Jon Raskin Quartet - Singing Songs As One (November 5, 2021)

This was the last concert at NIR Studios in Oakland, California that was live-streamed to sfSound Radio. We were joined by a new member to the quartet, John Shiurba, playing electric guitar. We were already in the studio recording Open Box, my collaboration with the Poet Carla Harryman, for the Tzadik label. That recording involved lots of different overdubbing strategies for improvisors and some those concepts were incorporated in this performance.

We upped the ante and tried the ideas in real time for the broadcast. On several of the pieces Eli Crews, the engineer, was setup to replay a solo or group improvisation so the next grouping in the concert could play along. Some of the pieces included four passes. Tracks 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 make use of these strategies so listen and see if you can figure out what they are.

1. sing call chatter and screech 02:42

2. the ubiquitous nature of sound 02:14

3. interspecific communication 1 02:55

4. configuration and positioning 09:54

5. singing songs as one 04:21

6. interspecific communication 2 02:51

7. variation and specification 06:24

8. transferal of memes 05:37

9. membrana tympaniformis interna 02:57

Recorded: NIR Studios, Oakland CA April 18, 2009

Engineer: Eli Crews

Mixing: Eli Crews

Mastering: Patrick Hill, Earth Tone Recording

Editing: Jon Raskin

Photo: Jon Raskin

Art Design: Jon Bafus

Temescal Records 108

PREORDER

ROVA Saxophone Quartet - The Circumference of Reason (October 15, 2021 ESP - Disk')

Despite the obvious obstacles, this singular San Francisco Bay Area band is staying on mission, moving forward. Over its four-plus decades, the quartet has defined itself by applying an array of improvisational strategies to an ever-expanding body of new music.

The Circumference of Reason includes six tracks composed or, in the case of the piece "NC17," designed between 2011 and 2016. Then – in typical ROVA fashion – the pieces were worked over and performed by the quartet in rehearsals and concerts until perceived to be ready for recording. They include an arrangement of a Glenn Spearman piece as well as a piece by Steve Adams dedicated to Glenn; the playing on both inspired by that expressive saxophonist’s spirited personality and playing.

As well, this recording features two distinctly different versions of NC17, another in the series of ROVA’s structured-improvisations, all of which have been designed using an ever-expanding set of visual and aural cues that the quartet has invented, or borrowed and adapted. On its face, "NC17" is simply a specific set of conceptual options to cue in, in any order, and to then explore, populating the spontaneously chosen series of cued events with immersive music/sounds/energies etc. 

The group creates a palpable sonic architecture for each new performance of the piece. Even as we write this, we can say that the takes of "NC17" you will hear on this CD are unique; no one take of "NC17" can be exactly the same as any other take of "NC17."

“ROVA performances can reach the soaring lyrical intensity of bel canto, the rough-and-tumble tumult of a garage rock band, or the insistently patterned matrix of a minimalist chamber work.” So wrote Andrew Gilbert in 2018. The piece from which the CD’s title comes, "The Circumference of Reason," is a good example of a minimalist piece when penned by a ROVA composer, in this case Steve Adams.

1. The Extrapolation of the Inevitable

2. NC 17, Version 1

3. The Circumference of Reason

4. Xenophobia

5. NC 17, Version 2

6. The Enumeration

Bruce Ackley – soprano and tenor saxophones

Steve Adams – alto and sopranino saxophones

Larry Ochs – tenor sax

Jon Raskin – baritone sax

Recorded on 6/22/18, 9/23/18 and 7/1/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner.

Mixed on 1/16/19, 1/23/19 and 8/2/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner and Steve Adams.

Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Labs.

Produced by Steve Adams.

PREORDER