Jim Goetsch
After studies at North Texas State University and private studies with composer George Russell, Jim Goetsch began as a jazz sax player in the St Louis scene in the 1970s, with his groups opening for Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Scott, Steve Khan among many others. One notable performance in St Louis was a 1977 concert with George Russell where he was a featured performer. From there he went on to perform with Senegalese drummer Mor Thiam and blues legend Albert King. After that, he went into a period of retirment from music, but that interest was rekindled when he became acquainted with Joe Zawinul of Weather Report and Miles Davis fame after Jim moved to Los Angeles. This friendship continued to the end of Joe's life, and Jim regards this as the greatest learning experience of his lifetime. This rekindled interest brought Jim into the very active electronic music scene in Los Angeles, with projects including Demolition Squad, in which Jim contributed massive beats, bass and electronic sound layers that were overlapped by avant garde orchestral parts written by virtual orchestra master Kim Koschka along with samples and scratching by DJ Luke Collins. Their record "Hit It" received a 9 out of 10 rating from Alternative Press. After that, he began his solo electronic project Subversive Element, where he started bringing in other elements beyond electronica, including jazz and avant garde classical. He has released the Subversive Element records "Cool One", "Road Trip", and "Night Music" on his own Psychosomatic Records label. Recent projects have included a total improv release entitled " 3 2 14" that was a joint effort with Subversive Elment + The Stratos Ensemble, led by Dean DeBenedicits. This recording is a true spontaneous composition that was created with virtually no discussion or pre-planning. His next project was another spontaneous composition project, Baker's Brew, led by veteran drummer Maury Baker, known for his groundbrekaing recordings with Janis Joplin, Tim Buckley and Frank Zappa. The Baker's Brew release "New Works" on Psychosomatic Records has been hailed by the respected Italian magazine JAZZit as an "Album Of The Future" for its innovative use of spontaneous composition and integration of four channel electronic compositions. Jim currently resides in Santa Fe where he is one of the producers and performers in the Sandbox New Music Series, featuring artists from all genres engaged in creative new works.
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ENRICO MERLIN / JAZZit - reviewing New Works: "Inspired by the historic multiphony works of Stockhausen and Luigi Nono, the composer constructs a series of electronic sequences that are broadcast live in quadraphony. In the first piece we are dealing with parts of virtual arches that quickly create a texture of glissandi lenses, which like a bullet catapult us into a parallel dimension in which Giacinto Scelsi meets the Ligeti of “Lux Aeterna”. In place of the monolith of “2001: Space Odyssey” however, Goetsch's saxophone enters, which mixes tonally with the recorded parts to lead us on our interstellar journey. The strings move from pizzicato to a multi-displaced pointillism in the stereophonic space (I can only imagine what the effect could be in a quadraphonic concert hall) and all the instruments begin to interact by improvising. And this is the key that strongly struck me: the work of interaction between pre-composed and pre-recorded materials and total improvisation, each time reformulating the narration of the story, enriching the script in an unpredictable way. But compared to many similar experiences in the past, it does so in a very autonomous and personal way. After all, shouldn't jazz be just that? A great journey into the future. I recommend that you find this album through the band’s site or the label’s site.
George Russell
composer / conductor
Wayne Shorter
saxophone
Paul Bley
piano
Miles Davis
trumpet
Gil Evans
composer / conductor
Joe Henderson
saxophone
Steve Lacy
saxophone, soprano
Bill Laswell
bass
Paul Motian
drums
