The Squid's Ear Magazine


Moten, Fred / Brandon Lopez / Gerald Cleaver: S/T (Relative Pitch)

Fred Moten, prolific poet, theorist, critic, English Professor and 2020 MacArthur Fellow, provides the insightful and incisive text fueling the improvisation of New York drummer Gerald Cleaver and contrabass player Brandon Lopez, the synergy of Moten's words reminding of Gil Scott-Heron or Amiri Baraka; issued on LP by Reading Group, this CD edition adds two tracks.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Fred Moten-voice, text

Brandon Lopez-contrabass

Gerald Cleaver-drums


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UPC: 5904224871161

Label: Relative Pitch
Catalog ID: RPR1159
Squidco Product Code: 32483

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at GSI Studios, in NYC, in 2020, by Jason Rostkowski.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Lopez and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they've developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic palettes.

Lopez and Cleaver have long been recognized as some of the most vital voices in contemporary experimental improvised music, each with dozens of recordings and frequent performances in New York and abroad. They are joined here by Fred Moten, the inimitable poet, theorist, critic, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow.

Moten's presence, voicing poetry in an improvisatory syncopation with the instrumentalists, raises the music to third plane, putting the record in a broader collection of legendary spoken-word jazz records from Gil Scott-Heron and Amiri Baraka to the contemporary energies of Moor Mother and Irreversible Entanglements. This CD release contains two tracks that did not appear on the LP."-Relatice Pitch



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

Fred Moten is a professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to The Little Edges, he is the author of Arkansas, Poems (with Jim Behrle), I ran from it but was still in it, Hughson's Tavern, B Jenkins, The Feel Trio, and the critical works In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition and The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study (with Stefano Harney).

-Wesleyan University (https://fredmoten.site.wesleyan.edu/)
3/13/2024

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

"[..] Composer/bassist, Brandon A. Lopez, deemed "The Ubiquitous Free Improv Bass Ace" by the Village Voice and said to play with a "Bruising Physicality" by the Chicago reader.

He was born and raised in the splendors of Northwestern New Jersey, in the shadow of the (New York) city. It was there that he cultivated a taste for the left of center musics and subsequently, dug graves.

He's had the pleasures of working with many of the world's luminary weirdos. Here's a list: Nate Wooley, William Parker, Chris Corsano, Justice Yeldham, Weasel Walter, Peter Evans, Tyshawn Sorey, Gerald Cleaver, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Tony Malaby, Paul Lytton, Mette Rasmussen, Jooklo Duo, Michael Foster, Leila Bordreuil, Jaimie Branch, Joe Morris, Brandon Seabrook, Cactus Truck, John Dykeman, Daniel Carter, and many others.

He's currently leads a trio dubbed "The Mess", another one called the Brandon Lopez Trio, works as a soloist and is formerly/currently/latterly writing more and more music. He may play some it sometime soon (see "gigs").

He attended New England Conservatory."

-Brandon Lopez Website (http://www.brandonlopez.nyc/)
3/13/2024

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

"Gerald Cleaver (born May 4, 1963) is an African-American jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan. Cleaver's father is drummer John Cleaver Jr., originally from Springfield, Ohio, and his mother was from Greenwood, Mississippi. Gerald had six older siblings. Cleaver joined the jazz faculty at the University of Michigan in 1995. He has performed or recorded with Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Sta ko, Franck Amsallem and others.

Under the name Veil of Names, Cleaver released an album called Adjust on the Fresh Sounds New Talent label in 2001. It featured Maneri, Ben Monder, Andrew Bishop, Craig Taborn and Reid Anderson and was a Best Debut Recording Nominee by the Jazz Journalists Association. Cleaver currently leads the groups Uncle June, Black Host, Violet Hour and NiMbNl as well as working as a sideman with many different artists."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Cleaver_(musician))
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. The Abolition Of Art, The Abolition Of Freedom, The Abolition Of You And Me 8:35 2. B Jenkins 3:02

3. B Jenkins, Pt. 2 2:25

4. The Faerie Ornithologie 8:54

5. A Poem For Black Art 25:09

6. James Baldwin 3:03

7. Laura Harris 8:46

8. John Thompson 3:50

9. Surfacing 12:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
Spoken Word
New in Improvised Music
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