Sonic Eel - Live in Brooklyn (September 2021)

1. Theme 37 - Chasinesque 05:58

2. Theme 38 - Six Bar Blues 06:30

3. Theme 39 - For Vaughn Benjamin 06:03

4. Theme 40 - Sarcasm 06:42

5. Theme 41 - For Cooper-Moore 06:55

6. All of Me and Mario 06:21

7. Recap 03:50

This is a live set from Scholes Street Studio in Brooklyn in October 2019.

Theme 37 - Chasinesque - An 8 bar head with a heart of 12 and some free time too as we keep Chasin' after Trane. I originally wrote this to be performed by Ras Moshe, Matt Lavelle, Rodney Chapman, Evan, Tcheser Holmes, and me at Muchmore's in December 2018.

Theme 38 - Six Bar Blues - Some 6 bars and some vamping on a piece originally written for Jon Panikkar's blues band during its January 2019 performance at Bushwick Public House.

Theme 39 - For Vaughn Benjamin - based on a riff by the reggae band Midnite which featured Benjamin as lead singer. He was a brilliant vocalist and wordsmith who died young at 50 in 2019.

Theme 40 - Sarcasm - written by my daughter Ariella, age 7 at the time. She carefully wrote out the stacked five-note clusters in each hand of the A section, which showed me how serious she was about the piece.

Theme 41 - For Cooper-Moore - dedicated to the gorgeously inventive pianist, legend of NYC free jazz from the loft scene down to today. He has blessed me with his example and also the generosity of kind words in support of my journey on piano.

We ended our set with an improvised piece which I subsequently titled All of Me and Mario for audible reasons.

The last track on the album is a solo piano improv I recorded during a February 2019 session at the City College of New York. This studio improv seemed to me to recap and condense some of the preceding sonic ideas heard on this live album.

Sonic Eel is:

Eric Plaks - piano

Evan Crane - bass

Leonid Galaganov - drums

Tracks 1-6 recorded October 27, 2019 by René Alain live at Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn, as part of John Loggia's SonicXchange series.

Track 7 recorded in the City College of New York recording studio by Trevor Schlam.

Tracks 1-6 mixed and mastered by Jon Rosenberg

Track 7 mixed and mastered by Yoni Kretzmer (with additional mastering by Jon Rosenberg)

Production and design by E. Plaks

All music © Plaks - Crane - Galaganov, 2019

PREORDER

Eric Plaks - Chrysalis (OutNow Recordings 2018)

Album contains 9 full tracks.

On his tenth and most recent album, Chrysalis, on Out Now Recordings, Plaks offers a program featuring 6 written themes (including two which honor David S. Ware and Cecil Taylor) alongside three sumptuous and spontaneous group compositions. In addition to Plaks' provocative piano, listeners will be thrilled by the huge and gorgeous sound of Andrew Hadro on baritone sax, bass clarinet, and b-flat clarinet, the earthy bass of Evan Crane, and the supple and gem-like drumming of Leonid Galaganov. 

Pianist Eric Plaks was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Harvard College. A student of the entire history of jazz, from the most traditional forms to the most modern styles of creative improvisation, Eric began his performing and recording career when he moved to Harlem in 1996. He has appeared in various formats and venues in New York City and the wider world. Eric is known for his distinctive form of pianism, in which listeners have heard the accents of Taylor, Shipp, Crothers, Abrams, Waldron, Hill, Monk, Ra, and Ellington.