Jeff Platz | Jim Hobbs | Luther Gray | Timo Shanko | Sour Grapes | Glitch Records

Welcome to the latest release on Glitch Records, Sour Grapes! Sour Grapes features Boston area musicians Jeff Platz, Timo Shanko, Jim Hobbs, and Luther Gray. Sour Grapes was recorded in the fall of 2014 in Boston Massachusetts at Q Division studio by Jason Bitner. The session was a six hour excursion into free style playing., incorporating electronics with acoustics, no holes barred! Platz, Shanko, Hobbs and Gray have played together for several years in a variety of Boston and New York City based ensembles. Each member is a composer and bandleader, all with several individual recordings and ensemble projects. We hope you enjoy the recording! Many thanks for listening! — Jeff Platz Continue reading

Forbes Graham | Dave Rempis | Pandelis Karayorgis | Luther Gray | Construction Party | Instruments of Change | Not Two Records

This collaborative quartet was formed in the winter of 2008, when Rempis took advantage of one of his regular trips home to visit family in Boston to start a musical relationship with some of his favorite musicians in that city. Having known Pandelis Karayorgis for almost a decade through fellow musicians Nate McBride and Ken Vandermark, the two decided to round out a quartet with the wide-ranging capabilities of Forbes Graham on trumpet, and the old-school driving swing of Luther Gray on drums. Since that time, the group has normally played once or twice a year in Boston, working on a set of compositions brought in by all its members. The band recorded in December of 2009, a recording which is came out on the Polish label Not Two Records in 2012 as “Instruments of Change.” — Stu Vandermark, Boston Jazz Scene Dec 2010 Continue reading

Rob Brown | Steve Swell | Joe Morris | Luther Gray | Rob Brown Quartet | Radiant Pools | RogueArt Jazz

Rob Brown has a sound of his own one that you instantly identify, and it’s a wonder why his unique way of playing alto saxophone still hasn’t found the recognition it deserves. With “Radiant Pools”, not only does he confirm what a great musician he is, but he also shows how he can give life and soul to an orchestra… and what orchestra! Quite noteworthy is the way Rob Brown’s alto sax (hear his high notes) and flute, and Steve Swell’s trombone complement and enrich each other; respond to one another while Swell shows as much talent as a soloist than composer. The rhythm – and sometimes improvising – section is brilliantly composed of Joe Morris (who also wrote a wonderful piece) on the bass, although he gained a top-ranking reputation as a guitar player, and Luther Gray whose perfect knowledge of dynamics is a clear clue of how great a drummer he his. “Radiant Pools” also proves that written and free form improvised music can make a happy combination for the recipe of a consistent musical piece… as long as the service is first-rate! Continue reading

Joe Moffett | Noah Kaplan | Giacomo Merega | Jacob William | Luther Gray | Ad Faunum | Not Two Records

It’s not a terribly common rationale for a session of freely improvised music. “The idea was to offer an almost ritualistic praise of animals,” says trumpeter Joe Moffett. And so these five players, under Moffett’s de facto leadership, chose the group name Ad Faunum. “To the animal” is one possible rendering from the Latin, although Ad Faunum (“To Faunus”) is actually the title of Ode XVIII by the Roman lyric poet Horace (65 BC-8 BC). Faunus is half man and half goat, the Roman counterpart to the Greek god Pan. “I was thinking of a primeval idea,” says Moffett, “an idea of ‘worship’ music, something very old, even prehistoric. It relates to the kind of primal energy I imagined creating with this group. Also, I was reflecting on people’s almost religious regard for animals, on humanity’s complex relationship to these other creatures that live in the world.” — DAVID R. ADLER, New York, June 2011 Continue reading

Jim Hobbs | Joe Morris | Luther Gray | The Story of Mankind | Not Two Records

Even when the mood is more reflective as on “The Spreading of the Idea of Popular Sovereignty,” there’s still an ambience of kinetic activity. Thanks for this is in no small part due to the amount of ground Joe Morris covers on bass beneath Hobbs’s braying fractiousness. Luther Gray’s work here has the effect of giving the music momentum for all of its relatively low-key aspect. Rhythmic vitality is to the fore also on “The Story of a Word,” wherein the group echoes the spirit of the trio Ornette Coleman had with David Izenzon and Charles Moffett without uncritically aping its every move. Hobbs treads a fine line between injecting melodic impetus and employing his alto sax as a third voice in rhythmic service and again the results have about them that air of individuality that’s never anything other than welcome. It’s no surprise that “Gunpowder” has its own incendiary quality. That stems largely from the tension the three musicians conjure up. Again Morris gives the music a momentum of which Hobbs certainly and Gray arguably seem to be in denial. As elsewhere, the resulting music hints not so much at a new vocabulary as it does a new form of interrelationship between rhythm and melody. — Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz Continue reading