NomTom
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This trio consists of JACK WRIGHT, a sound-explorer on saxophone from Easton PA, CAROL GENETTI, a sound vocalist (as opposed to word or text) from Chicago, and JON MUELLER, percussion/electronicist of Milwaukee. Their first meeting was Sept. 2004 in Chicago, followed by another in June 2005, and then in the falla very broad tour through the Midwest--Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Nashville, Lexington, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Bloomington IN, and Chicago. These events were preceded by years of collaboration between Jack and Carol, who have toured several times on the east coast. The discovery of Jon Mueller to form the trio was a moment that expanded the dimensions of their music greatly. The focus of the trio is on long, twisting lines of intense and sustained textures, broken abruptly by stuttered gaps and shifts of direction. They take acoustic instruments to the very edge of electronic sounds (indeed Jon is playing only snare drum, minimally amplified). In the Spring 2007 they will be performing at a festival in France and will be touring in April in France and the Netherlands
Their first CD, Nom Tom, was released in fall 2005 on Spring Garden Music (reviews below). The second will be released later this year.
The duo of Carol and Jack is featured on "The Shattering", a cd compiling Carol's appearances at the High Zero Festival 2000 in Baltimore. "It would certainly appear that Genetti is Wright’s vocal collaborator of choice. Genetti’s refreshing and rough-edged spontaneity definitely educes some of Wright’s best playing, perhaps because Wright’s aesthetic approximates a search for the ineffable qualities of the human voice in his palette of reed sounds, not to mention the ineffable vocal qualities of other animal species." ~ Michael A Parker http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r1002_030.htm
Over the past twenty-five years JACK WRIGHT has been a bold saxophonist, as well as an influential musical personality. Either on tour or organizing the next one, he has played in virtually every venue available to experimental improvised music in the US, and many in Europe as well. In 1982 he began Spring Garden Music as a vehicle for organizing an improvisational music community, which continues to grow through regular No Net weekend sessions. As a musical explorer as well, his music passes through radical shifts of style and approach from one year to the next, yet always somehow identifiable as his own. These days he is playing mostly alto and soprano saxophones, in every possible direction, sometimes barely recognizable as those instruments. He lives in Easton Pennsylvania, which enables him to commute easily to NYC and Phila. He is also active in Europe, touring both sides of the Atlantic with European musicians, and recently Japan.
The Washington Post says, "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king". And a German publication, Bad Alchemy, had this to say of his solo: "Wright does not make music, he embodies it, he transforms it with a naiveté of another order. It grows into a sound river, he is part of the diaphragm through which the heterogeneous whispers."
Jack has over sixty partners around the US and in Europe with whom he plays on his travels and records. His most recent tours have been with Michael Johnsen, electronicist, in France, Holland, Belgium, etc., joined by Sebastien Cirotteau, French tpt player; with French soprano sax player Michel Doneda and NYC percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (From Between Trio) in Japan, France, and the US; with Wade Matthews, bass cl, flute, electronics, in the US; with Carol Genetti, and Jon Mueller, in the US; Nate Wooley, trumpet, of NYC in Europe; cellist Bob Marsh of the Bay area; Michael Griener percussion and Sabine Vogel flute of Berlin; Reuben Radding, NYC bassist; and Phil Durrant, English laptop musician.and with trumpet player Tom Djll from Oakland and soprano sax player Bhob Rainey on the West Coast.
His recent partners in Europe have been: Michel Doneda, soprano sax; Agnes Palier, vocalist; Sebastien Cirotteau, trumpet; Marlene Jobstl, butoh dancer; Pascal Battus, table guitar; Philippe Berger, violin; Jean-Philippe Gross, electronics; Sharif Sehnaoui, guitar; Christine Sehnaoui, alto sax; Nozalcube, musique concrete, electronics; Benjamin Duboc, bass; Dan Warburton, violin; Stephane Rives, soprano sax; Jean-luc Guionnet, alto sax; David Chiesa, double bass; Jean Borde, double bass; Le Quan Ninh, percussion; Barre Philipps, double bass
He has recorded over 35 albums since 1982.
