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| Music of Sam Jones + Disasters Vol. 2 – Two albums from Moppa Elliott + Feb. Tour dates! Moppa Elliott's Acceleration Due to Gravity Presents Jonesville Nonet album to be released February 16, 2024 on Hot Cup Records "It's all so wild, so free, so … entertaining. You wonder why other bandleaders don't seem to have this much fun all the time." – Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes "[Acceleration Due to Gravity] is music that has all the forward momentum of funk and hip-hop, but none of its predictability." – Andy Hermann, DownBeat Featuring: Moppa Elliott (DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Bassist, Composer, Arranger), Bobby Spellman (trumpet), Dave Taylor (trombone), Matt Nelson (alto saxophone), Stacy Dillard (tenor saxophone), Kyle Saulnier (baritone saxophone), Ava Mendoza (guitar), George Burton (piano), and Mike Pride (drums). Hot Cup Records is proud to present Jonesville, the second release by the nonet Acceleration Due to Gravity. Jonesville features four new compositions by bassist/composer Moppa Elliott as well as performances of three early pieces by the legendary bassist and composer Sam Jones on the occasion of his centennial year. Each of Elliott's compositions is inspired by the music of Sam Jones and named after a town in Pennsylvania, as usual. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Elliott created blindfold tests for a small circle of musicians and friends which led to completing his collection of all the recordings made by Sam Jones during his illustrious and long career. For the entirety of 2024, Elliott will host a weekly radio broadcast on WAYO in Rochester, NY where he will play music from each of Sam Jones' recordings in roughly chronological order, interspersed with commentary and context. Elliott's original compositions, as performed by ADTG, are based loops that undergo transformation during each repetition and are staggered against each other. Each tune is made up of a handful of musical phrases (which in other circumstances could be samples) that loop and repeat, but never in the same way due to both written variations and the spontaneous improvisations of the band members. This allows each piece to retain both a unique sound world and forward momentum, constantly surprising the listener, and often, the band. Elliott takes as a model the music of The Wu-Tang Clan, The Roots, Run the Jewels, DJ Premiere and other hip-hop artists who create song forms that are vehicles for multiple soloists and do not emphasize a central "hook" or refrain. Each of Elliott's tunes has three solo sections built into it, and no recurring melodic chorus in order to more clearly emphasize the central role of the improvised solo. Choice, a composition by Sam Jones, opens the album with the sound of Stacy Dillard's tenor saxophone trading solo sections with alto saxophonist, Matt Nelson. Both employ a vast array of extended techniques, culminating in their exchange of flutter-tongued notes. Kyle Saulnier takes over on baritone saxophone and rips through the form until he is joined by the guitar of Ava Mendoza. The final solo section features the peerless Dave Taylor on bass trombone trading with the trumpet of Bobby Spellman. Both brass players get brief solo breaks at the end of the tune. Elliott's electric bass intones the first three notes of Delaware Water Gap before the beat drops and Taylor takes over on tenor trombone with a plunger mute. Nelson solos second in typically aggressive fashion, utilizing the entire range of the alto saxophone and alternating between jazz vocabulary and piercing shrieks and runs. Possibly encouraged by Nelson's explorations of the horn, Dillard takes a turn evoking the honking tenor players of the mid 20th century with altissimo trills and wide vibrato before getting the last word with a curt trill. Pianist George Burton opens Miami Drag, another Sam Jones composition from his days playing jump blues on the Chitlin' Circuit. Burton's opening vamp is compelling enough to sound like a written part (it isn't) before breaking off into flurries of upper-register runs. Taylor moves back to the bass trombone and employs the plunger mute once again before being joined by Mendoza's guitar, distorted in historically inappropriate fashion. She joins Dillard at the end of his solo before closing out the tune. Unity, another of Elliott's compositions inspired by the music of Sam Jones, opens with a torrent of notes by Dillard. Mendoza and Spellman trade four-bar phrases in the second solo section and come to mimic each other quite convincingly. Burton takes the final solo and attacks the keys in his familiar way, punctuating several ensemble sections with heavy block chords. Spellman plays a lead-in to Cedar Run, an Elliott original with an octave-spanning bass groove and more extended harmonies and key changes for each soloist. Spellman's