Reed, Mike - The Separatist Party CD
SKU
05-WJCD 056CD
“In January, 2022, Mike Reed brought together some of the most creative figures in Chicago's experimental and improvised music community -- cornetist Ben LaMar Gay and poet and spoken word artist Marvin Tate -- both of whom worked on his 2017 project Flesh and Bone, and who sporadically joined him in an improvising trio -- along with the members of Bitchin Bajas (multi-instrumentalists Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, and Dan Quinlivan).
He called the new group the Separatist Party, a name he had occasionally used for ad hoc live performances, as well as a title for an old Flesh and Bone tune. The six musicians coalesced into an exciting new ensemble commingling a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude.
The music draws upon a raft of influences, weaving together varied traditions and practices within a groove-oriented attack to forge something entirely new. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry's Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within the Separatist Party's music, but no single element arrives wholesale.
While defining the sound of Chicago has always been a fool's errand, The Separatist Party couldn't have come from anywhere else. The Separatist Party is the first installment of a three-album cycle involving a varied cast of musicians, dealing with themes of inner and outer human isolation.”
- LabelWe Jazz
- UPC4062548073782