Katalyst

Katalyst Collective (aka Katalyst) is a large Inglewood/L.A.-based “contemporary instrumental” ensemble whose sound is a bright, groove-centric meld drawing on inspirations that include jazz, funk, soul, pop, hip-hop, and rock. Each of “The Kats” writes and composes; their original compositions reflect the abundance of their influences and paying experience. As such, they represent a veritable who’s who in the Los Angeles music community. As a unit, they play regularly in the L.A. area. They are also the creative force behind #Inglewoodstock, a mini pop-up festival and weekly Sunday jam session series featuring local bands, rappers, and vocalists. Nine Lives, their debut album, appeared from Alpha Pup in 2021. They followed it in 2022 by releasing Katalyst JID013, with Ali Shaeed Muhammad and Adrian Younge.
Katalyst Collective consists of pianist/keyboardist Brandon Cordoba (a noted producer and solo recording artist), pianist Brian Hargrove (RH Factor, Alice Smith, Michael Jackson), saxophonist David Otis (RZA, Usher, Theo Croker, Kendrick Lamar), multi-instrumentalist Corbin Jones (Beyoncé, Lizzo, Gwen Stefani), Grammy-winning composer Jonah Levine (Mon Laferte, Damien Marley, Jay-Z), trumpeter Emile Martinez (Anderson .Paak, RZA, the Game, Ed Sheeran), journeyman percussionist Ahmad DuBose-Dawson, bassist Marlon Spears (Lonnie Liston Smith, Kamaal Williams, SiR), and drummer/percussionist Greg Paul (Kamaal Williams, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Roy Ayers) ), who founded the group.
Paul, originally from Buffalo, New York, moved west in 2011 to study in USC’s jazz studies program. There he met fellow student Cordoba — at the time the only other African American student in the program. He led a band called Ultrasound that included Spears and Otis. Paul and Cordoba hit it off and jammed together often. When Ultrasound’s drummer couldn’t make the gig, Paul sat in and knew he and the other musicians shared a language. Around that time, Otis was leaving Fullerton to attend Cal State Northridge. He had a couple friends who invited him to jam sessions in Long Beach, and there he met Levine and Martinez, whom he later introduced to Paul and Jones. After coming together in various configurations, they played their first gig together as a nine-piece in 2014, choosing Katalyst Collective as a name.
Together, the ensemble’s music uses jazz as a lift-off point as it intersects with funk, soul, pop, Caribbean- and Latin-infused grooves, and hip-hop; they call it “contemporary instrumental.” They reached out to other local singers, rappers, and ensembles, creating a reputation for solid, innovative backing either live or in the studio. They made themselves available to videographers and independent filmmakers and penned several scores. When any subgrouping of the collective participated in another project, it was credited to the whole. Katalyst Collective’s reputation spread across the L.A. area. They performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall alongside the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and backed recording artist Dion (Jenkins) at Talib Kweli’s and Hi-Tek’s Reflection Eternal concert at the Belasco Theater. Over the next several years, they acted as an incubator for fresh local talent, helping to hone the voices and skills of individual members while collectively advancing across the community in the same spirit as pianist Horace Tapscott decades before with the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra (a group Hargrove once worked with).
After years of working together in rehearsal, in clubs, and most importantly in their #Inglewoodstock concert series and Sunday Jams, these sessions provided the improv-oriented highlight reel of tunes that appeared on their 2020 debut album, Nine Lives, on World Galaxy/Alpha Pup. It was warmly received in Los Angeles and in Europe, where it was featured on Worldwide FM by Gilles Peterson and other DJs, endearing them to a global audience.
Before the pandemic quarantines shut down the globe, Paul began working with Jazz Is Dead (JID) label bosses, producers, and multi-instrumentalists Ali Shaeed Muhammad and Adrian Younge. He eventually did session work on label projects involving Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, and Joao Donato. Younge and Muhammad invited the band into the studio in November of 2020. The 11 musicians collaborated in various groupings to record the six-track album Katalyst JID 013. It was released in July 2022. ~ Thom Jurek