Jazz Articles about John Rapson

John Rapson: Water And Blood: The Billy Higgins Improvisations

by Mark Corroto
September 1, 2002

The complex idea behind John Rapson’s Water and Blood, The Billy Higgins Improvisations actually yields some simple and unassuming results. Rapson, whose trombone work has graced the California creative scene for twenty years, realized his idea to record drummer Billy Higgins’ solos and later overlay different players in a collaborative effort.

He worked the same concept on the 1994 recording Dances And Orations with Anthony Braxton. There as here, the overdubbed improvised music extends the spontaneous creations ...