Darren Johnston – trumpet | Fred Frith – electric guitar | Devin Hoff – bass | Larry Ochs – tenor & sopranino saxophones | Ches Smith – drums
All compositions credited to the quintet: (c) and p Trobar / ASCAP / BUG MUSIC. Recorded May 16, 2005 at Headless Buddha Lab, Oakland, California. Mixed and mastered in 2006 by Myles Boisen, Darren Johnston. Cover photo: Moving Orchard 2 by Katherine Copenhaver. Musician photos by Myles Boisen. Produced by Darren Johnston and Larry Ochs.
Tracklist: 1. Passing Fields [06:24] 2. Dawn and the Flat Irons [08:42] 3. Biocarbon Man [08:49] 4. Deep North [05:55] 5. Bicarbonate of Soda, Man [04:33] 6. Speed Trap [02:52] 7. Distant Cities [05:29] 8. QEW [03:03] 9. Reasons for Moving [06:09]
Although this is an improvised session
it has that wonderful magic glue that these serious and seasoned musicians are so successful at. « Passing Fields » starts with spacious guitar and sax sounds, but soon the rhythm team kicks into a powerful groove. As Frith locks into the rhythm with some bold noise guitar, both horns spin furiously above. Frith sounds a bit like Sonny Sharrock jamming on an electric Miles session. Each piece explores different combinations of players. While « Dawn and the Flat Irons » begins with haunting trumpet and contrabass, soon the rest of the quintet is simmering along. One of the great things about this disc is that Darren’s trumpet and Larry’s saxes work so well together, in similar tonal areas. Fred Frith is the perfect middle man, balancing between the horns and rhythm team perfectly, whether dealing in dark colors and shades or occasionally soloing underneath or with the spinning horns. On a few on these pieces, Frith gets a chance to lead and stretch out and turn the quintet inside-out into a strange twisted (prog ?) rock unit. These pieces fall somewhere between Massacre and Material, yet they are still unique in their own way. Great things, fellows ! — BLG, Downtown Music Gallery
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Darren Johnston (trumpet), Fred Frith (electric guitar), Devin Hoff (bass), Larry Ochs (tenor and sopranino saxophones) and Ches Smith (drums) stamp their class as improvisation and free jazz explode in aural splendor and imaginative propulsion on this collaboration. Each has established an undiluted reputation as a forward thinker in taking improvised music into new realms. Change for them is a constant challenge, one they meet on-the-go as they play with their own bands and with other musicians who answer to a similar calling.
Composition has a certain place in their vocabulary, but the larger attributes come when they work outside of the framework. Notation can be the bridge between improvised passages as much as it can herald the beginning or the end. Surprise is welcome, and adds to the impact, but the bigger bang comes from the interplay between the members.
Frith evokes memories of The Ventures and the flamboyance of Ennio Morricone as he brings in “Biocarbon Man. He quickly loses both in a welter of feedback and reverb as Ochs and Johnston cries in the wanton pleasure of blistering runs. The molten escarpment is churned by Smith, a veritable juggernaut of rhythm. The push and thrust is in full throttle as Frith, Ochs and Johnston converse. They are not without wit as they harken into the shadows and let a cloak of silence descend. That turns out to be a momentary diversion as they knock back into the heavy machinations of electric blister.
Dawn and the Flat Irons is another piece of high invention. Ochs indulges in the melody with Hoff keeping the pulse pliant. The mood is spare, but Hoff drops that as he ripples the strings and opens a run of triplets on the bass. This grabs attention, but Ochs and Johnston have something else up their collective horns. Their ensemble lines breathe classical music to bring in a lyrical glow.
Melody and composition course through the head of “Reasons for Moving. The pace is frantic, and the quintet is tightly knit. Johnston moves from the rest to mark new territory and Ochs follows on the tenor. But the rest won’t stay away and they come back in a surge of momentum, giving the melody a discernible presence, but letting spontaneity be the hallmark