(Free Jazz) [CD] Rova Saxophone Quartet (Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin, Steve Adams, Bruce Ackley) - Morphological Echo - 1997, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

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Rova / Morphological Echo
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==== Log checksum 808017C9AABE19CF05F6C8B82F8EB90A79E979A70FE97B079493CBF5CBD692E9 ====

REM GENRE Jazz
REM DATE 1997
REM DISCID 650B3107
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b2"
CATALOG 0000000000000
PERFORMER "Rova"
TITLE "Morphological Echo"
FILE "Rova (1997) - Morphological Echo.flac" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Obvious"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Circumstances"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 07:34:01
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Under"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 11:46:57
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "The Web"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 14:37:49
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Less Than Obvious"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 23:54:69
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Maintaining"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 01 27:12:16
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Grace"
    PERFORMER "Rova"
    FLAGS DCP
    INDEX 00 32:06:50
    INDEX 01 32:12:20

Recorded on 31 December 1989 & 25 September 1992

The white San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet was the alternative, experimental alter-ego of the more famous World Saxophone Quartet. Formed in 1977 by Jon Raskin (1954), Larry Ochs (1949), Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley, on respectively baritone, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone it straddled the border between free jazz and classical music of the 20th century. Raskin had already founded several multimedia projects and worked with composer John Adams. Their first concert became also their first album, Cinema Rovate' (august 1978), highlighted by Raskin's chaotic and cacophonous 21-minute Ride Upon the Belly of the Waters After The Bay (december 1978) with Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo, the noise strategy of the group was perfected on The Removal of Secrecy (february 1979), particularly Ochs' 19-minute That's How Strong. There was method in their madness, but it was not easily detected within the dense structures of their scores. After Daredevils (february 1979) with guitarist Henry Kaiser, and the transitional This This This This (august 1979), with Raskin's eleven-minute Flamingo Horizons, Invisible Frames (october 1981) boasted another peak of their expressionist art, Voigt's 22-minute Narrow Are the Vessels. Ochs' 19-minute Paint Another Take of the Shootpop, off As Was (april 1981), was dedicated to both classical composer Olivier Messiaen and soul vocalist Otis Redding. Rova's style was becoming more accessible while still being abstract, absurd and atonal. After the live double-LP Saxophone Diplomacy (june 1983), with a 24-minute Detente or Detroit, and the Steve Lacy tribute of Favorite Street (november 1983), the Rova Saxophone Quartet sculpted the titanic jams of Crowd (june 1985), such as the 19-minute The Crowd, Ochs' 29-minute Knife In the Times and Raskin's 16-minute Terrains. After the relatively straightforward Beat Kennel (april 1987), and the live The Aggregate (july 1988) with fifth saxophonist Anthony Braxton, Voigt left Rova and was replaced by Steve Adams for Long on Logic (january 1990).
In 1986, Ochs had formed the Group Room, a trio of saxophone, piano and electronics. In 1990 he and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz formed the International Creative Music Orchestra. After Electric Rags II (september 1989) with electronic musician Alvin Curran, Rova's recordings became more predictable and focused on live performances: This Time We Are Both (november 1989), with a 26-minute The Unquestioned Answer, Morphological Echo (december 1989), From the Bureau of Both (september 1992), with the 18-minute The Floater. They also recorded Terry Riley's Chanting the Light of Foresight (july 1993). Pipe Dreams (january 1994) was credited to Figure 8: the Rova Saxophone Quartet plus saxophonists Tim Berne, Vinny Golia, Glenn Spearman and Dave Barrett. Ochs also composed chamber music for ensemble: The Secret Magritte (composed in 1993, recorded in june 1995), Pleistocene (1997) and Certain Space (2001). Och's sax-bass-drums trio What We Live, formed in 1994, recorded Never Was (july 1996), Quintet for a Day (april 1998), Trumpets (november 1996), etc. The trio Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core (with two drummers), formed in 2000, debuted with The Neon Truth (august 2000). Bingo (april 1996) was mostly devoted to Barry Guy's Witch Gong Game and especially Lindsay Cooper's A Face in the Crowd. The Mirror World (june 2005), inspired by a Stan Brakhage film, contains Hand for Joan Jeanrenaud, Theresa Wong (cellos), Lisle Ellis (bass), Ben Goldberg (reeds), Toyoji Tomita, Jen Baker (trombones, didgeridoos), Darren Johnston, David Bithell (trumpets), Steve Adams (bass flute), Jon Raskin (baritone sax), Tim Perkis, Matt Wright (keyboards), William Winant, Gino Robair, Moe Staiano (percussion), Bruce Ackley (clarinet) and Larry Ochs (conductor), as well as Wall for the sextet of Bruce Ackley (soprano sax, tenor sax), Steve Adams (alto sax), Larry Ochs (tenor and sopranino saxophones), Jon Raskin (baritone saxophone), Gino Robair and William Winant (percussion). Live performances by Larry Ochs' Drumming Core are documented on Stone Shift (november 2007), featuring Satoko Fuji on synthesizer and piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and drummers Scott Amendola and Donald Robinson. The Celestial Septet (november 2008) documents a live collaboration with guitarist Nels Cline, drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Devin Hoff (the Nels Cline Singers). It is mostly an inferior work, despite Ochs' 25-minute Whose to Know. Planetary (mostly recorded in april 2003.) The Receiving Surfaces (august 2010) documents a live performance by the Rova-John Zorn sax quintet. Larry Ochs formed Kihnoua in 2007. The Sybil's Whisper (october 2011) features Dohee Lee (voice, hand drum), Wilbert Dejoode (bass) and Scott Amendola (drums, electronics). Rova's A Short History (february 2003 and august 2011) contains Larry Ochs' three-movement suite Certain Space, ostensibly inspired by Giacinto Scelsi, Cecil Taylor and Morton Feldman. The East-West Collective, a quintet consisting of Miya Masaoka (koto), Larry Ochs (tenor & sopranino saxes), Didier Petit (cello and voice), Xu Fengxia (guzheng and voice) and Sylvain Kassap (electronics), debuted with Humeurs (june 2013). Spectral (may 2012) was recorded by the reed trio of Dave Rempis (alto sax), Darren Johnston (trumpet) and Larry Ochs (tenor & sopranino saxes). Larry Ochs and drummer Donald Robinson recorded The Throne (september 2011). The Fictive Five (december 2014), featuring Nate Wooley (trumpet), Pascal Niggenkemper and Ken Filiano (both on basses and effects) and Harris Eisenstadt (drums), contained the 25-minute Similitude and the 22-minute By Any Other Name. Live At The Guelph Jazz Festival/Cleaning The Mirror (september 2012), containing a 68-minute revision of John Coltrane's Ascension, features the quartet flanked by a stellar cast: Nels Cline on electric guitar, Fred Frith on electric bass, Carla Kihlstedt on violin and electronics, Jenny Scheinman on violins, Chris Brown on electronics, Ikue Mori on laptop electronics, Rob Mazurek on cornet and electronics and Hamid Drake on drums.
~ scaruffi.com

