Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek has his Black Cube SP ensemble touring the US for the first time, and Transparent Productions hosted them at Bohemian Caverns last night. D.C. is an appropriate place for the group to play, as Mazurek has released two related albums on Silver Spring’s Cuneiform Records in the past couple of years.

Black Cube SP—-a Brazil-based quartet composed of Mazurek and three musicians living in Brazil on a variety of instruments including trumpet, drums, electronics, and rabeca (a Brazilian viola)—-didn’t disappoint. Drawing heavily from its recent Cuneiform release, Return the Tides, its live show seemed to draw influences equally from avant-garde jazz, noise, and Brazilian folk. Unique and challenging, but almost always with a steady pulse to keep things accessible, the performance kept an impressively large crowd at Bohemian Caverns enthralled through two full sets.

See more in the full slideshow (15 photos).