Purple Witch of Culver is a Los Angeles-based duo featuring saxophonist/vocalist Sarah Safaie and producer/multi instrumentalist Evan Taylor.
Born out of an informal recording session meant merely to commit some of Safaie’s recent ideas to tape, the pair found an immediate, improvisational chemistry and the results sound like little else populating the current musical landscape.
Raised on bebop and straight ahead jazz, before an obsession with Parliament Funkadelic illuminated other musical avenues, Safaie moved to New York City out of high school to attend the New School for Jazz. While there, she once again ventured out of the traditional jazz world, discovering the city’s experimental noise and warehouse art scene.
Shortly after her arrival in L.A., she met and felt an immediate musical connection with Taylor, whose credits and list of collaborators include Jimmy Destri (Blondie), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads, Modern Lovers), in addition to running the LA-based label Loantaka Records (Sofia Bolt, Jess Cornelius).
Most notably for Safaie, Taylor was part of the extended Parliament family, having worked as production partner with Bernie Worrell, the keyboard wizard of Parliament-Funkadelic, and collaborator with Talking Heads.
Fittingly for a group inspired by improvisation and experimentation, the duo’s first two sonic offerings were each recorded in a single day at Loantaka Sound studios in Downtown Los Angeles, in their preferred all-analog recording medium.
