The Squid's Ear Magazine


Sharp Trio, Elliott: Aggregat (Clean Feed)

NY saxophonist/guitarist, composer and conceptualist Elliot Sharps Trio with bassist Brad Jones and drummer Ches Smith using written scores to guide rhythmic and melodic jazz into unlikely and fascinating structures.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Brad Jones-bass

Ches Smith-drums

Elliott Sharp-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, electric guitar


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063002508

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF250
Squidco Product Code: 15892

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2012
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardstock gatefold foldover
Recorded at The Gallery, Brooklyn, NY on July 12th, 2011 by Keith Parker.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"No! With its reinterpretations of the music composed by Thelonious Monk, Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk! wasn't the most "jazzy" recording that multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp could conceive. In Aggregat we find him (in a way similar to his soundtrack to the film "Spectropia") using this musical language as if he always did it in such an integral and authentic way.

Choosing the tenor and soprano saxophones as principal vehicles of expression (only sometimes do we hear his trademark electric guitar), what we have here is rhythmic and melodic jazz with a twist, in which improvisation expands from both written scores and conceptual approaches. The set includes Sharp's rollicking tribute to Sonny Rollins, "Nucular" and eleven other tracks with varied feels and textures. Grooving, swinging, and twisting with Sharp are double bassist Brad Jones, member of the Jazz Passengers and several bands lead by Marc Ribot, and chameleon-drummer Ches Smith, from Secret Chiefs 3 and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. This is most definitely NOT smooth jazz but it shows yet another surprising aspect to this composer and multi-instrumentalist."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"New York born Brad Christopher Jones is a bassist, composer, and educator. He has recorded, performed, and toured around the world with a diverse array of artists that include Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello, Elvin Jones, David Byrne, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sheryl Crow, Deborah Harry, Dave Douglas, Vernon Reid, John Zorn, Don Byron, Marc Ribot, and The Jazz Passengers.

Brad has released three recordings under his own leadership with two seperate projects:"UNCIVILIZED POISE" and "THE EMBODIMENT" with his band Aka Alias, and"POURING MY HEART IN" with the Brad Jones Quartet.

Brad is also an experienced educator who has taught workshops and master classes in France, Italy, Canada, and Mexico and is part of the music faculty at Columbia University in New York City."

-Brad Jones Website (http://bassjones.com)
4/28/2025

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

"Born in San Diego, CA and raised in Sacramento, Ches Smith came up in a scene of punks and metal musicians who were listening to and experimenting with jazz and free improvisation. He studied philosophy at the University of Oregon before relocating to the San Francisco Bay area in 1995. After a few years of playing with obscure bands and intensive study with drummer / educator Peter Magadini, he enrolled in the graduate program at Mills College in Oakland at the suggestion of percussionist William Winant. There he studied percussion, improvisation, and composition with Winant, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran. One of Winant's first "assignments" for Ches was to sub in his touring gig at the time, Mr. Bungle (here he met bassist / composer Trevor Dunn who would later hire him for the second incarnation of his Trio-Convulsant). During his time at Mills, Ches co-founded two bands: Theory of Ruin (with Fudgetunnel / Nailbomb frontman Alex Newport), and Good for Cows (w/ Nels Cline Singers' Devin Hoff). He currently performs and records with Xiu Xiu, and Secret Chiefs 3. He has also performed with Ben Goldberg, Annie Gosfield, Wadada Leo Smith, John Tchicai, Fred Frith, and Trevor Dunn. In addition to Ceramic Dog, he also leads his two of his own projects, Congs for Brums and These Arches. He currently spends his time between Los Angeles, San Francisco and Brooklyn."

-Ches Smith Website (http://www.chessmith.com/)
4/28/2025

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

"Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He leads the projects Carbon and Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane and has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction.

His collaborators have included Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; pop singer Debbie Harry; Ensemble Modern; Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Kronos String Quartet; Ensemble Resonanz; cello innovator Frances Marie Uitti; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; pipa virtuoso Min-Xiao Feng; jazz greats Jack deJohnette, Oliver Lake, and Sonny Sharrock; multimedia artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka.

Sharp is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson's Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries; created sound-design for interstitials on The Sundance Channel, MTV and Bravo networks; and has presented numerous sound installations in art galleries and museums. He is the subject of a new documentary "Doing The Don't" by filmmaker Bert Shapiro."-Elliott Sharp

-Elliott Sharp website (http://www.elliottsharp.com/bio.html)
4/28/2025

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


Track Listing:



1. Nucular 6:57

2. Hard Landing 4:00

3. Mal Du Droit 1:56

4. The Grip 3:44

5. Allelia 6:52

6. Gegenschein 7:35

7. Refractory 2:22

8. Global Swarming 3:44

9. Positronics 5:58

10. Estuary 7:29

11. Figure Of Speed 7:18

12. Satan Sandwich 2:30

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Trio Recordings
Melodic and Lyrical Jazz
Trio Recordings
Clean Feed

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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