For a full bio, writings, sound files and list of recordings visit his website: www.springgardenmusic.com
feature article in Signal to Noise Magazine: www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2003/04apr_text.html
2001 interview with John Berndt www.redroom.org/documentation/wright.html and also available in French on his website, as published in Improjazz Jan/Feb. 2004)
CAROL GENETTI is considered by many in the experimental music underground to be one of the most exceptional performers to come out of Chicago, Carol Genetti is a vocalist focused on improvisation and the pure sonic exploration of the human voice. Her work is grounded in an almost inhuman extended technique, but also contains a mastery of vocal styles such as jazz and Bulgarian folk singing, creating a distinct non-verbal sound palette that has a provocative depth. Genetti has toured throughout the US, Canada, France and Germany. She has collaborated with many of the most powerful voices in new music, including Pauline Oliveros, Jon Rose, Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tatsu Aoki, Eric Leonardson, Yuko Nexus6, Kitamura, Toshi Makihara, Bob Marsh, Jack Wright, Michael Vorfeld and technology artist Andrea Polli. Her voice work appears on many cds including Hans Fjellestad's "Red Sauce Baby," "In the Eye of the Ear Sound Art Festival", and "Sounding Off" accompanying CD to the book of the same name. She has also released duet CDs, including "Animus" (Not In The Family) with Eric Leonardson in 1998 and more recently "In the Garden of Earthly Delights" (Spring Garden Music) with Bob Marsh in the fall of 2000. Most recently, the Shattering" (recorded) CD documents Genetti's performances with a wide variety of national and international musicians at the critically acclaimed High Zero 2000 Festival.
"Genetti's wordless vocals dart and soar with an unforced flexibility. She effortlessly utilizes an impressive rang; leaping from warm, full tones to the highest creaks and lowest growls."
– Michael Rosenstein, Cadence (March 2001)
"Genetti achieves an unreal quiet glitch that would send a lot of
contemporary electronic musicians running to re-program their software."
– Michael Anton Parker
"Her elastic chords perform feats that seem nearly impossible. Genetti moans, shrieks, bleep, growls, blats, and produces an infinite number of indescribably subversive sputters."
– Steven A. Loewy, All Music Guide (February 2001)
For more extensive information see her website: http://www.carolgenetti.com/
"Genetti's wordless vocals dart and soar with an unforced flexibility. She effortlessly utilizes an impressive rang; leaping from warm, full tones to the highest creaks and lowest growls."
– Michael Rosenstein, Cadence (March 2001)
"Her elastic chords perform feats that seem nearly impossible. Genetti moans, shrieks, bleep, growls, blats, and produces an infinite number of indescribably subversive sputters."
– Steven A. Loewy, All Music Guide (February 2001)
More information at: http://www.carolgenetti.com/
JON MUELLER has been an active drummer and percussionist since the early 90s. Whether utilizing bombastic minimalism, dense interplay, or electroacoustic practices, his approach focuses on a physical dialog between situation and material. He has been featured on numerous recordings and has performed throughout the U.S., Japan, and The Netherlands.
He was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1970 and started playing drums at the age of 15. For one year, he played only snare drum, which proved challenging to start a death metal band with. In 1990 he moved to Chicago, and studied drums with the late jazz legend Hal Russell, an experience that opened up a whole new approach to drumming to him. During this time he also studied film and writing, and became frustrated with how they continuously fall short of one another. He eventually received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and in 1999 finally completed the ridiculous novella Pianobread. He continues to write, but only when the voices tell him. Musically, he has been involved the groups Telecognac, Pele, and Collections of Colonies of Bees, playing drums, percussion, piano, and narrative. Always interested in the mysterious result of collaborations, he has recorded or performed with a broad range of artists, including guitarist Chris Rosenau, violinist Aranos, saxophonist Boris Hauf, vocalist/pianist Jarboe, saxophonist Steve Nelson-Raney, multi-instrumentalist Hal Rammel, saxophonist Bhob Rainey, table-top guitarist Adam Sonderberg, sound artist Asmus Tietchens, cellist Matt Turner, sound artist Achim Wollscheid, saxophonist Jack Wright, and vocalist Carol Genetti, and he has also performed as part of cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm's Lightbox Orchestra. He has composed music for dance and film, has appeared on numerous CDs and LPs on labels throughout the world, and has performed throughout the U.S. and Japan.
In 1998, he started Crouton, an organization involved in releasing sound and material in limited editions, hosting an online magazine, distributing other labels releases, and hosting performance events. Releases have included Lionel Marchetti, Asmus Tietchens, The Hafler Trio, Jason Kahn, Richard Chartier, Achim Wollscheid, and many others. Performances have included Phill Niblock, Peter Brotzmann, Olivia Block, Ken Vandermark, and more. Crouton is known to many people as a record label, but to some it is a strange voice in the night.
website: http://www.jonmueller.net/main.html
Crouton: http://www.croutonmusic.com/
"Mueller certainly knows how to keep his listeners guessing and listening closely to his strange and interesting arrangements."
