Shane Endsley of Kneebody

Just before they hit the Main Stage at the Iowa City Jazz Festival, we caught up Shane Endsley (Trumpet) and Nate Wood (Drums) of the genre-defying group Kneebody. In the interview, we tried to nail down their style of playing but it seems they either prefer to remain outside of a genre or want to make it up as they go. Their performance at the 2011 Iowa City Jazz Festival was a crowd favorite as the group were keen to show off their genre-defying talent in their first ever Iowa show.

Other members of the quintet include Adam Benjamin (Piano), Kaveh Rastegar (Bass) and Ben Wendel (Saxophone).

Each member of the group played off of each others improvisational energy, switching tempos and styles with effortless ease. You can see this play out in the interview (and in our subsequent encounters with the group) which show their personalities going from reserved to highly outgoing.

Check out our coverage of their performance, and our interview video below: