Rova Saxophone Quartet

Planetary

Label: United One/SoLyd Records Country: Russia

"After 16 years of bold experimentation, Rova has been credited with virtually re-inventing the concept of the saxophone quartet. Rova aims at making a synthesis of composition and structured improvisation. Rova's collaborations with such significant creative musicians as Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Terry Riley, Robin Holcomb, Butch Morris, Fred Firth and Kronos Quartet have expanded possibilities and contributed to the redefinition of 20th Century Music. It is in such a restless, expansive, but intensely focused musical partnership as Rova that the sounds of the 21st Century are prefigured. The Rova Saxophone is an ensemble that creates a musical presence so immense that you can clearly hear the future. The Penguin Guide to Jazz calls its music 'a teeming cosmos of saxophone sounds' created by 'deliberately eschewing conventional notions about swing [and] prodding at the boundaries on sound and space?'"-SoLyd Records

"Imagine a conversation with three other people where topic...a theme if you will...is selected and all four of you are to converse on that topic at certain points in time. And then at other times, a random topic is chosen, but everyone has to be conversing on topic together. And the topics can change on the fly, several times, before returning the the original, complex "theme" topic.

I'm trying my darnedest to describe the knotty song constructions of the Rova Saxophone Quartet.

Though you might not yet know anything about this group, you can already surmise from its name that its comprised of four people playing saxophones. The group was formed around 1977 with Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley; "Rova" is an acronym made up of the first initials of their last names. In 1988, Voigt left he group and was replaced by Steve Adams in the only lineup change so far in the band's 33+ year history.

It's almost too easy to draw parallels between the Rova Saxophone Quartet and the World Saxophone Quartet, which was formed at roughly the same time. But while the WSQ has shown its capability in music forms both daring and conventional, I find Rova living on the edge more. They use the four-sax format to explore the overlaps among free jazz, modern classical, experimental music and a generous smattering of other styles. But like World, Rova had found liberation in the absence of a rhythm section or a chordal instrument; they've gotten so good at piloting complex rhythmic patterns and joining their horns to create chordal patterns that no one should miss those other instruments.

The RSQ has made over two dozen recordings that feature their original music and now just released another one. Planetary is their first non-collaborative album since 2007's Juke Box Suite. Last year, though, came forth a very fascinating summit meeting between them and the Nels Cline Singers, The Celestial Septet. Now, Raskin, Ochs, Adams and Ackley return to their tried and true four saxophones-and-nobody-else format. [...]"- S. Victor Aaron, Something Else