Zo! x The Hot at Nights LIVE @ Casbah (ManMade CD Release Concert)

Doors 7pm. | Show 8pm.

Multi-Instrumentalist/Producer Zo! is Detroit-area born and raised, Lorenzo Ferguson.

Music was always present in and around the Ferguson house, which led to Zo! taking piano lessons at age 6… which he absolutely despised. The idea of working toward a Major League Baseball career served as the greatest inspiration through his teenage years much more so than the concept of practicing music. After his parents consistently pushed and encouraged him to stick with music, Zo! discovered a newfound passion by teaching himself how to play piano by ear by age 11. Zo! got his production start in 1992 when his parents brought home a Proteus MPS keyboard and a Brother PDC100 sequencer for him to figure out. Since then, he has emphasized the use of live instrumentation as the blueprint for his music while constantly looking to expand his sound with each album release.

Says one Carolina newbie to one Carolina native, "Dang! I knew it would be hot in the Summer down here, but I had no idea that it would get even hotter at night!!" Meteorologically speaking, there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. But as far as the Raleigh-based exploratory jazz trio called The Hot at Nights, there is no explanation for them. 8-string guitar virtuoso Chris Boerner leads the group, with Matt Douglas on sax/woodwinds and Nick Baglio on drums. The group melted together in Boerner's studio over the many sweltering evenings of Summer, 2010. Though largely improvisational, the group's compositions pull from contemporary songwriters, classic funk, pop, rock, and of course the electric avant garde stylings that have spanned the last 30 years of contemporary jazz. Complex rhythms can quickly transform into head-bobbing groove fare. Simple melodies coaxed by all three players can explode into cacophonous meteor showers at the drop of a dime. Their limits go as high as the stratosphere and deep into the Earth's mantle. Both of which keep them sweating... even after the sun goes down.