Jack Wright
The Indeterminate Existance
When one considers that this guy has been on tour incessantly for something like 25 years, the number of releases documenting his music is relatively scant. If there has been an event with the word 'improvisation' in the title, no doubt he has been there. But more importantly, Wright has been the champion of any unclaimed venue--any place that wouldn't say 'no', Jack has said 'yes.'
Subsequently, for many of us with our roots in any number of places indistinguishable from nowhere, Jack was the first bit of something new (perhaps even alien!) Every six months for fifteen years he would migrate through the mid-west, performing at coffee shops and attacking our sensibilities. I heard him first in my home town of Lincoln Nebraska! Who tours Lincoln Nebraska?
This release is the first in LVD's new avant-garde series, and also a direct celebration of Jack's music. This particular one is something special he's put together: "the solo music that was in me to play for more than 15 years", as he writes in his liner notes. The title and text suggest a turning point: "Something shifted in me and in the world, and something else has taken its place that I value for now--tomorrow I can't know."
What we have then is a summing up of a huge chunk of Jack's life; a set of seven tracks from different places and different times that capture the spirit of his performances. They are challenging things, "highly abstract concept grounded in sound and texture rather than in rhythm, melody and harmony".
Jack Wright has been a major influence on improvised music both in the US and Europe. To name a very small number of players he has been involved with: Bob Marsh, Bhob Rainey, Tatsuya Nakatani, Carol Genetti, etc. There's much more information here: www.springgardenmusic.com
"Indeterminate
Existence” CD, is a collection of solo Saxophone improvisation that demands
close attention and will have most of your friend running out of the room.
Opening with a 13 minutes abstract squall of free-form playing, the music on the
album bounces around the walls, sometimes dancing, sometimes slithering, the
notes cascading into the room. Strangely, there is a whole world of emotion
built into the sounds, although it is hard to pin down which emotion. Jack
Wright himself, has moved on from this music now, but this stands as a fine
testament to some inspired improvised playing with touches of Be-Bop and Melody
becoming apparent the deeper you delve. "
--Terrascope/Rumbles
"The liner notes to The Indeterminate Existence, penned by Jack Wright, indicate that he no longer plays music like what can be heard on these seven tracks from the years 1988-98. While I might disagree, I will note that any occasion Wright steps onto a stage, you will hear something new, conceived and created in that moment.
The seven solo pieces Wright refers to here are all physically demanding note-after-note marathons. What Wright refers to in his liner notes is that he no longer plays to this degree of exhaustion. Instead he favors the pacing of silence, interplay and quietness.
In Baltimore in 1988, documented on the first two tracks, he spits notes in a stilted manner, much like Thelonious Monk jabbed the piano at times. This wrenching exorcism is a rush to express as many thoughts as possible, through a machine-gunning saxophone. Ten years later, in Berkeley, he’s still at it. The “Tenor” piece best exemplifies the “old” Jack Wright. He probes, picks his way through some advanced math theorem he’s formulated in his head, or perhaps some poetry and meter he has fixated on from a vending machine, or a remark someone uttered as he was preparing to go onstage. Wright’s muse sends him in multiple directions—extending the saxophone beyond breath, beyond melody, beyond touch. He touches upon the pureness of sound, energy and the subconscious.
Fans of Evan Parker’s extended blowing should find these sessions valuable listening experiences. Where Parker may have an all-too-familiar menu of sound from which he draws, Jack Wright constantly invents a new language of sound. He packs these pieces with flutters, honks, slaps, vocalizations, tweaks and breaths.
This exhausting document
is a valuable insight into a truly remarkable improviser."
--Mark Corroto, All about Jazz
"...Here is the sort of musician I love to hear: questioning, seeking, verbose, talented; both a living Titan and an ordinary human being.
And the music? It doesn’t
let me down for a moment. Again, its truly frightening. That one disc could
contain this… and then of course, I immediate start wondering about the
rest of the Jack Wright catalog– it is already too much, and this is even
neglecting live performances. I am absolutely blown away."
--Startling Moniker
"After Jack Wright
recorded the music that makes up "The Indeterminate Existence" back in the late
80's, he no longer wanted to be associated with those sounds. He felt there was
too much emotion attached to his playing. Simply put, he never wanted to wake up
the ghosts of his past. Lucky for us, he finally relented and allowed Last
Visible Dog to release these tapes. Over the span of just over 70 minutes, he
careens through seven extended pieces of solo sax mayhem. It's not necessarily
a free-for-all blowing session. The saxophone attacks are as delicious as ever.
Without wasting a minute of anyone's time, he knows exactly what he wants to
express through his music. Not one second of this recording sounds as if Wright
is scrounging for ideas or doodling while mustering up new thoughts. He's
coherent and brazen at once. Wild and uncontrollably brave improvisations on
every front; this is a record that should've seen the light of day ages ago."
--Tom Sekowski, Gaz-eta