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Time Of The Grets
UT GRET
Joee Conroy
(guitars, chapman stick, violin,bass, viol de gamba, santoor,
psaltry, autoharp, cheng, shamisen, pipa, zitherphonics),
David Stilley
(Saxophones, keyboards, bassoon, clarinets, flutes, wind sythesizer,
percussion, midi mapping), Gregory Acker (flute, chendra, percussion),
Davey Williams (electric guitar), Eugene Chadbourne (guitar),
Murray Reams (drums),
Henry Kaiser (guitars),
Greg Goodman
(piano),
Misha Feigin
(voice, text)
Whew, quite a line-up. This is my first hearing of these gentlemen, after hearing ABOUT them for many years. This CD runs the gamut of improvisational types. The first piece is all riffy and intricate with a great (gret) solo from Davey Williams. Sounds like some of it was composed, or at least constructed in the studio. The next bit has jazzy-bluesy-diddley-diddley picking from Chadbourne and skittery drums from Reams, with walking bass and blat/skreet contrabass clarinet from Conroy and Stilley. More completely freeform I'll guess.
The remainder of the disc flits and flirts with many different styles for different pieces and sometimes even within a single piece. i was constantly surprised and delighted by the changes and additions of texture/sound, helped, I'm sure, by the rotating cast of players, but it also seems to be these guys modus operandi. A liner note says: ³Zitherphonics is an approach/technique of playing several string instruments simultaneously to invent an orchestra.² I have to wonder what Joee Conroy sounds like playing solo.
Nice packaging, with plenty of photos and tongue-in cheek notes, along with an unnamed bonus track, make for enjoyable extras. I will definitely keep my ears open for more work from Ut Gret, and if you¹re a fan of many musics, i suggest you do the same.
-jeph jerman
ZNR Records
P.O.Box 58040
Louisville KY 40268-0040
(502) 933-7078
Fax: (502) 935-8656
e-mail: ZNR@AOL.COM