Club d'Elf: Expect the Unexpected at the Lizard Lounge, Valentine's Day by Jim Sullivan, December 10, 2014

You can give Mark Sandman, the late Morphine frontman, some credit for inspiring Mike Rivard to put together a collective called Club d'Elf. Also give inspirational credit, Rivard says, to sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and his ideas of shifting reality and parallel universes, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, neo-psychedelic avatar Terence McKenna and avant-comedy show Mr Show. Bassist-sintir player Rivard considers Club d'Elf “an ever-shifting group of musicians fiercely dedicated to the groove.” On Friday Feb. 14, yes, Valentine's Day – Club d'Elf takes the Lizard Lounge stage.

What you'll on any given night depends on who's taken the stage, but Club d'Elf prides itself on cutting across and ripping through genres – jazz, hip hop, electronica, avant garde, prog-rock, dub and Moroccan trance. Club d'Elf has eight double live CDs playing and two studio discs, the latest being “Electric Moroccoland/So Below.” Jazz America's Russ Davies: “One of the most inventive and ever-changing bands in all of new jazz…The songs arivardre great, the playing superb, the variety obvious but the main thing is that the spirit of the music is so strong and unique. There is simply not another band like Club d'Elf on the planet.” ” WNYC's Marlon Bishop: “Sounds like the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh…some deeply psychedelic music.”