Rastascan Records
1998
Morphological Echo
About This Album
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.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5 and 6)

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