Steuart Liebig Men-Tot Six: Last Call (ORENDA RECORDS 2018)

The idea for this project started back in 2008. I would take two related bands that I’d been writing for—The Mentones (Tony Atherton, Bill Barrett, Joe Berardi, me) and the Tee-Tot Quartet (Dan Clucas, Scot Ray, Joe Berardi, me)—and combine them. I started to write the music, I started the artwork, I had the album title—but life and the world intervened. 

Then in 2017, I had the opportunity to play a fairly high-profile gig and I asked to do this, my deferred dream band. The presenter put faith in me (thank you, Lisa Mezzacappa!) and Men-Tot Six was back. 

I reworked the two and half tunes I had already started and then got to work on some other preliminary sketches. As usual, original ideas can start changing once the music starts coming out. For example, the plan was to write seven tunes, but after a couple of rehearsals, an eighth emerged (which ended up being the title tune, nine years after the fact). And the writing itself changed. Some of it became quite a bit more contrapuntal then I had anticipated . . . what had started as an extension of the skewed American music I’d done for the two bands became something a bit different—something (perhaps) a bit more skewed—once we got into it. 

The guys in the band . . . they’ve put their talents and hard work into this project. They really supported and encouraged me (even when I wasn’t so great to be around), which is incredibly important in the creative world. (I’m grateful!) 

They also played their asses off. There are too many moments, great solos, bits of interaction, etc., to go into detail. One of the great joys for me is the way this band can be fluid with the material (and there is a bunch of written music)—we can go skittering off the page. Just take a listen. 

Tony Atherton - Alto Saxophone

Bill Barrett - Chromatic Harmonica

Scot Ray - Slide Guitar

Dan Clucas - Cornet

Joseph Berardi - Drumset, Percussion

Steuart Liebig - Contrabass Guitars

Recorded 4-5 November 2017 by Wayne Peet at Newzone Studios, LA

Mixed by Wayne Peet and Steuart Liebig

Mastered by Wayne Peet

All music by Steuart Liebig

© sisong music (ASCAP) 2018

1. Crescent Limited 07:36

2. 7-06-71 10:07

3. Trouble By The Toe 07:07

4. Smokey Valley Lament 11:21

5. All Lit Up & Nothing To Do 07:08

6. No Picture No You 09:56

7. Honeysuckle Bounce 11:11

8. Last Call 08:24

Weston / Saxon Groove Assembly - Acceleration (ORENDA RECORDS)

"Imagine a dream

suspended from a wire

so that it can move freely

as the wire disappears into

the axis of rotation,

the center of the dream."

Excerpt from the poem, “Acceleration,” by Steve Shelton

JAZZ - FUNK - AMBIENT - PSYCHEDELIC

Imagine the diverse collaboration of Grant Calvin Weston (Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards), Jonathan Saxon (Armored Saint, Grant Calvin Weston, Vogel/Saxon Duo), Steuart Liebig (Julius Hemphill, Les McCann, Nels Cline), and Wayne Peet (Nels Cline, John Rapson, Alex Cline). At the center of this dream is a deep sense of groove, improvisation, and experimentation.

“Hip backbeats and polyrhythms, spacey/street cool vibes, and yes, Acceleration keeps moving.” Howard Mandel

The Weston / Saxon Groove Assembly’s sound is a cross country beats collaboration built upon a myriad of grooves, psychedelic sounds, ambient landscapes, and jazz inspired compositions fueled with improvisation. Equally at home at a jazz festival, blues festival, or desert rock festival, the Groove Assembly’s sound is open, driving, and melodic.

Legendary drummer Grant Calvin Weston and percussionist Jonathan Saxon first collaborated in August 2014 when they recorded the drum and percussion duet, "Road Trip to Downey" (track #5 on the CD). 