solo leads into Burton's over the interjections of drummer, Mike Pride and the stop-time sections by the band. Saulnier, modifying the sound of his baritone saxophone with electronic effects, enters, guns blazing, and relentlessly builds energy to the end of the piece. Sam Jones' Stack of Dollars is one of his first compositions to be recorded by multiple artists and become a "Standard." Joining that list of cover versions is Acceleration Due to Gravity. Nelson states the opening melody only to abruptly depart for the upper reaches of the audible frequency spectrum in his opening statement. Spellman takes a turn, beginning with some lip trills before firing flurries of notes over the shifting rhythms of the band. Elliott's arrangement has three distinct rhythmic sections that rotate making each solo a different combination of these sections. Mendoza takes the third solo and alternates between chromatic single-lines and dissonant chords. Muted slide trumpet and trombone open Elliott's Jonesville with a figure that anchors the entire composition with a heavy, pulsing groove that is tonally ambiguous. Mendoza takes the first solo, building towards the entrance of Nelson whose solo sounds as though a creature is slowly climbing out of a tar pit and emerging triumphantly. Saulnier and Taylor take over, sparring as the groove of Elliott, Pride, and the rest of the ensemble slowly becomes more and more sparse leading up to the final unison chord that ends the composition. Bobby Spellman (trumpet) is a new addition to the Hot Cup Records family. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Spellman leads his own nonet on Sunnyside Records' "Revenge of the Cool." He has performed with Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Either/Orchestra, and The Big Mean Sound Machine, among many others. Dave Taylor (trombone) is the most recorded bass trombonist in history, and on this recording he expands his arsenal to include the tenor trombone and many custom-made mutes. He has played and recorded with Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Mostly Other People Do the Killing, to name a few. Matt Nelson (alto saxophone) is best known for his work with tUnE yArDs, Battle Trance, and Elder Ones as well as for his solo performances. Elliott and Nelson met at Oberlin before both relocated to New York and performed together with the New York Trumpet Ensemble, Peter Evans, and many more. Stacy Dillard (tenor sax) is a fixture on the Long Island City jazz scene where he and Elliott have been crossing paths for over 20 years. He has performed with Norman Simmons (an arranger and pianist near and dear to Elliott's heart), Frank Lacy, The Mingus Big Band, and countless others. Kyle Saulnier (baritone saxophone) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who has led The Awakening Orchestra for many years and performs on woodwinds, double-bass, electric bass, and many other instruments. For over a decade, Kyle co-led the band "alice." with Elliott on bass, before relocating to Vermont. Ava Mendoza (guitar) is originally from the Bay area in California and moved to New York in 2013 shortly after sharing the stage at the Moers Festival in Germany with “Mostly Other People Do the Killing.” Mendoza’s band “Unnatural Ways” has been acclaimed by critics for years and she is a member of Jon Irabagon’s “I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues.” George Burton (piano) has toured, recorded, and performed with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Odeon Pope. Wallace Roney, and many others. He and Elliott are both alumni and former instructors at the now defunct Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts where they met in 2000 and returned for many summers as instructors and residential advisors. Mike Pride (drums) leads many of his own ensembles, most recently “I Hate Work” and toured extensively with Amy Schumer performing with Jason Stein’s trio, “Locksmith Isidore.” He has performed and recorded with Anthony Braxton, Japanese noise band Boredoms, and Matana Roberts, among many others. Bassist Moppa Elliott teaches music at Information Technology High School in Long Island City, NY. He also produces and releases albums on Hot Cup Records, performs as principal bassist of the Litha Symphony Orchestra, and collaborates with a wide variety of artists in NYC including Heroes of Toolik, Bash the Trash, the New Conductor’s Orchestra. Moppa Elliott’s Advancing on a Wild Pitch Presents Disasters Vol. 2 Quintet album to be released February 16, 2024 on Hot Cup Records “It’s all so wild, so free, so … entertaining. You wonder why other bandleaders don’t seem to have this much fun all the time.” – Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes “Trombonist Sam Kulik and baritone saxophonist Charles Evans’ witty interplay gives [“Advancing on a Wild Pitch”] the feel of a New Orleans speakeasy, while Kulik’s mournful tone finds