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Quantum Butterfly, Volume 3

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Michael Moss

Label: Fourth Stream Records
Released: 2026
Duration: 00:47:05
Views: 20

Tracks

Samson’s Walk; Freedom Chant; Quantum Butterfly/Adjacent Possibles

Personnel

Album Description

The electro-acoustic detour that is Quantum Butterfly was a collaboration between Moss and composer James Dashow who pioneered digital audio synthesis aka computer music, performing, composing and teaching internationally. These concepts bridge what we usually think of as modern jazz into an unexpected place.

Right from the clipped downbeat of Samson’s Walk, so much of Moss’s musical life is on swinging, aural display. The leader, on tenor saxophone, kills it with frequent collaborators Alexis Marcelo (piano, synthesizer) and Adam Lane (bass) as the listener is presented with that old Blue Note vibe. And dig the mile-wide groove of drummer Myron Cohen, who’d initially worked with Moss in R&B band The Fabulous Imitations back in the early ‘60s. Perhaps this memory sparked the inspiration for one of Michael’s fattest tenor solos--at least since the days of the bar-walker saxophonists. Recorded live at the beautiful Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY, the track also features two ferocious drum solos and an outstanding Chick-Corea-conjuring electric piano improvisation by Marcelo which delivers the ear into a full ensemble post-mod putsch, much to the hip upstate crowd’s delight.

The same band, but for the return of regular drummer Ismael Baiz (doubling cajon and percussion), embarks next onFreedom Chant, an immediately tuneful original that maintains Coltrane deference; perhaps an Afro-Blue reimagining by early Return to Forever? But this is too trite a description for music that speaks for itself. At midpoint, listen for a spectacular Adam Lane solo, initially played pizzicato and then a growling, barking, howling and groaning arco segment, its dynamics range double-forte to near niente. Recorded also in Catskill, NY, late July 2022, much kudos to the sound crew which uniquely captures the depth of the drum set’s tom-toms, bringing forward the Afro-Cuban heart of this piece. Little wonder as the live mix was partly the result of drummer Baiz’s engineering. This is apparent on his rollicking drum solo that—sans double tracking—effortlessly sports multiple layers of samba and mambo cross-rhythms. No simple feat, this. Maybe it’s something in that clean upstate air.

Quantum Butterfly/Adjacent Possibles was performed by the basic ROOTS to SHOOTS quartet against Dashow’s raining electronic music. The overall effect is that of the futurist score to the 3-D movie we have yet to experience. Listen, particularly to Adam Lane’s arco improvisation which begins cello-like and melismatic before delving into the ultimate harmonic darkling, pulsating beneath Moss’ bass clarinet bawl. While the concept of mixing electronics into free improv and new music is far from new (think Sun Ra as well as the British Music Improvisation Company), the combination here is especially poignant. In the latter part of the piece, the atmosphere itself becomes part of the instrumentation.

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