- Richard di Santo, Incursion.org (CA)
"Mueller has found a way to go beyond his free jazz past and take the world of instrumental virtuosity into the 21st century."
- Dan Warburton, Paristransatlantic.com (FR)
"Drummer Jon Mueller creates some of the most wonderful drum sections. His avant-garde style formulates a steady beat and, when an interlude allows, the release of all the repressed rhythmic energy this man contains."
- Emotemusic.com (US)
"Mueller is absolutely breathtaking to watch. His jazz-influenced drumming is unique, creative, and inspiring."
- Marvin Lin, Tinymixtapes.com (US)
"Mueller's drumming is quite phenomenal being at the same time sympathetic and full, always propulsive but always leaving space for the other players."
- David Cowling, Americana UK (UK)
"(Mueller's) creative drumming style ranges from fire music madness to extremely delicate textures that have little to do with conventional drumming."
- Francois Couture, All Music Guide
“Mueller’s minimalist percussion raises hypnotic palettes of solid color. He merges the human touch with the objects that he vibrates, pops, scrapes, or taps.” ---Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
“Mueller goes straight to the core of drums' pneumonic organism, avoiding easy edulcoration to privilege spacing systems and sustained transmutations, where snare drums become turbocharged in an itinerant mass of resonant charms and the deep rumble of a sapiently treated (?) bass drum (???) skin
transforms itself into a hoarse monster of droning majesty reigning in deafening volume.”
---Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Solo and collaboration:
Pianobread - S/T, book/CD box (performed on CD and also wrote novella of the same title in box) Crouton (US), 1999
Raccoons (Rammel/Mueller/Rosenau) – S/T CD– Crouton (US), 2000
Castle Broadway – S/T CD, Soutrane Recording Company (US), 2000
Field Of Sound – S/T CD, Soutrane Recording Company (US), 2000
Lancaster, Byard Trio – S/T CD, Soutrane Recording Company (US), 2000
Nelson-Raney, Steve/Jon Mueller – Cutting Off The Edge Of Time CD, Penumbra Music (US), 2001
Folktales No. 2 – “How I Learned To Breathe” 3” CD, Crouton (US), 2001
Raccoons – Mother 2xCD, Crouton (US), 2002
Stassisfield – “A Wooden Bicycle” MP3 release, Stassisfield.com (US), 2002
Asmus Tietchens/Jon Mueller – 7 Stücke CD, Auf Abwegen (DE), 2003
Solo Percussion For Two – “Beyond the Surface of Actions”, Split 7” with Jeph Jerman, No Information Records (US), 2003
V/A: Just Drums CD – “Pop”, Fever Pitch (US), 2003
Hat Melter (Hess/Klatt/Mueller/Turner) – Unknown Album LP, Crouton (US), 2003
V/A: the audible still-life CD – “Heat”, Stasisfield (US), 2003
Jon Mueller/Bhob Rainey/Jim Schoenecker – S/T CD, Crouton (US), 2004
Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller – Papercuts CD, Crouton (US), 2004
Jon Mueller and Jim Schoenecker – The Interview CD, Longbox Recordings (US), Forthcoming
Jon Mueller and Kaveh Soofi – Endings book, Crouton (US), 2004
Jon Mueller – What’s Lost Is Something Important. What’s Found Is Something Not Revealed. CD, Crouton (US), 2005
Jon Mueller – Emerson Hi-Fidelity CD, Autumn Records (US), 2005
Carol Genetti/Jon Mueller/Jack Wright – Nom Tom CD, Spring Garden Music, 2005
The Portable Quartet – Take The Train CD, Crouton, 2005
Werner Moebius/Jon Mueller/Jim Schoenecker – Amalgam CD, Utech Records (US), 2006
Jason Kahn/Jon Mueller – Supershells CD, Formed Records (US), 2006
with the group Collections of Colonies of Bees: 6 cd’s
With Pele: 11 cd’s and records
With Telecognac: 8 cd’s and records
More information at : http://www.jonmueller.net/main.html Crouton Records at http://www.croutonmusic.com
REVIEWS for the CD NOM TOM
Nom Tom is a nuanced and rigorous close-listening affair that is Beckettian in its severity and asceticism. Chicago sound vocalist, Carol Genetti, has astonishing breath and vocal control; her fearless, elastic warbles ranging from stuttering rhythmic cries to tonsil stretches to melodic swoops to nasal Tuvan-style drones. Wright deftly adapts to the strength of his collaborators, in this case to Genetti's air-generated intonations and exultations and the feedback and the Gatling gun brush and stick work and roll's from Mueller's amplified snaredrurns. The first track is really a precursor to the second, where Genetti's baying, shenai-like machine gun wails and Wright's snorts and bear-like growls collide like two wild animals in a death struggle, while Mueller plays the spoiler, inflicting pain on both of them.
