At the beginning of 1997, there was a sign that a new band was about to discover the urban sound of New York when Ilhan Ersahin, a hard-swinging Turkish/Swedish saxophonist, met the most talented jazz musicians of New York in a wild and legendary night club called Save The Robots. The jam sessions performed there by NYC’s most talented musicians soon took shape and grew into Wax Poetic project.  Those who took the first initiative in the realization of  Wax Poetic were Kenny Wollesen, Tony Scher, Cyro Baptista, Val, Dave Berkman and Lisa Rudolph. Since 1997, the band sometimes existed and sometimes not and in its adventurous journey, there were many  other great musicians who joined  the Wax Poetic Project in its search to create that great excitement with their new urban sound: Marlon Browden, Jesse Murphy, Saul Williams, Dj Mutamassik, Imani Uzuri, Jamie Saft, Rhassan Manning, Guyora Kats, Nicole Willis, Maximana and Jeff Hill were among a few who greatly contributed to the band’s progress. 

So today’s Wax Poetic is  the fifth edition of the original band and its strength comes from the cultural diversity of its members. With their music they not only reflect the multi-ethnicity of their home city, NYC., but also explore beyond the boundaries of the city’s jazz influences. For the lack of a better term or the fear of getting associated with one certain musical style, "urban world music" is the term they like to use to define their music. Their main emphasis is on jazz and its modern derivatives such as hiphop, triphop and drum&bass. They have a new album that is coming out on Atlantic Records on June 20th, 2000.