SS Puft

An avant-garde jazz group located in Athens, Georgia, SS Puft (several whimsical definitions from the acronym are in flow) formed in Dec 2000. Guitarist Colin Bragg, trumpeter Jeff Crouch, h’arpeggionist Erik Hinds (the h’arpeggione can be an 18-string electric guitar/cello/bass cross types), and drummer Blake Helton all understood one another previously from various other ensembles around Athens. Bragg and Hinds perform jointly in Julia Powell’s rock and roll group Riveter. In addition they play in the Georgian Modern Device with Helton who subsequently forms with Hinds and Kyle Dawkins the trio Thicken the Story. The group performs avant-garde jazz compositions and improvisations using a likeness towards the Chicago design developed within the 1990s by Ken Vandermark and his group. Vandermark 5 saxophonist Dave Rempis guests on SS Puft’s debut record, the 2-Compact disc established Live at Earthshaking Music (released on Hinds’s imprint Solponticello). Because of its second opus Seems Occasionally People Undergo Total Change the group extended to some quintet, adding saxophonist Mike Hough (also in Riveter). The group performs frequently in Georgia and made an appearance on the Athens celebration Athfest 2002. By fall 2002, travels in Chicago and California are within the works, plus a collaboration using the Georgia Electric guitar Quartet for the functionality of Hinds’ “Diorama Octet.”