Jazz Articles about Larry Ochs

Larry Ochs Sax and Drumming Core: Up from Under

by AAJ Italy Staff
March 17, 2009

Dalle pionieristiche intuizioni di Ornette e Coltrane, passando per le geniali trovate di Henry Threadgill, l'idea della doppia-ritmica/doppia batteria ha attraversato con fortune alterne la storia recente dell'improvvisazione. Eppure, il riferimento più affascinante e immediato per il Sax & Drumming Core di Larry Ochs, almeno all'orecchio suggestionabile di chi scrive, sono le Fife & Drum band del sud degli Stati Uniti, una delle forme più incredibili d'incarnazione del country blues (per chi non abbia dimestichezza consiglio l'ascolto del leggendario Othar ...

Larry Ochs

by Marc Medwin
February 28, 2009

“It started out as a social thing," says saxophonist and composer Larry Ochs of what would eventually determine the course of his life. “I played trumpet as a kid in New York, but it wasn't really because I enjoyed it. I played music because friends of mine were doing it; then it was supposed to be good for college credit. My private teachers never even suggested to me that I could play music I liked or hinted at the idea ...

An AAJ Interview with Larry Ochs

by AAJ Staff
February 28, 2009

This interview was originally published in January 2000.“To reveal a new world is the function of creation in all the arts." --Edgard VareseHow different might our planet be if a number of significant events over the past century had NOT happened? What if the Kennedys and Dr. King had NOT been assassinated? What if nuclear weaponry had NOT been invented? What if the stock market had NOT crashed in Oct. 1929?From a musical perspective, ...

Larry Ochs: Spiller Alley and The Mirror World

by John Sharpe
February 7, 2009

Larry Ochs/ Maya Masaoka/ Peggy Lee Spiller Alley RogueArt 2008 Larry Ochs/ Rova Special Sextet/ Orkestrova The Mirror World (for Stan Brakhage) Metalanguage 2008

Since 1978 saxophonist Larry Ochs' activities have been primarily centered on the Rova Saxophone Quartet, but increasingly, survival in the jazz world demands the pursuit of parallel projects. Consequently ...

Rova: Totally Spinning

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 12, 2006

Se il World Saxophone Quartet, forse il più popolare delle formazioni di soli sassofoni, è da sempre il miglior esempio dell’anima black della musica afro-americana, con i suoi forti legami al blues, al gospel e alla church music in generale, Rova, fin dalla nascita avvenuta nel 1977, incarna il prototipo della formazione d’avanguardia, sperimentale e intellettuale, con flirt dichiarati verso Edgare Varese e Steve Lacy, Messiaen e Cecil Taylor, Xenakis e Anthony Braxton. Tra le innumerevoli pubblicazioni a proprio nome, ...

Larry Ochs/Jean Jeanrenaud/Miya Masaoka: Fly Fly Fly

by Clifford Allen
October 5, 2004

Culled from the ranks of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Kronos Quartet and the ever-increasing pool of improvising koto players, the trio of tenor saxophonist Larry Ochs, cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and kotoist Miya Masaoka is a formidable ensemble in the annals of creative “chamber" music. The group's formation was, in fact, a natural progression of Maybe Monday (Ochs, Masaoka and guitarist Fred Frith) and Ochs' own work with Jeanrenaud, who found herself in the improvising world shortly after leaving Kronos ...

Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core: The Neon Truth

by Kurt Gottschalk
March 18, 2004

Intentions don’t always dictate results, and in fact many great works have been the result of mistake or happenstance. So while it’s interesting to note what saxophonist Larry Ochs had wanted his Sax & Drumming Core to be, it doesn’t have a lot to do with the successes of their first record. In the liner notes to The Neon Truth (recorded in August of 2000, and released in Europe in 2002, only recently available in the US), ...