Scatter The Atoms That Remain

SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN Redefines Transformative Spiritual Music
 

New York City based Scatter The Atoms That Remain is led by drummer/composer Franklin Kiermyer with musical director Davis Whitfield on piano and features an expanding roster of special guests including Gary Bartz, Randy Brecker, Billy Harper, George Garzone, Azar Lawrence, etc...

SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN is led by drummer/composer Franklin Kiermyer with musical director Davis Whitfield on piano with Isaiah Collier, Linda Sikhakhane or Emilio Modeste on saxophone and Geraud Portal on bass. Scatter The Atoms is Available as a quartet or quintet. We often feature an expanding roster of special guests including Gary Bartz, Randy Brecker, Billy Harper, George Garzone, etc...

Here's a 5-minute reel of what we do

Some recent highlights include headlining the 19th Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta with Randy Brecker, Isaiah Collier and Geraud Portal on bass, a sold-out show headlining the first Jazz At Lincoln Center Unity Festival NYC with Randy, Billy Harper, Isaiah and Nat Reeves in the band and sold-out shows on a European tour with Gary Bartz and Geraud Portal on bass.

We are in the midst of mixing our next album produced with Jason Olaine entitled "One Is Love" which features a surprising and far-reaching roster of guest artists.

YOU CAN HEAR FOR YOURSELVES AND FEEL IT TOO - THIS MUSIC IS NEW - not like anything else. What it does is palpable. That’s the point - what it DOES - how it makes you feel. It causes an opening to occur. Like faithful prayer, seance and ritual, but not religious. Spiritual. Those in the know see where it’s coming from, those that are brave see where it’s going. The spirited are moved beyond thought. That’s its purpose. Fearless and uncompromising, this music is deeply rooted in our shared ancestry. 

The legacy that all but went South after the 60’s went underground, but never disappeared. The bar was raised so high, no one could get there. Most of the young musicians that were so deeply compelled by Supreme Love and the Sun Ship had to follow another stream to take the edge off, or they turned away from tonality and pulse, hoping to ascend by speaking in tongues. As many have said, neither succeeded. Scatter The Atoms That Remain does. As Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane pointed out years after her husband John passed, “the burden of continuance is up on your shoulders. You all are going to have to do your singular search.”  It’s that singular search that’s led to this. Scatter The Atoms That Remain now shoulders that burden of continuance with open hearts.
 

Since recording the iconic album Solomon’s Daughter with Pharaoh Sanders in 1994, drummer, composer and bandleader Franklin Kiermyer has been known mostly for his expansive style of drumming, distinct sound and the spiritual focus of his music. 

“Kiermyer plays and composes with an almost evangelical belief in jazz as a form of pure inspiration.” Entertainment Weekly • “Drummer Franklin Kiermyer is that rare jazzman – blessed with the ecstatic quality of his free-bop attack.” Rolling Stone Magazine • “Kiermyer supercharges spiritual modality … he plays with volcanic authority.” Down Beat 

"What really distinguishes this music from whatever else is going on at this time is that this is a more kinetic energy oriented space. It's part of the urgency that you feel when you're listening to this music. Franklin got beyond his influences and comes through with him as an original player - his feel, his rhythmic patterns, his own way to play drums, his own time concept. By using that to create the Arc of a performance he is giving direction and yet letting the musicians feel free creatively. Franklin conducts the music from the drums. He has his own way of organizing music. His own way of unfolding a performance.This music always swings in its own way, on its own terms." ~ Michael Cuscuna

Pianist and composer Davis Whitfield, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1993 and grew up in Jersey City, just across the Hudson from Greenwich Village, NY. Davis has performed at many leading venues worldwide with Pharaoh Sanders, George Coleman, Jeff Tain Watts, Fatoumata Diawara and Robert Glasper, to name just a few. Working very closely with Franklin Kiermyer since 2016, he has already developed a profoundly distinctive voice of his own characterized by a depth and reach that belies his age. Davis was on piano in Pharoah Sanders’ last performance Just weeks before his passing in September of 2022 at Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here festival. 

EMBRACE THE SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN EXPERIENCE

for more information, please contact Allison David @ Mobility Music