unexpected depths of emotion.” – Andy Hermann, DownBeat Featuring Moppa Elliott (DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Bassist, Composer, Arranger), Charles Evans (DownBeat Critics’ Poll Baritone Saxophone), Sam Kulik (trombone), Danny Fox (DownBeat Critics’ Poll Rising Star Pianist), and Christian Coleman (drums) Hot Cup Records is proud to present Disasters Vol. 2, the second release by the quintet Advancing on a Wild Pitch. Disasters Vol. 2 features seven new compositions by bassist/composer Moppa Elliott, each named after a town in Pennsylvania that experienced disasters including train collisions, toxic smog, bombings by the police, and industrial accidents. These events are cautionary tales, potent metaphors, and excellent examples of how people measure risk and reward. Advancing on a Wild Pitch is based on the “classic jazz” ensembles of the early 1960s, quintets that performed in a style both be-bop and hard bop influenced, recorded in the early days of stereo technology, with little to no editing in the studio. Recordings from this era, released in LP format, often have a running time of under forty minutes and it is this brevity (by today’s standards) that is part of their appeal. The classic albums that we all love are revered because of their sound and succinctness, not in spite of them. The musicians in Advancing on a Wild Pitch are most known for playing in much more varied styles, from free jazz and free improvisation to R&B and chamber music, so hearing this band play in the classic jazz style is a bit like Piet Mondrian painting a Dutch landscape after “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” Elliott eschews bass solos almost entirely, leaving ample room for Kulik, Evans, and Fox to each explore the compositions with their unique, personal voices. “Powelton Village” begins with an orchestrated introduction in A-minor before the first of many tempo changes in the style of Charles Mingus and Danny Richmond leads to the main theme. Over the course of the tune, the tempo speeds up and slows down to mark the sections of the two-part form, the first of which stays predominantly in the original key before the second modulates to a blues in D major. Kulik solos first, followed by Evans. “Cobb’s Creek” is a dirge-like waltz in C minor with a recurring section moving between C-minor and D7 before walking up an arpeggio to lead to a new key. This arpeggio device also adds or subtracts beats each time so that the form is always a bit shifty and elusive. Fox solos first followed by Kulik, who makes great use of a plunger mute. “Marcus Hook” opens with Fox’s luscious and sparse solo over a single chorus of the tune - an extended 12/8 blues in G major that includes a bridge that briefly tonicizes the C major IV chord. The melody is a classic blues lament stated by Evans and Kulik in parallel octaves before the two trade phrases leading into the bridge. Evans takes over as soloist for a chorus that incorporates runs and smears and surprising turns of phrase before ending on a touchingly unresolved chord. “The Donora Smog” features numerous starts and stops but settles into a blues that alternates between Eb major and Db major by linking the V and IV chords of both keys. Evans takes the first solo including a humorous solo break and ample use of microtones, followed by a splendid example of Fox’s ability to build from sparseness into density covering the whole range of the piano. “Mud Run” contains a melody that recalls the melodic sensibility of the Count Basie band as well as the subtle orchestrations of the early hard-bop era. Kulik and Evans trade solo phrases over the irregular form and achieve a unity of purpose as they finish each other’s musical sentences recalling the friendly sparring of Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer. Fox takes over, floating above Elliott and Coleman’s accompaniment before digging in to take the tune to its Basie-esque coda. “Van Meter” is a plaintive lament in Ab major that lets the band sit in a contemplative place with no need to move elsewhere. Kulik delivers one of his most elegant solos on record, unhurriedly exploring the form, ending on a gorgeous phrase before ceding the spotlight to Fox who improvises over the horn statement of the closing melody. “Dimock” is a more up-tempo theme in Bb minor that starts with Elliott and Coleman laying down a two-feel with a New Orleans “big four” anticipation. Evans takes the first solo turn conversing with Fox’s intuitive comping. Kulik enters with a melodic line that could be the theme to another composition, followed by a series of trades with Coleman’s drums that gradually get shorter and shorter to set up a half-time bar-room piano solo for Fox. The band accelerates out of the piano solo into the coda, continuing to avoid performing complete “out-heads” or restatements of the entire theme. Sam Kulik attended Oberlin Conservatory with Elliott and