By Pico
This isn't the first time we've dedicated a post showcasing fresh offerings by a particular record label, and it won't be the last time. But innova Recordings isn't a conventional record label, and it's not just because their name isn't capitalized. An affiliate of the American Composers Forum, innova is about complete partnership with composers and musicians to mine their artistry in areas typically overlooked by mainstream record companies: “new" classical, jazz, experimental, electronic and world. As a non-profit, innova isn't motivated by market considerations, freeing up the label to accept recording projects strictly on artistic merit.
We've had the occasion to review an innova product once before, a pretty decent fusion effort by Gene Segal a year ago, and now we're going look at three more by three risk taking acts whose disinterest in reducing their music to the lowest common denominator has found a home at innova. Here's what happens when a record company and recording artists are on the same page:
Salo Sundial Lotus: This debut release by the modern rock-jazz ensemble Salo is a showcase for the compositions of its bassist Ben Gallina. The rest of the band includes Alex Hamlin (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone), Ed Rosenberg (tenor saxophone), Josh Rutner (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Red Wierenga (piano, keyboards), Alex Wyatt (drums, percussion) and the electric guitarist from that shred jazz outfit Little Women, Andrew Smiley. With the combination of jazz and rock instruments and the catchy, pop-ish but sophisticated songwriting of Gallina, the band straddles nearly perfectly the worlds of indie rock and jazz. In many ways, Salo is like Jaga Jazzist without the electronics.
Nothing demonstrates both the range of this band and the composing acumen of Gallina better than the compelling opening track “The Sky Is An Eye." It starts with a fetching repeating figure that's layered, accented and put through a jazz piano solo (a rather nice one by Wierenga, as horn charts bolster the mood), before circling back to its original, low-key state. Elsewhere, the varied approach find common ground in that there's a little bit of swinging and a little bit of rocking in each track. Soloists are given some room to perform, but the solos are never overly long and the compositions that rarely stay in one place that long don't allow for undisciplined wanking, anyway.
Sundial Lotus is a very impressive debut by a band delivering fusion that is not by the numbers and done with democracy and tight ensemble playing.
Anti-Social Music Fracture: The Music Of Pat Muchmore: I have a real appreciation for classical music, but I'm not what you'd call a fan. Generally speaking, music's either gotta be free or unpredictable like jazz or straightforward and powerful like rock or blues; classical music tends to not have either of those qualities. That can't really be said about the maverick chamber music troupe Anti-Social Music. As the name makes clear, this is what my fellow whack jazz obsessive Mark Saleski calls “room clearing music." It's not whack jazz, though, it's whack classical.
Though Anti-Social Music has sixteen equal participants, one is a bit more equal than the others: cellist Pat Muchmore. That's because this album is dedicated to the quirky, wide-ranging and unhinged compositions of this musical eccentric. It's hard to pin down a pattern across his songs except to note that just when you think you've found one, he shifts abruptly to something completely different. There are short, shrill songs ("Gumdrops And Kittens"), long, contemplative ones ("Portrait 7"), songs with vast stretches of ambiance ("Strong Quartet No. 2"), and highly structured passages mixed in with entirely improvisational ones. Along with traditionally classical instruments are occasional intrusions by electronics, voices, electric guitars and samples. And the song titles themselves are often either full of unpronounceable symbols, or not appropriate to utter in polite company.
Fracture is the musical equivalent of a box of chocolates, with none of the chocolates being the real sweet, milky pieces. No sir, this is the dark, hard stuff, and if you prefer your candy undiluted and strong that way, Anti-Social Music has a Whitman's Sampler for you.
Gene Pritsker Varieties Of Religious Experience Suite: Gene Pritsker is a guitarist and bandleader whose written over 370 compositions, has worked closely with the late Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies. His band Sound Liberation plays an amalgamation of rock, jazz, chamber, minimalism and hip-hop. Varieties Of Religious Experience Suite is a series of related compositions—-as in an opera—-but instead of including vocals, Pritzker pared down his Sound Liberation band to just two guitars (him and Greg Baker) a cello (David Gotay), a contrabass (Mat Fieldes) and drums (Joe Abba). The pieces are best described as rhythm-driven ostinatos where both heavily-notated and improvised music exist side-by-side and often leave the listener wondering which parts are notated and which parts are improvised. Which is kind of the point. The two rock guitars colliding with a cello provides a lot of the sparks found on this record, creating a sound somewhere between Bill Frisell and Fred Frith.
