The Squid's Ear Magazine


Moffett, Joe: Stress Positions (Neither/Nor Records)

The title referencing police tactics used to subdue a suspect, the 2nd solo album from NY trumpeter Joe Moffett finds the imporoviser approaching the instrument with atypical technique and a sense of sonic power in five engrossing works of technical prowess and creative imagination, producing "mangled, oscillating, chittering noises, a collision of muscle, bone, and metal".
 

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Joe Moffett-trumpet


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Label: Neither/Nor Records
Catalog ID: n/n 017
Squidco Product Code: 30292

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, Spring, 2020.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Stress Positions is Joe Moffett's second solo studio album release. In this collection of pieces he produces mangled, oscillating, chittering noises, a collision of muscle, bone, and metal. The contortions herein were carried out in the spirit of the glossolalic and obsessive."-Neither/Nor



"Joe Moffett is a member of Carlo Costa's Acustica, Earth Tongues and Twins of El Dorado and also led his own quintet for Ad Faunum (Not Two Records, 2012). The trumpeter's second solo recording is preoccupied with breath. Of course, all wind instrument recordings are concerned with breath. But for Moffett, recording this work while doctors were rationing ventilators for the sick and George Floyd's dying words were "I can't breathe," breath is paramount. Even the title, Stress Positions-a police tactic used to subdue a suspect-sets off alarms. The trumpeter's breath, heard as he forms notes or inhales to catch it, represents a very human struggle.

Moffett's brief opening salvo, "Milkweed Salad," attacks with an urgent sputtering growl and sprints to its conclusion as if Moffett's thoughts were spilling unchecked. His approach on "Feinting Bulb" is to blow circular breaths to exhaustion, regularly pausing, the only sound being his own inhalation. Moffett is a member of a new class of trumpeters like Nate Wooley, Peter Evans and Axel Dorner who are reimagining the sonic capacities of their instrument. He utilizes other materials like metal (or is it paper?) to create resonant overtones on "Luxury Drywall Manoeuver." Moffett also sheds notes, using the horn's body on "Succulent Midnight Quicksilver" to allow for a breath-only sound experience both chilling and comforting at the same time."-Mark Corroto, All About Jazz


Get additional information at All About Jazz

Artist Biographies

"New York-based trumpeter, improviser, and composer Joe Moffett approaches his work with a keen interest in unconventional sounds and forms, collective composition, and the intersection of words and music. He is co-founder of a number of ensembles such as Earth Tongues, with percussionist Carlo Costa and tubist Dan Peck; the Kaplan/Merega/Moffett Trio, which released its debut, Crows and Motives, in 2014 on Underwolf Records; and Trismegistus with bassist Sean Ali, trombonist Ben Gerstein, percussionist Devin Gray. Moffett's explorations into text and music are evident in his work with the experimental art song duo Twins of El Dorado, with vocalist Kristin Slipp. The ensemble's debut, Portend the End, was released on Prom Night Records in 2013."

-Neither/Nor Records (http://www.neithernorrecords.com/neithernorrecords/artists.html)
3/13/2024

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Track Listing:



1. Milkweed Salad 2:40

2. Feinting Bulb 10:33

3. Luxury Drywall Manoeuver 10:09

4. Steel Die Crocus 1:57

5. Succulent Midnight Quicksilver 10:48

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Recordings featuring brass instruments - trumpets, trombones, tubas, other horns
Solo Artist Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Neither/Nor Records.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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