|
AUSTIN, TX (Oct. 15, 2001) -- World-class jazz jam artist, El Buho (Gary
Gazaway) is proud to assemble a team of reknowned improvisational
musicaians for a two-night engagement at Antones in Austin. Featuring
members of the on-hiatus mega-group Phish, the venerable jamband Max Creek,
and a grandmaster from the now-retired Aquarium Rescue Unit, El Buho
recently formed this one-of-a-kind ensemble of top improv artists,
intending to explore the outer bounds of improvisational jamming and
musical expression. Out-on-a-limb, free-form electric, and
all-instrumental, the band will push the limits of progressive rock, fusion
jazz, and jamband music. The line-up will consist of:
EL BUHO WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
Gary "El Buho" Gazaway - trumpet, flugelhorn
Mike Gordon (Phish) - bass
Jeff "Apt. Q258" Sipe (ARU, Leftover Salmon) - drums
Scott Murawski (Max Creek) - guitar
Peter Schimke (Michael Franks) - keyboards
Gary Gazaway was given the nickname "El Buho," meaning The Owl, when he
toured in South America playing latin jazz. Gazaway has also toured with
Joe Cocker, as well as with his own band. An Arkansas native, El Buho has
performed in Austin many times, with support from many talented players.
Recently El Buho appeared at Antone's with Victor Wooten on bass. Wooten,
Gordon, and Oteil Burbridge are just three of the talented bassists who
contrib-uted to El Buho's first CD release, The Wham Bam Boodle 2000
(Ecotone Records).
On psychedelic trumpet (played through super-sonic effects), El Buho leads
the band through original songs and heavily modified jazz standards,
bringing a moving melody and texture to the music with beautiful tones on
the horn. El Buho's songs are intense and melodic, but they contain wide
open sections for free-form improvisation (not unlike Miles Davis'
Bitches-Brew era style, crossed with a heavier modern rock dance-beat).
Unlike free jazz, El Buho's songs maintain a danceable beat, while the
musicians share the groove equally, allowing each personality to add to the
jam loosely throughout songs stretching 15 minutes or longer. From the high
energy of dance music, to the subtle expres-sion of jazz, El Buho takes
jamming seriously.
Phish bassist Mike Gordon will anchor the line-up with El Buho. With
popular jamband Phish on a hiatus, fans are hungry for live jam music.
Phish fans will have the opportunity to see one of their musical heroes
take the stage in a new role. If a recent El Buho performance at the Tulsa
Jam Fest (featuring Gordon on bass) offered any indication, Gordon will
find extensive opportunities for lead-bass and bass soloing. At Phish
concerts, fans of the bassist, nick-named "Cactus," watched closely for his
lead-bass work in songs like "Scent of a Mule," or the rare bass-duos
Gordon performed in Phish (rabid fans keeping track of the band point to
12/29/95 and 9/17/99). At the El Buho concert, expect to hear Gordon
improvising and walking the bass strings all over the place throughout the
night at each concert. El Buho provides room for oodles of individual
expression by the musical participants, and every instrument is called upon
to lead the jam. El Buho has also joined Phish on-stage, including the
infamous Halloween 1996 Phish show.
"Mike and I wanted to do some more shows together," said Gazaway of the
bass-player turned independent film-maker. "Mike's been busy making movies,
but we wanted to do the El Buho thing together again. He asked if I could
get Jeff Sipes to play drums." Gazaway made some calls and a new band was
born.
Jeff Sipe, nicknamed Apt. Q258 in the seminal jamband and H.O.R.D.E.-tour
alumnus,Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, was happy to comply
with Gordon's special request. Sipe was the original eight-armed drummer
in the Unit on the first H.O.R.D.E. tour; they opened the long days of
music in 1992 when Phish head-lined some shows of the tour. The word
backstage on that tour was, all the headlining bands watched Sipe and the
Unit early each day of the traveling festival. Sipe is a musicians'
musician, and although his bands have not achieved the fame that Phish
found, he's leaving an indelible mark as a former member of the Unit,
Leftover Salmon and Jazz Is Dead. Sipe is currently forging new paths in
fusion-jamming with Project Z.
"The Colonel is what we all have in common," Gazaway said, referring to the
grand-daddy of the jamband world, Col. Bruce Hampton, Retired. Gazaway is a
long-time friend of Hampton, and he contributed trumpet to Hampton's
bizarre recordings which appear on the Hampton release, Strange Voices: A
History 1977-1987. Sipe was an original member of Hampton's dazzling
Aquarium Rescue Unit line-up. Gordon, years after watching the Unit's
antics on the H.O.R.D.E. tour and other collaborations with Phish, filmed
an independent movie starring Col. Bruce Hampton as a guitar teacher. The
result was an outstructional video called "Outside Out" that is available
from www.outsideout.com. Ideas articulated by Col. Hampton in the movie
(where he stars as himself ), may come into practice at the El Buho
concerts. With the term "out" being used more frequently in the jazz world
than in rock music, Hampton's slogan in the movie - "You have to go in to
go out" - starts to become more comprehensible in light of El Buho's
limitless capacity to jam.
After adding Sipe to the line-up, the next step was to find a guitarist.
This time Gordon brought in an old friend to the line-up: Scott Murawski of
the decades-old jamband, Max Creek. Murawski is the primary songwriter, and
self-taught lead guitarist of Max Creek, one of the East Coast's most
enduring live acts. Max Creek was popular in the Northeast when Phish was
getting their start in Vermont, and Gordon has appeared on stage with Max
Creek. The Antone's shows will be Murawski's first performances with El
Buho, and the magic spark of improvisational fire is bound to shed new
light on the future of music. When Phish's bass player hand-picks a lead
guitarist - Murawski - to join him in an improvisational music setting, a
guitar shredding is about to ensue.
Keyboardist Peter Schimke rounds out the line-up with a contemporary jazz
sensibility. Schimke, a premier jazz pianist who has played with many jazz
greats, recently produced Michael Franks' album. From Minneapolis, Schimke
has performed with El Buho in Maui, Hawaii.
To combine Gordon with Sipe and Murawski, under the El Buho idiom, is to
invite other worlds of alien music into our very atmosphere. The air in
Antone's will literally be electric with the creative spark of
improvisational musical genius, as the musicans lock into the El Buho
groove and explore space jazz as an egalitarian unit. Destination: unknown.
Fans of improvisational music and jambands will not want to miss this
exploratory concert and extraordi-nary line-up.
El Buho with Special Guests will appear Friday and Saturday,
November 9th and 10th, 2001, at Antone's (213 W. 5th
St., Austin, TX). This is an all ages concert event. Advance tickets
$12, $15 day of show. Opening act TBA. For
more information contact: Antone's in Austin, 512-474-5315.
|
