Some Kind of Tomorrow
We didn’t have to write anything.
We didn’t have to plan anything.
We didn’t even have to talk.
We just had to play -
to connect with each other
across a distance in whatever way we could
because we had to.
It was just too hard to be a sound alone.
A sound needed another sound
- and so Mark & I began.
Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias come together to create duets discovered in the moment in a way that is rarely heard today with Some Kind of Tomorrow. The long time bandmates, separated by space and time find a way to play in real time with one another and the results are magical. Two master improvisers and composers bring listeners up-close and personal to the first spark of their imaginations at work, recording eleven duet improvisations over the spring, summer, and fall of 2020. The music is raw, authentic, intimate, alive, and unapologetic in its passion. Their sound is deep wood and polished brass recorded with a depth that is hard to describe. They played the music, recorded it, mastered it firsthand and are now making it available to listeners for the first time as a digital download on Bandcamp. Don’t miss these fearless jazz explorers as they face the future.
“Here are the improvised duets that bassist Mark Helias and I created in the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 on the internet. The thought of a world without a live, spontaneous musical connection was too hard to imagine and so we came to these sessions over the internet with an emotional thirst that’s hard to describe. The music is discovered in the moment in a way that I’ve never recorded before. The sound is filled with everything that we felt and couldn’t say in words. There is a vibration between us that’s uncanny given the circumstances and a deep need to play what was real to us just then. It’s as real as it gets for two musicians who needed to create music together to try to find some way to mend the world.” Jane Ira Bloom
“In unprecedented times artists resort to unprecedented strategies to fulfill the need to create and relate. Being locked down has reframed my appreciation of the act of musical interaction and reaffirmed the decision that I made decades ago to explore music as a life’s work. The first time that Jane and I improvised together through Wi-Fi sometime in April or May 2020 was a very high experience on so many levels. We were sorting out the possibilities of making music remotely and assessing the technology and our relation to it. Once we made peace with the situation and the medium, listening, feeling, hearing and responding was the same as it ever was. Without a live audience we decided to complete the circle by documenting our efforts through recordings that we are now sharing with the public. This process has been enlivening in ways that I had not anticipated.” Mark Helias
1. Some Kind of Tomorrow 04:17
2. Magic Carpet 07:04
3. Early Rites 04:24
4. Willing 05:50
5. Traveling Deep 03:30
6. Roughing It 09:28
7. Far Satellites 06:07
8. Pros and Cons 05:54
9. Drift 04:56
10. Star Talk 05:18
11. First Canvas 01:02
Jane Ira Bloom - soprano saxophone
Mark Helias - double bass
© 2020 All compositions by Mark Helias & Jane Ira Bloom
Mark Helias Radio Legs Music/BMI
Jane Ira Bloom Outline Music/ BMI
Recorded by Mark Helias & Jane Ira Bloom
Mixed & mastered by Mark Helias
Cover Photography - Claudia Barritt
Cover Design - Mark Helias
