Mark Lotz: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out!

There's a curious sense of humor rampant throughout flautist Mark Lotz's 2023 trio outing Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out!. And why shouldn't there be? Given the nature of Lotz's inspiration—acid folk-hero Timothy Leary's era defining treatise by the same title—the music should be that and a whole lot more.

And it is!

Lotz, a three decade veteran of the hotbed Dutch jazz scene who has recorded/gigged with Chris Potter, Don Byron and a host of cross-continental confederates, has such a ballerina's grace and instinct to his playing that synapses snap, pop, and burble just like the burnished old days of orange sunshine and sugar cubes. In other words, these ten tracks make a real good soundtrack for a really sweet trip.

Coasting along the psychic waves, "Push" enters the listening zone and instant connections to something always present are made: something ancient but not old; something new yet not yet existential. Drummer Jamie Peet drops the beat and propels the action and antics of "Beat the Drum." Zack Lober's animatedly athletic bass never stops instigating and insinuating itself into ever nook and cranny of post-terrestrial altered states. (Of Leary's eight connections of consciousness, the last four concerned themselves with the evolution of the humanity above and beyond this earth bound realm)

So the music rides high and cascades like the seconds, the minutes, the hours of the psychedelic experience itself. The beauty of it all—the breathy zest of "Dance of the Monolith," the scatty trio verbiage of "Lust," the dark lilt of "Isabel," the cool tilt of "Relax and Flow"—is that the listener needn't be a retired warhorse from the days of microdots and window pane. Just be of open mind and good will. The music will reward you.