ARTISTS

Matt Blostein
alto saxophone/compositions
Vinnie Sperrazza
drums/compositions

TRACKS
1. Color Red
2. Ursa Minor
3. Kuleet Enpark
4. Hey Jax
5. Liftoff
6. Triangle
7. The Juniper Tree

MATT BLOSTEIN/VINNIE SPERRAZZA Ursa Minor env0701

Free improv with rock energy, late-Romantic harmony with roots in jazz, the Matt Blostein/Vinnie Sperrazza Project creates an engaging instrumental sound that's at once distinct, personal, and welcoming. Imagine Duke Ellington and Frank Zappa reminiscing with Richard Strauss about Ornette Coleman, as plaintive saxophones and rumbling drums peek out from around the corner....

Formed in the Fall of 2003, the Matt Blostein and Vinnie Sperrazza have workshopped and woodshedded their music in sessions, rehearsals, and clubs and concert halls all over New York, and for audiences in Toronto, Guelph, Syracuse, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Cape Cod, and Washington DC. Their years of practice and development resulted in "Ursa Minor", their new album on Enovi Recordings.

ARTISTS

Andrew Bishop
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Voice
Andy Kirshner
Voice & Soprano Saxophone
Paul Elwood
Banjo
Ryan Mackstaller
Guitar
Steve Trismen
Violin
Katri Ervamaa
Cello
Tim Flood
Bass
Gerald Cleaver
Drums

TRACKS

1. Hymn for Hank Williams [4:33]
2. Again You Win [5:02]
3. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry [5:04]
4. Your Cheatin' Heart [3:00]
5. Hymn for Hank (and Willie) [5:09]
6. Found a New Love [8:14]
7. My Bucket's Got a Hole In It [3:01]
8. Crazy Heart [5:10]
9. All is Bliss [6:26]
10. Hymn for Hank Williams [3:19]

ANDREW BISHOP Hank Williams Project env0602

NOTES

The concept for the Hank Williams Project was born at the Old Mill Wine Barn in Newton, Kansas in the early-1990’s. Despite the club’s reputation as an abode for jazz hipsters, its clientele abruptly altered at midnight when the biker bar across the street closed. But instead of the expected hollers for "Skynyrd!" as the club overflowed with Harley-Davidson t-shirts and wind beaten beards, the leather-clad group thoughtfully engaged in the music. One gentleman even asked me—in a decidedly sincere Kansas vernacular—if we ever played any Hank Williams tunes. A few weeks later I composed the “Hymn for Hank Williams.”

Years later and far from Kansas, I excavated the “Hymn” and started to explore the material in orchestral and electronic settings. The piece finally found its true musical home in 1996 when the Hank Williams Project premiered at the Ann Arbor Edgefest, with me on saxophone, Paul Elwood on banjo, Tim Flood on bass, and Matt Wilson on drums.

In 2002, the Project was expanded in order to explore a wider orchestral palette along with Hank's meaningful and enduring lyrics. This CD includes original compositions that elicit the moods and textures of Hank Williams (and other country music icons), arrangements of songs written and/or performed by Hank Williams, and (re)compositions of songs, ideas, and fragments from his music.

The Project is also a metaphorical postcard from me to Kansas and the lonesome plains I adore and loathe simultaneously. Two decades, three bands, an orchestral work, and an electro-acoustic piece later, the project is brought to fruition on this disc.

REVIEWS

"“Bishop and the [Hank Williams Project] exhibit the proper respect in their artful reconfigurations [of Williams’ music] as they have fun with the music, but not at its expense. The resulting sound is more of an aural equivalent of magic realism than another postmodern exercise in elitist irony, as the music takes its source material to logical..extremes with sincerity.

Michael Point, Downbeat Magazine

"A+. Hear that lonesome postmodern whippoorwill? Ann Arbor saxophonist Bishop makes it sound utterly natural to take liberties with the bard of the country highway. Bishop alternately plays Williams tunes (and originals inspired by him) for laughs and for angst; he jazzes things up and slows them down to Williams-haunted dirges."

W. Kim Heron, MetroTimes, Detroit [Nov. 8, 2006]

"[Bishop's] amazing Hank Williams Project combine[s] Nashville with downtown New York in singular and idosyncratic manner."

