Jazz Articles about Rent Romus

Rent Romus, Tatsuya Nakatani: Uplift

by Glenn Astarita
August 17, 2025

Venerable woodwind ace, composer and fierce improviser Rent Romus has long been a cornerstone of the West Coast's avant-garde jazz scene. Tatsuya Nakatani, a Japanese-born percussionist and sound artist, is renowned for his innovative approach, wielding an arsenal of drums, gongs and indigenous instruments. He often crafts visceral soundscapes that dance between silence and chaos. Together, on their collaborative album Uplift, these two sonic alchemists conjure a live-recorded odyssey at the Musicians Union Hall Local 6 in San Francisco, blending ...

Rent Romus' Lords of Outland: 25 years under the mountain

by Glenn Astarita
September 13, 2020

This Northern California powerhouse unit led by multi-woodwind ace Rent Romus commemorates 25-years in the business with a hard-hitting acoustic-electric jaunt featuring the core rhythm section and new addition, guitarist and violaist, Alex Cohen. Over the years, the collective has enjoyed a refreshing progression of shifting personnel. However, this album is grounded in avant-garde jazz fusion and free-form improvisation, where the artists enjoy ample space to engage in tumultuous dialogues and fluctuating currents during these energized performances. The ...

Rent Romus' Life's Blood Ensemble: Rogue Star

by Glenn Astarita
November 17, 2018

Experimental San Francisco Bay Area record label Edgetone Records states, this band “reflects the influences which make up their collective interest in storytelling, exploring expanded borders, and discovery." No doubt, this red hot ensemble doesn't stay content following a one-dimensional musical path, as they branch out on a recurring basis via these fluid and manifold works. The sextet features the dual bass attack of Max Judelson and Safa Shokari. In effect, the ensemble abides by a flexible but ...

Rent Romus: Deciduous/Midwestern Edition Vol. 1

by Glenn Astarita
November 3, 2018

This West Coast USA experimental record label always spreads its wings. Part of the fun is anticipating what comes next. Here, label head and distinguished multi-reedman Rent Romus and musical associates pay homage to the avant-garde jazz spirit of the Midwest, citing the birthplace for AACM and innovators such as Albert Ayler, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and others. Romus also advises in the press release that this is an ongoing project as the album title would indicate.Most of these ...

Rent Romus' Life's Blood Ensemble: Rising Colossus

by Glenn Astarita
December 28, 2016

Edgetone Records sent the LP edition of this album that is also available on CD and digital format. Yet I still maintain that most jazz albums are better served via full-bodied analogue productions often equating to a studio-in-your-room experience, coupled with a first-rate turntable and audiophile trimmings that may enhance the listening experience. San Francisco new-jazz saxophonist Rent Romus leads his Life's Blood Ensemble --which has been an ongoing coalition comprised of alternating personnel --through a program framed ...

Feu Follet: Ministry of Rites - GRID

by Glenn Astarita
March 12, 2009

The superb Ministry of Rites - GRID yields a paradigm for the present day advancement electronics-based music's transmission of depth of expressionism. Amid numerous sound-shaping textures and an abundance of coherent mini-themes, Tobias Fischer and Rent Romus recorded this album remotely without any predefined musical borders. While they often project a mammoth wall of sound, it's all engineered upon mind-altering sonic-scapes and other curiously interesting facets.

The duo slams the psyche into submission, while offering numerous mind-bending propositions. ...

Rent Romus: PKD Vortex Project

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2002

Always on the move, Rent Romus has gone after the “exploratory ethic of science fiction" with this quintet recording dedicated to author Philip K. Dick. The title track leads off with a swirling, mysterious darkness, proceeding gradually to a full-on dark nightmare assault. After the crescendo finally reaches its crest, the group turns on a dime to shifting polyrhythmic funk. The beauty of dedicating a recording to a writer with the imagination of Dick is that you earn the freedom ...