The chemistry and deep grooves of "Road Trip" inspired Weston to suggest bringing in a few more musicians to record a full length album. With great enthusiasm, Saxon invited keyboardist Wayne Peet and bassist Steuart Liebig to participate in the project. Along with their brilliant performances, Liebig and Peet's compositions were an immense contribution to the album, as were

Peet's remarkable skills as an engineer and producer.

Released as a Compact Disc in a 6-panel digipak covered in original artwork by Eron Rauch, with a 12-page booklet with original poetry by Steve Shelton, this album is a

beautiful collector's item, as well as an incredible listening experience. 

Orenda Records is all about artistic vision. We release boutique style albums, limited edition pressings, with high quality printing and high fidelity sound. 

We believe that listening to music is all about an immersive artistic experience, both auditory and tactile.

This is a label for those who care about and collect beautiful music and beautiful presentation.

"A distance from here

to there is where I am.

Acceleration."

Grant Calvin Weston - Drums

Jonathan Saxon - Congas, Mbira, Electric Mbira, Clave, Bells, Rainstick, Orchestral Bells, Bowed Cymbal, Cowbell, Berimbau, Shakers

Wayne Peet - Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Synthesizer, Clavinet

Steuart Liebig - Basses, Electronics, Loops

Drums recorded by Grant Calvin Weston at The Third Floor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 2015; "Road Trip to Downey" recorded August 2014. 

All other instruments recorded by Wayne Peet at Newzone Studio in Los Angeles, California, March 2015; "Road Trip to Downey" recorded August 2014.  www.newzonestudio.com 

Edited, mixed, and mastered by Wayne Peet 

Produced by Wayne Peet 

Translation Meditation Music (BMI) - Jonathan Saxon 

Sisong Music (ASCAP) - Steuart Liebig 

Apocalypse Vision (BMI) - Grant Calvin Weston 

Killzone Music (BMI) - Wayne Peet 

Poem by Steve Shelton 

Design and photography by Eron Rauch 

Photos of Jonathan Saxon & Wayne Peet by Stephanie Cabral 

Photo of Grant Calvin Weston by Jessica Kourkounis 

Photo of Steuart Liebig by Wayne Peet

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orenda records

www.jonathansaxon.com

Acceleration 

by Steve Shelton 

A distance from here 

to there is where I am. 

Acceleration. 

Constraints and motion, 

and degrees of freedom 

Time and gravity 

bring the up... down. 

A different kind of waking 

walking into a different kind of sleep. 

Here to there, and there again. 

And the next here is already gone. 

Free beams of density. Free dreams 

where the center of percussion 

and the sweet spot are the same 

to amplify the false impressions, 

harmonic balance, constant speed 

along a circular path, radial, 

towards the center of the circle. 

Constantly changing. 

Tangential, the respected points of ambiguity 

lend them legitimacy, 

hung at the pivot point, 

where the center of oscillation 

is the position of the mass, 

the high mass of a simple pendulum. 

Imagine a dream 

suspended from a wire 

so that it can move freely 

as the wire disappears into 

the axis of rotation, 

the center of the dream. 

And the mass is falling in curved spacetime 

where things become more complicated 

since there is no straight line. 

Curved manifolds. 

Motion and gravity breathe geodesic dreams, 

a relative acceleration, and 

the distance from here to there 

is still where we are. 

Acceleration

Weston/Saxon Groove Assembly - "Acceleration" from michael bloom on Vimeo.

Scot Ray, Steuart Liebig, Alex Cline - Time Estimation Error (2016)

Label: Self Released

Source: Cdbaby

I have long wanted to take the lap steel guitar into these territories, and wrote the pieces with Steuart and Alex in mind, as a kind of poem to the planet.  Scot Ray

1. Parable Of Dreams 03:46
2. Memory Drawings 05:45
3. Sculpting In Time 06:00
4. Bloviate 03:18
5. Ring Of Bone 06:38
6. Night Has No Outlines 05:37
7. Bloviate Some More 04:36

Scot Ray - lap steel guitar, compositions
Steuart Liebig - fretted and fretless bass
Alex Cline - drumset  

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