenth-century music. Today we are fighting for their emancipation.” Out To Brunch will assure you that “tomorrow, with” percussion and “electronic sounds in our ears, we will hear freedom.”
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Jon Elbaz is a NJ native/NYC-based pianist and composer. Influenced by the likes of Erroll Garner, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, he began taking jazz piano lessons at age 14 with Aaron Weiman and Jeremy Manasia. Elbaz attended the New England Conservatory of Music from 2013-17, where he was active writing his own music and leading bands, in addition to studying under Frank Carlberg, Jason Moran, and Joe Morris. Currently he leads his own quartet with saxophonist Matt Knoegel, bassist Henry Fraser, and drummer James Nadien.
Elias Stemeseder is a pianist, keyboardist, and composer working in a variety of musical idioms. He has worked with Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Greg Cohen, Anna Webber, and Christian Lillinger, among others. He is a longtime member of the Jim Black Trio (with Thomas Morgan on bass), which has four critically-acclaimed releases. Elias appears on over 30 recordings released by labels such as Intakt, Winter&Winter, and Pirouet Records, and has performed at venues/festivals including Village Vanguard, Elbphilharmonie, Jazzfest Berlin, and Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
Lamy Istrefi is a NYC-based drummer, percussionist, and composer, originally from Mitrovice, Kosova. A protégé of Idris Muhammed and Milford Graves, he has been a member of Grammy Award-winner Joe Lovano’s Quartet since 2013. He attended the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz (KUG) in Austria before moving to the US. For more than 25 years, Istrefi has performed/toured internationally with several legendary jazz and free music artists. He continues to collaborate with a notable group of musicians for his trios/quartets including Dave Liebman, George Garzone, and Ben Street, as well as Musical Minds Orchestra, a 21-member conceptual improvisation ensemble that he founded in 2010.