9 Horses
9 Horses in 2016
Background information
Origin	New York City
Genres	Jazz,avant-garde jazz,experimental,chamber jazz
Years active	2013–present
Labels	Sunnyside,Adhyâropa Records
Members	Joseph Brent,Sara Caswell, Andrew Ryan
Past members	Shawn Conley, Ben Wittman,Emily Hope Price,Ike Sturm, Nathan Koci,Justin Goldner, Brett Parnell, Taylor Haskins
Website	www.josephbrent.com/9horses

9 Horses is achamber jazz group from the United States consisting of composer and mandolinistJoseph Brent, violinistSara Caswell, and bassist Andrew Ryan, originating from New York City.^[1]

Brent and bassist Shawn Conley first played together in 2010 in Brent's short-lived project The Joe Brent Quartet, which also featured clarinetist Hideaki Aomori and guitarist Nadav Lev. However, when Brent's commitments toRegina Spektor's touring band and his teaching responsibilities atMannes College spread his time too thin, he put the quartet project on hold.^[2] In 2012, he started performing as a duo with Caswell,^[3] and after releasingJoe Brent & Sara Caswell EP together in 2013, they decided to add a bass player and Brent called on Conley once again, renaming the new ensemble after theBilly Collins poem of the same name. After making the finals of the 2014Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition,^[4] they were signed toSunnyside Records and released their debut album,Perfectest Herald in October, 2015.^[5] The recording includes percussionist Ben Wittman, but live performances generally feature either the trio alone, or guest musicians such asEmily Hope Price orIke Sturm. In 2016, after adding Ryan, they were the 1st Prize winners of the inaugural 21CM Launch: Emerging Artists competition.^[6]

Brent is originally fromQueens, New York, but spent much of his childhood in Tampa, Florida.^[7] Caswell is fromBloomington, Indiana,^[8] while Ryan hails from Denver, Colorado.^[9]

Brent was formerly a member ofRegina Spektor's band,^[10] is an active classical soloist,^[11] and with Caswell he occasionally performs withKishi Bashi. Caswell is also a member ofEsperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society^[12] andDavid Krakauer's The Big Picture.^[13] Ryan performs withnewgrass ensemble The Freewheel Trio,^[14] Canadian folk musicianKaia Kater, and has been a member ofOneBeat.^[15][16]

The trio's music, all of which is composed or arranged by Brent, combines elements ofimprovised musical forms with classicalchamber music and Brent's ownindie rock influences. The four movement piece entitledPerfectest Herald which gives the album its name and acts as its centerpiece contains elements ofrock,new music,Middle Eastern music,jazz,rhythm and blues, and traditionalclassical music, most notably in the 2nd movement,listening to the Elliott Smith discography in reverse order, in which a single musical subject passes through all of the aforementioned genres and afugue before recapitulating.^[17] The music for the 'Perfectest Herald' suite has been called, "...among the most life affirming one will ever hear... Regardless of which emotional depths Brent drew on to compose these pieces, this highly emotive music touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being."^[18]

2019 saw the release of a 4-song EP calledBlood From A Stone, featuring their experiments withelectronic music, collectiveimprovisation, and influences from rock, jazz, andhip hop,Blood From A Stone was called, "extraordinary", and, "a sound world that crashes together acoustic and electric textures with composed and improvised performances",^[19] and allowed 9 Horses to experiment in preparation for their 2021 double LP,Omegah.

Omegah was named one of the Best Recordings of the Year by numerous publications.^[20] Strings Magazine called it, "A restless shapeshifting amalgam of jazz, rock, pop, improvisation, melody, and variegated acoustic and electronic textures... Only 9 Horses can make such a complex and experimental mix of timbres, colors, and themes sound so effortless and free,"^[21] and Textura added, "Rather than get sidetracked by futile attempts at categorizing, one's best advised to go where the music leads and simply enjoy a seventy-seven-minute ride that's ever scenic and always stimulating... If (Caswell) hadn't already distinguished herself in so many ways before it, her playing on Omegah would qualify as a star-making turn. The genre-transcending character of the material is matched by her versatility and virtuosity."^[22]

• Joe Brent & Sara Caswell EP (2013)

• Perfectest Herald (2015)
• Blood From a Stone (EP) (2019)
• Omegah (2021)
• Strum (2024)
• Strumming Music (EP) (2024)

Adhyâropa Records is an American record company and label established byJoe Brent and Andrew Ryan in 2021 initially to release their own music and that of musicians affiliated with 9 Horses, but has branched out to release music by others across several genres. Albums by artists such asSam Sadigursky,^[25] Joe K. Walsh,^[26] Matt Aronoff,^[27] and Jacob Jolliff^[28] followed, and Adhyâropa continues to release a cross-genre selection ofjazz,Americana,Classical, andWorld music.^[29][30]

Their coiled snake logo was designed by Emily Hope Price of folk-pop bandPearl and the Beard, a frequent 9 Horses collaborator. "Adhyâropa," inHinduism, is the superimposition of the imaginary upon the real. The famous example of this was given byŚaṅkara, the pre-eminent philosopher^[31] and proponent ofAdvaita Vedānta, in which a rope on a path is believed to be a snake.^[32]

• Adhyâropa Records

• Jazz ensembles from New York City
• Chamber music groups
• 2021 establishments in New York City

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