Piotr Michalowski, Ann Arbor Observer

ARTISTS

Andrew Bishop
Tenor & Soprano Saxophones
John Wojciechowski
Tenor & Soprano Saxophones
Ryan Mackstaller
Guitar
Alex Trajano
Drums

TRACKS

1. Push [8:14]
2. Ornette Type Tune [7:48]
3. Zero Sum Game pre(view) [0:30]
4. Agnus Dei [6:20]
5. Shakedown [3:24]
6. Rue the Whirl [8:51]
7. O.T.T. re(prise) [1:24]
8. Zero Sum Game [7:13]
9. Back in Five Minutes [7:44]

BOTTOMED OUT Push env0601

The debut release from the collaborative quartet originally formed in 2002 when its members all resided in the Metro Detroit area. While the influences remain diverse and nuanced, the unique sound of Bottomed Out is best described as "punk jazz"-- and empahsis on dynamic range and intensity and a collective "go for broke" improvisational mentality. Strong elements of composition and structure still remain as all four members are talented composers in the classical, jazz, and rock vernaculars.

REVIEWS

"Bottomed Out raises high hopes for smart composing and let-it-rip improvising."

Eve Doster Metrotimes, Detroit [April 5, 2006]

"This timbral variety is matched by a rhythmic diversity; the pulse keeps shifting, not just from track to track, but also within compositions; these musicians know how to slowly build tension, creating tremendous excitement."

Piotr Michalowski, SEMJA Update

ARTISTS

Andrew Bishop
Tenor, Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet
Gerald Cleaver
Drums
Tim Flood
Acoustic Bass

TRACKS

1. Prologue [0:51]
2. Cleaver's Loops [9:38]
3. Fragments on a Curve, to Find [5:32] 
4. for whom the bell tolls [3:57]
5. Fragment [0:40]
6. Picking Up the Pieces [4:53]
7. Fragments in Imaginary Time [5:24]
8. Go to Sleep! (for Oliver) [4:29]
9. (Shattered Fragments) Pt. 1 [1:25]
10. People's Republic [10:43]
11. (Shattered Fragments) Pt. 2 [2:58]
12. Get It! [3:16]  
13. Epilogue [6:18]

Produced by Andrew Bishop

All Compositions by Andrew Bishop, Accentricty Music (ASCAP) 2005.

ANDREW BISHOP Time & Imaginary Time env0501

The debut release from composer, saxophonist, & clarinetist Andrew Bishop with collaboration from acclaimed drummer Gerald Cleaver & bassist Tim Flood—draws its inspiration from physics principles & their conceptual association to the process of composition, improvisation, & rhythmic pulse time. The 13 originals (and a “hidden” track) range from the pulsed pointilism of Picking Up the Pieces and the rhythmic repetition of Cleaver’s Loops to the ambient for whom the bell tolls & folksy lullaby Go to Sleep!—drawn from a tune that Bishop sang for his son. A melodic fragment serves as an agent of both structure and developing variation to bind the divergent works.

REVIEWS

Bishop “views the whole world of sound as his palette, finding inspiration everywhere from Armstrong and Coltrane to Hendrix, Boulez, or Balkan folk Music."

Ann Arbor Observer

“Being isolated in the Midwest allowed [Bishop the opportunity] to explore a lot of different areas without being pigeonholed.”

The Record, New York

"A new face on the scene, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bishop’s debut recording is full of promise and brio. Ably accompanied by ubiquitous drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Tim Flood, Bishop navigates a set employing everything from tenor sax driven Post-Bop burn outs to quiet, almost Neo-Classical textural pieces. “Picking Up The Pieces” showcases Bishop’s turbulent tenor phrasing, while “Cleaver’s Loops” reveals his texturally dynamic soprano work. The album’s climactic centerpiece, “People’s Republic” is a stalwart groove with gruffly authoritative tenor and intense rhythmic interplay between the trio. Building to a rousing finish complete with overblown multiphonics and polyrhythmic drive, Bishop’s volcanic tenor solo is driven by Cleaver’s taut but boisterous drumming.

The album alternates between a number of short fragmentary pieces and longer excursions, providing a dynamic sense of contrast. The shorter pieces focus primarily on textural exploration and ambience, while the longer pieces are more melodic and rhythmic in nature, with short, but snappy head melodies. “Get It!” is an exception to this rule, bursting out with a short tenor solo and concise drum solo. The entire piece lasts around a mere three minutes, but feels just right. A well conceived debut recording, Bishop is hopefully a player one will hear more from in the future."

Troy Collins, Cadence Magazine [Dec 2005]