Thurston Moore - Wally Shoup - Toshi Makihara: Hurricane Floyd

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

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Published: September 1, 2000

Hurricane Floyd was recorded live at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ma. during the hurricane that was rearing its ugly head along the New England coast. Here, “Sonic Youth” guitarist Thurston Moore adds another recorded document to his free-jazz legacy along with alto saxophonist Wally Shoup and percussionist Toshi Makihara for sequences of frenzied dialogue and at times gut-wrenching emotional outpourings. Other than Moore’s delightful solo acoustic guitar interlude titled, “Altar Boy, Church Basement” where the guitarist melds Indian raga-like themes with elements of grassroots Americana the band engages in highly conversational improvisation on three of the four tracks.

On the pieces titled, “Trio 1 & 2”, Moore soars skyward with scalding chord progressions and blistering harmonics alongside Shoup’s gritty phrasing and intuitive call and response interaction with the guitarist and percussionist Makihara. Throughout episodes of varying intensities, the trio pursues twisted themes and loose rhythms via a deterministic improvisational constitution, which of course, paralleled the viscous storm that was hovering above. Hence, the musicians proceeded to plot their own intrepid course within the confines of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church!

* * * ½ (out of * * * * *)

Personnel:

Thurston Moore; Guitars: Wally Shoup; Alto Saxophone: Toshi Makihara; Percussion.

Track listing: 1 (Trio), 2 (Trio), Altar Boy, Church Basement, Retribution of Sorts (Trio)

(Sublingual)

Record Label: Sublingual Records
Style: Modern Jazz