The Squid's Ear Magazine


Ochs-Robinson Duo: A Civil Right (ESP-Disk)

Coming out of the tradition of saxophone and drum duos, Bay Area compatriots since 1991 in The Glenn Spearman Double Trio and Larry Ochs Sax and Drumming Core, saxophonist Larry Ochs and drummer Don Robinson, present their second album of creative original improvised music, employing energetic and intelligent approaches to jazz freedom that pay homage to those who came before them.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Larry Ochs-tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Don Robinson-drums


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UPC: 825481505222

Label: ESP-Disk
Catalog ID: ESPDISK 5052CD
Squidco Product Code: 30376

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at New + Improved, in Oakland, California, in 2018 and 2019, by John Finkbeiner.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This duo's second and definitive recording is released on ESP-Disk' - the legendary free jazz label where Albert Ayler released his breakthrough recording in 1964, the first jazz recording on ESP. A lot has changed since 1964, but a lot and perhaps too much remains virtually the same. So their "free jazz" music, while influenced by many musical discoveries and sociological developments that have become part of the firmament over the past 50+ years, still celebrates and revels in the spirit of Sixties free jazz.

Ochs is a founding member of the great ROVA Saxophone Quartet, one of the Bay Area's avant-garde treasures since 1978. Robinson - "a percussive dervish," according to Coda - was the drummer of choice for ROVA's revivification of John Coltrane's Ascension. The East Bay Express has said of the saxophonist's sound: "Ochs' full-bodied tenor is out of the John Coltrane/Albert Ayler 'free' tradition: forceful, passionate... talking-in-tongues," while the Chicago Reader said about the drummer and his relationship with Ochs, "Robinson is neither flashy nor explosive, but his playing has heft and he covers lots of ground - he can maintain a feeling of order while playing meter-less rhythms or transform the pulse of jagged post-bop until it's almost abstract. He's a good match for Ochs, and over the decades the two of them have developed a fine-tuned rapport."

Although Ochs and Robinson have collaborated in various groups for more than 20 years - including in the trio What We Live with bassist Lisle Ellis - their duo is a recent phenomenon, having developed over the past couple of years.

Ochs says, "Our playing together has evolved to a really special place, I think. We're definitely coming out of the tradition of horn-drum duos from John Coltrane & Rashied Ali to Wadada Leo Smith & Billy Higgins, but we've found our own space after a long stretch of shows together. Our set will include new, original material, with some high-energy playing and things that are more spatial, as well as some homages to more popular music. In a sparse setting like this, the music hits a listener right away - nothing is obscured, everything is clear."

-ESP-DISK


Artist Biographies

"Larry Ochs (b. May 3, 1949, New York City) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Ochs studied trumpet briefly but concentrated on tenor and sopranino saxophones. He worked as a record producer and founded his own label, Metalanguage Records, in 1978, in addition to operating the Twelve Stars studio in California. He co-founded the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and also worked in Glenn Spearman's Double Trio. A frequent recipient of commissions, he composed the music for the play Goya's L.A. by Leslie Scalapino in 1994 and for Letters Not About Love, which was named best documentary film at SXSW in 1998. He has also played in a new music trio called Room and the What We Live ensemble. He has recorded several albums as a leader. He formed the group Kihnoua in 2007 with vocalist Dohee Lee and Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, which released Unauthorized Caprices in 2010. He is married to the poet Lyn Hejinian."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ochs_(musician))
3/27/2024

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

"Described as a 'percussive dervish' (Coda) Donald Robinson is a technical master of the drums. He is a stalwart of the of San Francisco bay area avant-garde jazz scene, playing and recording with many of the area's improvisational players, from saxophonists John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi and Larry Ochs to koto player Miya Masaoka and pianist Matthew Goodheart, and with prominent visitors like Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, trumpeter Raphe Malik and Canadian pianist Paul Plimley. Much of this work has featured the combination of Robinson and bassist Lisle Ellis as rhythm section: 'the best bass-drums tag team on the scene' (Jazz Times). His longest musical association, dating from the 1970's, was with the late tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman.

Born is Boston, Massachusetts in 1953, Robinson first studied classical percussion at the New England Conservatory. During the early 1970's he served his musical apprenticeship in the jazz world of Paris, studying with Kenny Clarke and playing with Alan Silva, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake and Bobby Few among many others. He first played with Spearman as a duet partner during this period in Paris, an association which continued through various configurations and many recordings until the saxophonist's death in 1998.

Robinson is currently playing in many configurations with a broad range of musicians throughout Europe and the US."

-BayImproviser (https://www.bayimproviser.com/artist/14/donald-robinson)
3/27/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Arise The Poet 12:33

2. Yesterday And Tomorrow 8:58

3. A Civil Right 5:37

4. The Others Dream 13:03

5. Regret 5:49

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Saxophone & Drummer / Percussionist Duos
Duo Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
ESP-Disk.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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