While the title of the CD is obscure in and of itself, the long work that makes up this CD, "Maintaining the Web Under Less Than Obvious Circumstances," is a series of works that showcases ROVA's particular saxophone genius at creating games on the spot during performances. The strategies they developed for these games were created after working with composer and ultimate musical gamesman John Zorn on creating 20 different devices that could be used in performance to create extended possibilities for improvisation during a scored composition. These strategies are impressive because in the six pieces that make up this work, and the one outside it that is added here ("Grace" by Steve Adams and Larry Ochs), one can actually see Rova itself evolve as a saxophone quartet during the piece. No longer is there a distinction in their border straddling between European "new music," and good old Yankee free jazz. There is only Rova's own music, a clearinghouse for excellence from all quarters. This is most evident on the piece "The Web," where a series of cues are determined by one player which requires the second player to comment upon them while stating them, and in turn cues the remaining pair to create an entirely new set of phrases from the improvisation by the second player who has to respond to them. The first player then creates his next improvisational idea from the sum total and the work rotates, moving from player to player until all have played all the different parts. No duration or cadence is demanded of any player and, therefore, the work is original, new every time is it performed. Perhaps the most beautiful work here is "Grace," which closes the set. Grace is a completely scored work that sets itself apart from the rest of the recording not only by its methodology, but also by its approach to sonic texture and structure. Long, slowly winding lines are led by a front line of an alto and tenor, with dynamic sensibilities pushed to the side in favor of tonal restraint. The two other players begin to solo, first together and then one at a time, like singers, still restrained by pre-conceived tonal framework and dynamic absence. The music resounds from the architectural space itself in this case San Francisco's Grace Cathedral creating microtones from the vibrating interaction of the four saxophones. It is haunting and profoundly stark especially for Rova. Summarily, Morphological Echo is another truly wonderful recording in the already magnificent catalog of one of America's most important ensembles in any genre of music. ~ thom jurek, allmusic.com

Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophones
Jon Raskin - baritone and alto saxophones
Steve Adams - alto, sopranino and baritone saxophones
Bruce Ackley - soprano and tenor saxophones