the two have been performing together for the past twenty-three years. While primarily a trombonist, Kulik can be heard in NYC performing on tuba, guitar, electric bass, and as a vocalist, in ensembles ranging from Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting Orchestra to The Talking Band theater company to music for children and families in The Band Books and Bash the Trash. His jazz trombone playing contains elements of free jazz and experimental music, but also a deep knowledge of the jazz canon and vocabulary, often conjuring moments of sublime and surprising beauty. Kulik can often be found at The Stone where he has volunteered and worked for two decades. Charles Evans grew up in Factoryville, PA with Elliott and they have been performing together since the 6th grade band. Evans has been acclaimed by jazz critics for years as one of the most unique and compelling baritone saxophonists alive and has released a series of albums featuring his brilliant and unique compositions for a quartet featuring his mentor, Dave Liebman. His mastery and control over the full range of the baritone saxophone as well as microtonal playing and extended techniques can be heard on this album. Evans has performed with Evan Parker, Peter Evans, and Dan Blake, among countless others. Danny Fox was a resident of Astoria, Queens for over a decade and crossed paths with Elliott (and the rest of AOAWP) at neighborhood jam sessions for years before releasing two of his own trio recordings on Elliott’s Hot Cup Records label. Fox approaches the piano as a solo instrument utilizing space while maximizing the impact of his dense block-chords and multi-octave runs creating an unmistakable voice. He leads The Danny Fox Trio and also has performed with singers such as Emmylou Harris and Christina Courtin as well as playing chamber and new music with The Knights. Christian Coleman has been a mainstay of the Queens jazz scene for almost 20 years and has known Elliott since they performed in a band led by vocalist and recording engineer John White, proprietor of Midtown Sound where the first three Mostly Other People Do the Killing albums were recorded. Coleman grew up in a musical family in Nebraska before cutting his teeth performing in trios on various cruise ships. Coleman’s drumming is deeply subtle and nuanced, often including feather-light grace notes interspersed between surprising accents and orchestration choices. You can hear him perform almost every night at one of the many live music venues in Long Island City, Queens. Bassist Moppa Elliott teaches music at Information Technology High School in Long Island City, NY and performs regularly with symphony orchestras, rock bands, jazz ensembles, as well as playing music for children. He also produces and releases albums on Hot Cup Records including his solo bass recording Still, Up in the Air and a three-album release entitled JazzBand/RockBand/DanceBand. Since 2003 Elliott has led the band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, known for its endlessly varied performances and occasionally challenging music, such as 2014’s Blue in which they re-created Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” note-for-note. Mostly Other People Do the Killing released Disasters Vol. 1 in 2021. MOPPA ELLIOTT TOUR DATES Tues, Feb. 20 – Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW, Washington, DC 7 p.m. Tickets $25. Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDtK) celebrates the release of Disasters Vol. 2 on Hot Cup Records. The album is a follow-up to their acclaimed 2021 release, Disasters Vol. 1. https://www.rhizomedc.org/new-events/2024/2/20/mostly-other-people-do-the-killing-sarah-marie-hughes-and-derrick-michaels Wed, Feb. 21 – Fire Museum, Philadelphia, PA 7:30 p.m. Tickets $10-$20 sliding scale. Fire Museum Presents MOPDtK and Advancing on a Wild Pitch celebrating their new albums Disasters Vol. 2 and Jonesville. Performance takes place at Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement, 1542 East Montgomery Avenue Thur, Feb. 22 –– The Cutting Room, 44 East 32nd Street, NYC 7 p.m. Tickets: $20 Hot Cup Records presents an Album Release Evening featuring three bands. Mostly Other People Do the Killing celebrating "Disasters Vol. 1" Advancing on a Wild Pitch celebrating "Disasters Vol. 2" Acceleration Due to Gravity celebrating "Jonesville: Music by and for Sam Jones" https://wl.seetickets.us/event/mostly-other-people-do-the-killing/582194?afflky=TheCuttingRoom Fri, Feb. 23 – The Bop Shop, 1460 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 8 p.m. Tickets: $20 MOPDtK https://bopshop.com/events/mostly-other-people-do-the-killing-1 Sat, Feb. 24 – Jazz at the Coop, The Cooperage, 1030 Main St., Honesdale, PA 7 p.m. Tickets: $15 MOPDtK and Advancing on a Wild Pitch. https://allevents.in/honesdale/jazz-night-at-the-coop/200025940871819 write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |