Either/Orchestra

The Either / Orchestra is an American jazz lineup. The Big Band was formed in 1985 under the direction of tenor and soprano saxophonist Russ Gershon and has since worked mainly in the area of Massachusetts.

History

Gershon founded the Either / Orchestra under the influence of his favorite big bands ( the Arkestra Sun Ra and the orchestra Gil Evans ) first as a sample orchestra to realize his musical ideas. With the drummer Jerome Deupree, pianist Kenny friendly, the saxophonist Steve Norton and Robb Rawlings, trumpeters Dan Drexler and Tom Holder, the trombonist Josh Roseman and Russell Jewell, the Either / Orchestra began (short I / O ) in its first occupation in Cambridge with samples; On 17 December 1985, the band had their first appearance in the Cambridge Public Library. In early 1986, played the I / O in clubs around Cambridge; In 1987 she appeared for the first time in New York jazz club Sweet Basil and represented there, the Gil Evans Orchestra. The end of 1988 began the first major tour in the Midwest. With the band were now also the bassist Mike Rivard, guitarist John Dirac, the pianist John Medeski, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring, the saxophonist Douglas Yates and Charlie Kohlhase and trumpeter John Carlson.

In 1987, Gershon 's own record label, Accurate Records, since then appears the band's music on, starting with the first I / O- album, Dial "E " for Either / Orchestra with Interprationen of Sonny Rollins ' " Doxy " and Monk's " Brilliant Corners "; 1988 followed the album with radium standards like " Willow Weep for Me ," " Ode to Billie Joe ," " Nutty " or Roscoe Mitchell composition " Odwallah ". In the following year came at the legendary studio of Rudy Van Gelder, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Album The Half -Life of Desire with pianist ( and keyboardist ), John Medeski and the Gastvokalisten Mark Sandman. Especially Medeskis admission expanded the musical range of the band with cover versions of King Crimson song "Red" or Miles Davis ' " Circle in the Round".

In the 1990s, the Either / Orchestra still went on extensive tours and recorded a series of albums such as The Calculus of Pleasure (1990 ), which earned a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Arrangement of an instrumental composition", namely for the title " Bennie Moten 's Weird Nightmare" with solos by bass clarinetist Douglas Yates and the newly added bassist Bob Nieske. Other highlights of this album were the arrangements of Horace -Silver - title " Ecaroh " by Julius Hemphills " The Hard Blues " and " Whisper Not " by Benny Golson for the critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton.

In May 1993, took up the I / O The Brunt, a new version of Mal Waldron's "Hard Talk" and a humorous interpretation of the Dylan classic " Lay Lady Lay "; here there were some line-up changes. Added met bassist John Turner, drummer Matt Wilson and saxophonist Andrew D' Angelo. End of 1993 to 1994 rested the activities of the I / O, because as an assistant lecturer Gershon taught jazz history at Harvard University.

In 1995, the I / O toured Europe for the first time through with appearances at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the Jazz Festival in Pori (Finland). On December 17, the I / 0 played to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the band with many former members of the Somerville Theater in Boston. For family reasons, Gershon was in 1996, the activities of the I / O rest and then producing the review Across the Omniverse, a double album with unreleased material from the first five I / O albums of the first decade, with original compositions and Ellington / Hodges numbers.

Also In 1997, the band released their activities largely from; instead Gershon worked with the Rhythm Section of the 1980s ( Deupree, Rivard and Dirac ) in his fusion band Blasto. Finally it came to a reestablishment of the I / 0 with concerts in Portugal, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at Cambridge. Added to young musicians now came from the Boston jazz scene as trumpeter Colin Fisher, pianist Dan Kaufman ( later Gregory Burk ), alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón (followed by Jaleel Shaw and Jeremy Udden ), trombonist Joel Yennior that bassists Atemu Aton and Rick McLaughlin and drummer Harvey Wirht. Since then, the I / O performed in Italy, Portugal and Russia, and in 1999 published the album More Beautiful than Death as seventh overall, 2001 resigned as a long -standing member of after 14 years Charlie Kohlhase, which henceforth concentrate on his own projects.

In 1997, the Either / Orchestra collaborated with the Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke and played songs in the Ethiopian jazz arrangement; this was the album Ethiopiques 20: Either / Orchestra Live in Addis Ababa. 2004 played the I / 0 as the first U.S. musicians on the Ethiopian Music Festival. Other concerts were then at the National Theatre of Uganda in Kampala instead. After returning from Ethiopia Tour more line-up changes took place. The Tour Ethiopia eventually led to the continuation of the work with Astatke and other Ethiopian musicians like Hana Shenkute, Minale Dagnew, Setegn Atanaw the singer Mahmoud Ahmed with which the I / O, published in 2007 a ​​DVD; Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete and the singer toured after 2008 with the I / O through the United States.

Discography

• Dial "E " for Either / Orchestra (Accurate Records, 1986)
• Radium (1987 /88)
• The Half -Life of Desire (1989 ) with Mark Sandman.
• The Calculus of Pleasure (1990 )
• The Brunt (1993)
• Across the Omniverse (1986 /96)
• More Beautiful than Death ( 1999)
• Ethiopiques 20: Either / Orchestra Live in Addis (2001)

Swell

• Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Second Edition, London, Penguin, 1996