Southport Records

Todd Carter:: acoustic and electronic instruments Brent Cutzeit :: acoustic and electronic instruments Michael Hartman :: acoustic and electronic instruments

You don't need to listen much further than the convention-shattering Chicago group TV Pow, which in some occasions amounts to a laptop trio, each of its players manipulating the keypad the way a piano virtuoso might finesse a Steinway. Though TV Pow players also often double on more traditional instruments, their laptop jam sessions represent a new frontier in jazz improv.

Even so, TV Pow's Todd Carter insists that he and his colleagues -- Brent Gutzeit and Michael Hartman n come a lot closer to jazz tradition than some listeners may realize. "Playing the laptop is really like playing any musical instrument -- if you practice enough, it comes faster," he says.