Rova completed its first tour in the US since the Covid pandemic began with nine performances in the East and Mid-West and, after a break, one performance in Los Angeles. We started in St Catherines (Ontario), followed by Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Des Moines, Grinnell, Madison, and St Paul, in a variety of venues with good turnouts and very enthusiastic audiences. They were also surprisingly eager to purchase CD’s - we guessed wrong on how many to bring and were sold out after two shows. Larry did an amazing job of putting the tour together.
Our repertoire was a mix of new works developed over the internet during the lockdown, works from our latest release The Circumference of Reason, works composed shortly before the pandemic, and some pieces from our older repertoire that are still vital.
Before we left the Bay Area, we were wondering how comfortable people would be with attending our concerts. All of us were fully vaccinated and tested, so we felt fine with flying and traveling by van to the gigs. It was gratifying to see that people were ready, even hungry, to experience live music. There were long time fans along with new and younger people, and many engaged with us at the end of the shows to discuss the music and see the scores.
Rova took a flight via Newark to Buffalo, where we spent the night, before driving into Canada the next morning. It was the first day in two years that the border guards didn’t check for a Covid vaccine card. They only glanced at our contract, which was unusual, and we sailed through on a beautiful fall day. The concert in St Catherines was outdoors on the roof of the Niagara Cultural Center with stage lights, which made it comfortable in spite of the cool, windy weather. We tore into the set with very few of the cobwebs that can occur after long travels.
The Bop Shop record store in Rochester was our next destination, our third time playing there. It was in a new location and is better than ever as a record shop, one of the best in the US. Bruce found so much classic vinyl that he needed to ship it back home. It’s satisfying to play amongst all that recorded music.
The next stop was Hallwalls Center for the Contemporary Arts in Buffalo, which is located in the Babeville Theater, a renovated 19th century Gothic-Revival church that was saved from demolition by Ani DeFranco and Scott Fischer after a 10 year and 10 million dollar plus campaign. We played in the former church space, which is a real jewel. The saxophones soared and filled the room with sound, and we were able to do some of our spatial pieces surrounding the audience for the second set.
Cleveland was the next stop. The Bop Stop is a beautiful jazz club that was donated by the previous owners to The Music Settlement to ensure jazz would continue to be performed in Cleveland. The Music Settlement is a century old community music school that was formed to welcome immigrants to Cleveland and unite them through the common language of music. The club is intimate listening space with a view of Lake Erie, and we were happy to contribute our music to this endeavor. The audience was a mix of longtime fans and new eager ears.
We had a long travel day to get to Des Moines for our lecture-demonstration and performance at Drake University at the Turner Jazz Center. It was a room with special acoustics for saxophone quartet, and also had a historically interesting connection for Rova. A mural honoring jazz musicians, mostly drawn from photos by William P. Gottlieb, included the trumpet player Jimmy Maxwell along with his horns and a photo display. In 1962 Jimmy took his 13-year-old son David Maxwell along when the Benny Goodman band performed in the Soviet Union. David went on to be the President of Drake University. Rova toured the Soviet Union in 1983 & 1989, and it would have been interesting to hear about the 1962 trip. The workshop went well, and the concert again drew a multi-generational audience, many of whom expressed a lot of interest in seeing our scores afterwards.
After the concert, we hopped in our car to drive to our accommodations in Grinnell, a short distance away. Our lecture-demonstration and concert the next day took place at the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, and we had some lively dialogue with the students attending the workshop. That evening we performed in their theater, which was designed for early music ensembles - perfect for a saxophone quartet.
After Grinnell it was off to Madison, Wisconsin to perform at The North Street Cabaret, sponsored by BlueStem Jazz, a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting progressive, avant-garde, and experimental jazz. The venue is dedicated to the presentation of roots music inspired by the work of Alan Lomax, and is a relaxed place to grab a drink, hang out, and really listen to the music. Buzz Kemper recorded the concert for a radio broadcast on the local Public Radio station. We’ll post the link to the recording in a future Rova Scope.
The last stop of our tour was in St Paul at Studio Z, the home of the Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble. They have been presenting and premiering new music since 1977. We had met them during the New Music America festival series presented in the 1980’s and so were really pleased to be performing in their space. By then the music had acquired the polish and focus that only comes from being on tour. The music shined.
Rova returned home the next day and had a short break before heading to the Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles to play on a double bill with the four-tenor sax ensemble Battle Trance. We were inspired to play an explosive set, really digging into the music. Battle Trance has a very different approach than Rova, which made for a great double bill. Check them out if you get a chance.
Jon Raskin
Our repertoire on the tour and the CD its on if its recorded: (for those that are interested)
African Tulip Jon Raskin (Graphic Scores)
A Leap of Faith in Transverse Time Jon Raskin (In Transverse Time)
Bitter Like Ginger Steve Adams
Einstein’s Tourniquet Rova
The Enumeration Steve Adams (Circumference of Reason)
Extrapolation of the Inevitable Glenn Spearman/ arranged by Larry Ochs (Circumference of Reason)
The Gardener and the Musician Jon Raskin
Graphic #30 Steve Adams
Graphic #36 Steve Adams (Graphic Scores)
Graphic #38 Steve Adams
Hidden in Ochre Larry Ochs (In Transverse Time)
Improviso 2 Steve Adams
Improviso 3 Steve Adams
In the Waterfall Steve Adams
Monkey Puzzle Steve Adams
NC-17 Rova (Circumference of Reason)
Oxygen Bruce Ackley (In Transverse Time)
Radar Rova ( Let’s Go Totally Spinning)
Radar 731 Rova arranged by Larry Ochs (Let’s Go
Totally Spinning)
Testimony Steve Adams (Ptow!)
Those who… Steve Adams
The Time Being Jon Raskin (In Transverse Time)
Torsion Time Groove Jon Raskin
Valley Winter Clouds Jon Raskin
Xenophobia Steve Adams
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