Either / Orchestra
| Either / Orchestra | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Creative jazz |
| founding | 1985 |
| Founding members | |
| Russ Gershon | |
| Tam holder | |
Trumpet |
Dave Ballou |
Trumpet |
Bob Sealy |
Trumpet |
Dan Drexter |
| Russell Jewell | |
trombone |
Josh Roseman |
| Bobb Rawlings | |
Alto saxophone |
Bob Sinfonia |
| Steve Norton | |
| Kenny Friendly | |
| John Dirac | |
| Mike Rivard | |
| Jerome Deupree | |
| former members | |
Baritone saxophone |
Charlie Kohlhase |
Keyboard |
John Medeski |
saxophone |
Douglas Yates |
bass |
Bob Nieske |
The Either / Orchestra is an American jazz formation. The big band was formed in 1985 under the direction of tenor and soprano saxophonist Russ Gershon and has since worked mainly in the Massachusetts area.
history
Gershon founded the Either / Orchestra under the influence of his favorite big bands (the Sun Ra Arkestra and the orchestra of Gil Evans ), initially as a rehearsal orchestra in order to realize his musical ideas. With drummer Jerome Deupree , pianist Kenny Freundlich , saxophonists Steve Norton and Robb Rawlings , trumpeters Dan Drexler and Tom Halter , trombonists Josh Roseman and Russell Jewell, the Either / Orchestra (E / O for short) began in its first line-up in Cambridge with samples; on December 17, 1985 the band made their first appearance at the Cambridge Public Library . In early 1986 the E / O played in clubs around Cambridge; In 1987 they first appeared in New York at the Sweet Basil jazz club, where they represented the Gil Evans Orchestra . At the end of 1988 a first major tour began in the Midwest. Also in the band were bassist Mike Rivard , guitarist John Dirac , pianist John Medeski , trombonist Curtis Hasselbring , saxophonists Douglas Yates and Charlie Kohlhase and trumpeter John Carlson .
In 1987 Gershon founded his own record label Accurate Records , on which the band's music has appeared since then, starting with the first E / O album, Dial "E" for Either / Orchestra with interpretations of Sonny Rollins ' "Doxy" and Monk's "Brilliant Corners" "; In 1988 the album Radium followed with standards such as " Willow Weep for Me ", "Ode to Billie Joe", "Nutty" or Roscoe Mitchell's composition "Odwallah". The following year, the album The Half-life of Desire was created in the legendary studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey, with pianist (and keyboardist) John Medeski and guest vocalist Mark Sandman. Medeski's entry especially expanded the band's musical spectrum with cover versions of the King Crimson title “Red” or Miles Davis ' “Circle in the Round”.
In the 1990s the Either / Orchestra continued to tour extensively and recorded a number of albums, such as The Calculus of Pleasure (1990), which earned a Grammy nomination for "Best Arrangement of an Instrumental Composition" for the title “ Bennie Moten 's Weird Nightmare” with solos by bass clarinetist Douglas Yates and newly added bassist Bob Nieske . Further highlights of this album for the critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton were the arrangements of the Horace Silver track "Ecaroh", Julius Hemphills "The Hard Blues" and " Whisper Not " by Benny Golson .
In May 1993, E / O recorded The Brunt , with a new version of Mal Waldron's "Hard Talk" and a humorous take on Dylan's classic "Lay Lady Lay"; there were some changes in the line-up. Bassist John Turner, drummer Matt Wilson and saxophonist Andrew D'Angelo joined them . The end of 1993 to 1994 the activities of the E / O ceased because Gershon was teaching jazz history as an assistant professor at Harvard University .
In 1995 the E / O toured Europe for the first time with performances at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the Jazz Festival in Pori (Finland). On December 17th, E / 0 played with many former members in the Somerville Theater near Boston to celebrate the band's tenth anniversary . For family reasons, Gershon put the E / O on hold in 1996 and during this time produced the review Across the Omniverse , a double album with unreleased material from the first five E / O albums of the first decade, original compositions and Ellington / Hodges numbers.
Also in 1997 the band largely suspended its activities; instead, Gershon worked with the 1980s rhythm section (Deupree, Rivard and Dirac) in his fusion band Blasto . Finally, the E / 0 was re-established with concerts in Portugal, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and in Cambridge. Then there were young musicians from the Boston jazz scene such as trumpeter Colin Fisher, pianist Dan Kaufman (later Gregory Burk), alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón (followed by Jaleel Shaw and then by Jeremy Udden), trombonist Joel Yennior, bassists Atemu Aton and Rick McLaughlin as well as the drummer Harvey Wirht. Since then, the E / O has performed in Italy, Portugal and Russia, and in 1999 released the album More Beautiful than Death as the seventh overall. In 2001, after 14 years, Charlie Kohlhase left as a long-time member , who then concentrated on his own projects.
In 1997 the Either / Orchestra worked with the Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke and played Ethiopian songs in a jazz arrangement; this is where the album Ethiopiques 20: Either / Orchestra Live in Addis Ababa was created . In 2004, E / 0 was the first American musician to play at the Ethiopian Music Festival. Further concerts then took place at the National Theater of Uganda in Kampala . After returning from the Ethiopia tour, further changes took place. The Ethiopia tour finally led to the continuation of work with Astatke and other Ethiopian musicians such as Hana Shenkute, Minale Dagnew, Setegn Atanaw and the singer Mahmoud Ahmed , with whom the E / O released a DVD in 2007; Mahmoud Ahmed and singer Alemayehu Eshete toured the United States with E / O in 2008.
Discography
- Dial "E" for Either / Orchestra ( Accurate Records , 1986)
- Radium (Accurate Records 1987/88)
- The Half-life of Desire (Accurate Records 1989) with Mark Sandman
- The Calculus of Pleasure (Accurate Records 1990)
- The Brunt (Accurate Records 1993)
- Across the Omniverse (Accurate Records 1986/96)
- More Beautiful than Death (Accurate Records 1999)
- Ethiopiques 20: Either / Orchestra Live in Addis (Accurate Records 2001; also as Live in Addis at Buda Musique 2005)
- Afro-Cubism (Accurate Records 2002)
- Neo-Modernism (Accurate Records 2004)
- Ethiogroove: Mahmoud Ahmed & Either / Orchestra (EthioSonic DVD 2007)
- Mood Music for Time Travelers (Accurate Records 2010)
swell
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette . 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-017949-6 .