jay sanders’ mindtonic featuring will boyd, ben bjorlie, and vic stafford

Picture four monsters sharing a tub of Jiffy Pop over an open flame—that dangerous, beautiful moment when you're not sure if you're about to get perfectly popped kernels or a kitchen fire, but you're committed to finding out together. That's what happens when these four get in a room: controlled chaos, collaborative combustion, and the kind of musical conversation that happens when everyone's holding the pan handle at once. The beauty of monster jazz is nobody's trying to be polite. There's no "after you" at the bridge, no gentle suggestions about dynamics, no passive-aggressive eye contact about tempo. Just four players who've spent enough time in the trenches to know that the best music happens when you stop being precious about your ideas and start treating the bandstand like a shared kitchen experiment. Some nights you get gourmet. Some nights you get scorched. Most nights you get something in between that tastes better than it has any right to, served with the kind of chemistry that only comes from musicians who trust each other enough to occasionally make terrible decisions together.