Pritsker sticks with this approach without much variation throughout this hour-long CD, and about two thirds the way in, the formula begins to wear a little thin. If he'd have served up a few more curveballs, it would have gone a long way toward making a good record into a great record. As it is, it remains an interesting body of work, one that mashes together styles in a way that is unique, and fits the innova ethos of, according to innova itself, “forward-looking (-hearing?) work that pushes and challenges the boundaries of contemporary music"
This isn't the first time we've dedicated a post showcasing fresh offerings by a particular record label, and it won't be the last time. But innova Recordings isn't a conventional record label, and it's not just because their name isn't capitalized. An affiliate of the American Composers Forum, innova is about complete partnership with composers and musicians to mine their artistry in areas typically overlooked by mainstream record companies: “new" classical, jazz, experimental, electronic and world. As a non-profit, innova isn't motivated by market considerations, freeing up the label to accept recording projects strictly on artistic merit.
We've had the occasion to review an innova product once before, a pretty decent fusion effort by Gene Segal a year ago, and now we're going look at three more by three risk taking acts whose disinterest in reducing their music to the lowest common denominator has found a home at innova. Here's what happens when a record company and recording artists are on the same page:
Salo Sundial Lotus: This debut release by the modern rock-jazz ensemble Salo is a showcase for the compositions of its bassist Ben Gallina. The rest of the band includes Alex Hamlin (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone), Ed Rosenberg (tenor saxophone), Josh Rutner (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Red Wierenga (piano, keyboards), Alex Wyatt (drums, percussion) and the electric guitarist from that shred jazz outfit Little Women, Andrew Smiley. With the combination of jazz and rock instruments and the catchy, pop-ish but sophisticated songwriting of Gallina, the band straddles nearly perfectly the worlds of indie rock and jazz. In many ways, Salo is like Jaga Jazzist without the electronics.
Nothing demonstrates both the range of this band and the composing acumen of Gallina better than the compelling opening track “The Sky Is An Eye." It starts with a fetching repeating figure that's layered, accented and put through a jazz piano solo (a rather nice one by Wierenga, as horn charts bolster the mood), before circling back to its original, low-key state. Elsewhere, the varied approach find common ground in that there's a little bit of swinging and a little bit of rocking in each track. Soloists are given some room to perform, but the solos are never overly long and the compositions that rarely stay in one place that long don't allow for undisciplined wanking, anyway.
Sundial Lotus is a very impressive debut by a band delivering fusion that is not by the numbers and done with democracy and tight ensemble playing.
Anti-Social Music Fracture: The Music Of Pat Muchmore: I have a real appreciation for classical music, but I'm not what you'd call a fan. Generally speaking, music's either gotta be free or unpredictable like jazz or straightforward and powerful like rock or blues; classical music tends to not have either of those qualities. That can't really be said about the maverick chamber music troupe Anti-Social Music. As the name makes clear, this is what my fellow whack jazz obsessive Mark Saleski calls “room clearing music." It's not whack jazz, though, it's whack classical.
Though Anti-Social Music has sixteen equal participants, one is a bit more equal than the others: cellist Pat Muchmore. That's because this album is dedicated to the quirky, wide-ranging and unhinged compositions of this musical eccentric. It's hard to pin down a pattern across his songs except to note that just when you think you've found one, he shifts abruptly to something completely different. There are short, shrill songs ("Gumdrops And Kittens"), long, contemplative ones ("Portrait 7"), songs with vast stretches of ambiance ("Strong Quartet No. 2"), and highly structured passages mixed in with entirely improvisational ones. Along with traditionally classical instruments are occasional intrusions by electronics, voices, electric guitars and samples. And the song titles themselves are often either full of unpronounceable symbols, or not appropriate to utter in polite company.
Fracture is the musical equivalent of a box of chocolates, with none of the chocolates being the real sweet, milky pieces. No sir, this is the dark, hard stuff, and if you prefer your candy undiluted and strong that way, Anti-Social Music has a Whitman's Sampler for you.
Gene Pritsker Varieties Of Religious Experience Suite: Gene Pritsker is a guitarist and bandleader whose written over 370 compositions, has worked closely with the late Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies. His band Sound Liberation plays an amalgamation of rock, jazz, chamber, minimalism and hip-hop. Varieties Of Religious Experience Suite is a series of related compositions—-as in an opera—-but instead of including vocals, Pritzker pared down his Sound Liberation band to just two guitars (him and Greg Baker) a cello (David Gotay), a contrabass (Mat Fieldes) and drums (Joe Abba). The pieces are best described as rhythm-driven ostinatos where both heavily-notated and improvised music exist side-by-side and often leave the listener wondering which parts are notated and which parts are improvised. Which is kind of the point. The two rock guitars colliding with a cello provides a lot of the sparks found on this record, creating a sound somewhere between Bill Frisell and Fred Frith.
Pritsker sticks with this approach without much variation throughout this hour-long CD, and about two thirds the way in, the formula begins to wear a little thin. If he'd have served up a few more curveballs, it would have gone a long way toward making a good record into a great record. As it is, it remains an interesting body of work, one that mashes together styles in a way that is unique, and fits the innova ethos of, according to innova itself, “forward-looking (-hearing?) work that pushes and challenges the boundaries of contemporary music"
