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Sinton's, Josh Predicate Quartet (Sinton / Finlayson / Hoffman / Rainey): Four Freedoms (FiP recordings)

Espousing a need to bring more freedom to others--from fear, from oneself, from advertising, and freedom to love--baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton, also on alto flute and bass clarinet, leads his outstanding quartet of Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Christopher Hoffman (cello) and Tom Rainey (drums) through four intricately satisfying Sinton compositions.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Josh Sinton-baritone saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet, composer

Jonathan Finlayson-trumpet

Christopher Hoffman-cello

Tom Rainey-drums


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Label: FiP recordings
Catalog ID: fpcd05
Squidco Product Code: 32728

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at EastSide Studios, in New York, New York, on April 16th, 2022, by Marc Urselli.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"I need to do more. For other people. I have to find ways to bring more freedom to others. Specifically four freedoms:

- freedom from fear: being afraid is normal and primary. Living in a constant state of (low-level or otherwise) fear is a toxic nightmare. I'll do more to ease people's fears.

- freedom to be oneself: it's hard to accept oneself, to be present as oneself. I'll do all I can to make that less hard and more possible.

- freedom to love: expressing love can feel treacherous. This can only lead to suppressing feelings of love. I will do more to make expressions/feelings of love normal and freeing.

- freedom from advertising: this is not a joke. If we are fish in a fish-bowl, then the water we've been swimming in is shit-saturated. Not everything needs to be sold. Not everything needs to be noticed by as many people as possible. I'll be doing more to limit my contribution to the spew of advertising and encouraging folks around me to untether themselves from the irrational pressures this imaginary fishbowl puts us under."-Josh Sinton


Artist Biographies

"Josh Sinton, a native of Southern New Jersey, born in 1971, is a creative musician who specializes in playing the baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. Growing up, his musical inspirations were his father's record collection, his brothers' record collections and watching his father play stride piano at parties. There wasn't anyone else playing music so to this day Sinton remains mystified that the music bug stuck at all.

He studied composition at the University of Chicago and improvisation at the AACM in the 1990's and then proceeded to carve out a niche for himself in Chicago writing and performing music for dance (with Julia Mayer) and theater (at Steppenwolf Studio and Bailiwick Repertory) as well as performing and studying with local musicians such as Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark, Ari Brown and Cameron Pfiffner. He would leave Chicago during this time for extended backpacking trips around Europe and India and found a lot of useful information for his later work.

Determined to overcome his technical shortcomings, he gave all this up and moved to Boston in 1999 to resume studies at the New England Conservatory. He spent five years in Boston and met, played and studied with a variety of folks including Steve Lacy, Ran Blake, Dominique Eade, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Moses, Jim Hobbs and the Either Orchestra. Despite their encouragement, Sinton was overjoyed when he got to leave Boston in 2004.

Since then, Sinton has lived in Brooklyn, New York. He's been fortunate enough to be a long-standing member of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, the Nate Wooley Quintet, the Andrew D'Angelo DNA Orchestra and Anthony Braxton's Tricentric Orchestra. With these groups he's travelled to several countries in Europe and South America as well as played many festivals (Moers, Newport, BMW, Bergamo, Tampere Jazz Happening, etc.). Sinton is proud of the collaborators he's been able to work with (Kirk Knuffke, Tomas Fujiwara, Chad Taylor, Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Jeremiah Cymerman, Josh Roseman, Harris Eisenstadt, Roswell Rudd, James Fei, Denman Maroney, Han-Earl Park, Greg Tate, Curtis Hasselbring, Mike Pride, Jon Irabagon) but the list of people he still hopes to play with is vast.

As a long-standing member of the Douglass Street Music Collective, Josh Sinton has hosted hundreds of concerts over the past 7 years Brooklyn. His work has been recognized by Downbeat (Critics' and Readers' Poll), Jazz Times (Critics' Poll) and El Intruso (International Critics' Poll) and has been discussed in The Wire, Signal to Noise, Point of Departure, the New York Times and the New York City Jazz Record.

Sinton defines himself as a "creative musician" rather than a jazz musician and has done so since 2011. His reasons for this are varied and personal, but some of them are outlined here and here. Suffice to say, friendly listeners can label him what they will. Sinton will just continue creating sounds with the goal of wasting nobody's time.

Currently Sinton leads the band Ideal Bread as well playing regularly with the Nate Wooley Quintet and the Tricentric Orchestra. He is busy writing new music for himself and his collaborators as well as contributing essays to the websites of Darcy James Argue, Ethan Iverson's Do The Math, Destination: Out and Sound American."

-Josh Sinton Website (http://joshsinton.com/about/)
7/9/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jonathan Finlayson has been recognized by the New York Times as "...an incisive and often surprising trumpeter," who is "...fascinated with composition." Born in 1982 in Berkeley, CA, Finlayson began playing the trumpet at the age of ten in the Oakland public school system. He came under the tutelage of Bay Area legend Robert Porter, a veteran trumpeter from the bebop era who took Finlayson under his wing; he was often seen accompanying Porter on his gigs about town and sitting in on the popular Sunday nights jam session at the Bird Cage. He subsequently attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he studied with Eddie Henderson, Jimmy Owens and Cecil Bridgewater.

Finlayson is a disciple of the saxophonist/composer/conceptualist Steve Coleman, having joined his band Five Elements in 2000 at the age of 18. He is widely admired for his ability to tackle cutting-edge musical concepts with aplomb. Finlayson has performed and recorded in groups led by Steve Lehman, Mary Halvorson, Craig Taborn, Henry Threadgill and played alongside notables such as Von Freeman, Jason Moran, Dafnis Prieto and Vijay Iyer."

-Jonathan Finlayson Website (http://jonathanfinlayson.com/biography.html)
7/9/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Christopher is a cellist, composer, producer, engineer and filmmaker. He currently performs in Henry Threadgill's Pulitzer Prize winning ensemble Zooid, Anat Cohen Tentet, Kenny Warren Trio, Tony Malaby, Michael Blake, Darius Jones and his own projects. He has worked with Martin Scorsese, Yoko Ono, Bleachers, Iron & Wine, Ryan Adams, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Pitt & Pagoda, Marc Ribot, Butch Morris, Lee Konitz, Rudy Royston, Anna Webber, Ryan Scott, Anthony Coleman, Jeremiah Cymerman & many others."

-Christopher Hoffman Website (https://www.christopherhoffman.com/new-page-1)
7/9/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Thomas "Tom" Rainey (born 1957, Santa Barbara, California) is an American drummer.

After attending Berklee College of Music he moved to New York in 1979. He has played with American jazz saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, and also with Nels Cline, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Tom Varner, Drew Gress, Kenny Werner, Mark Helias, and Simon Nabatov. A prolific session musician, he has appeared on close to eighty recordings over a career spanning over 25 years.

He released his own first album, Pool School (Clean Feed), in 2010."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Rainey)
7/9/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Step 5:49

2. Gateway 7:51

3. Blood 6:30

4. Shards 8:12

5. Violets 10:34

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quartet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions

Search for other titles on the label:
FiP recordings.


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