Jazz Articles about The Tone Sharks

like 136

The Tone Sharks: Four/Five/Three

by Dan McClenaghan
July 25, 2003

The Tone Sha rks are evolving. Intention, their last outing on drummer Dave Storrs' Louie Records, was a low key, meditative affair, a quartet take on Zen-like improvisation. On Four/Five/ Three the group has taken the evolutionary leap from four to seven players and added an undercurrent of constrained raucousness to their sound. Four/Five/Three adds a second drummer, a bassist and a trombonist/vocalist to the original drums/bass/guitar/alto sax combination. Listening to the rollicking opener, "Earth(the)," you get the ...

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The Tone Sharks: Intention

by Mark Corroto
December 1, 2002

Sometimes freely improvised music sounds like a marching band falling down an up escalator, and other times its lack of rhythm can be unquestionably painful. Neither of these two obstacles have ever faced the Oregon band known as the Tone Sharks. They ply their craft with an amazing amount of rhythm-based spontaneous creation.

The Sharks have morphed from a quintet (as on their first three recordings) into a sax/guitar/bass/drums quartet. They also switched guitarists to Tom McNalley. Intention, ...

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The Tone Sharks: Chunks Of Zen

by Mark Corroto
December 1, 2000

Space is the place. Space, not as in Sonny Blount’s dissonant rockets, but space as part of improvisation. The Tone Sharks’ fifth release has plenty of space. The quintet addresses spontaneous composition not as an exercise in who can play the loudest (or longest) but sometimes who can contribute the most in the fewest notes. The Oregon based-band, formed in 1984, is the brainchild of drummer and label chief Dave Storrs. His label Louie Records documents some of the better ...