--Richard Moule, Signal to Noise, summer 2006
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NOM TOM finds Wright working in a trio with Jon Mueller and Carol Genetti. The three zero in on micro-detailed interplay, eschewing the more linear physicality of the reed duet. Genetti's extended vocal technique immediately jumps out, bereft of any ties to speech or song-form phrasing. Instead, she stretches her vocal chords around hisses, hushed ululations, and cracked sighs and groans. Wright responds in kind, favoring breathy tones, pad-pops, and pinched overtones; masterfully modulating the dynamics of his alto and soprano to fit in to the ensemble. Mueller's amplified snare drum is more a sound generator than a percussion instrument. For most of the set, he uses the amplified head of the drum as a resonator to project quietly nuanced scrapes, rattles, and buzzes. There is nothing subdued or reserved about the playing though. This is particularly true of the second track where the three quickly build dynamics and density of activity and then drop down to a simmering buzz, only to be ratcheted up again. The carefully paced tension is maintained throughout.
--Michael Rosenstein, Cadence Magazine, March 2006
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These two extended improvisations feature the indefatigable road warrior of American improv, saxophonist Jack Wright, with two younger playing partners, percussionist Jon Mueller and vocalist Carol Genetti. Genetti is one of the more discreet improvising vocalists: there are no full-blown hysterics and theatrics here, just a patient exploration of tiny twitters, bleats and delicate overtones – imagine a small furry animal Tuvan throat singing – and Wright accordingly spends much of the time with his sax jammed tight against his trouser leg, muffling and filtering the sound much as he did on the exquisite series of albums he released a while back in the company of Bhob Rainey. Mueller's the wild card here, deftly avoiding classic improv percussion's nervous clatter and ping to concentrate on in-depth research into his beloved snare drum. The second track is more adventurous, filling the empty spaces of long dead reductionism with a whole range of sustained sonorities; about halfway through it turns into a veritable jungle (Indian, presumably, given the album title's reference to North Indian classical music), with Genetti squawking like a demented parrot and Wright growling menacingly in the undergrowth, while Mueller ticks away like a death watch beetle, leading the others into a nocturnal hooting contest. It's fascinating, superbly paced and impressive work, well worth checking out.
--Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic
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Nom Tom Trio, recorded in September 2004, shows Wright in the aspect of the masterful player, which the third piece of the puzzle will confirm. Not that Wright overflows with authoritarianism, but because his playing radiates outwards towards all the music and makes other musicians play differently. It’s a music of low volume, a music open to the sky, of sounds produced for themselves like animal sounds, without concern of being heard or understood, music prehistoric or a-historic by the simplicity of its elements and the naturalness of the the way the musicians relate to each other and to the music. No affected brilliance, that would not allow them to be together. Carol Genetti sings without words with a very clear voice, with great economy, a chosen placement of voice and intonations of an extreme perfection. This music and the medium that presents it (on each CD Carol Genetti stitches a design by machine) represent a form of instantaneous perfection whose feeling forcefully invades the listener.
Noel Tachet, Improjazz (French print publication),
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Jack Wright continues to be the greatest free jazz saxophonist you’ve never heard. But that is his calling, not his choice. He travels the land playing for audiences of two to two hundred, can teach a very inspired history lesson, or scramble some eggs. It makes no difference to him. Wright chose his path long ago, placing creativity above popularity, sound generation above melody.
Recently, more artists have come forward with similar ideas of improvisation. Together they are winning over listeners (sometime literally) one at a time. These two lengthy tracks, released as CD-Rs on Wright’s Spring Garden Music label, feature the saxophonist with Chicago vocalist Carol Genetti and Milwaukee percussionist Jon Mueller.
Genetti’s wordless vocals—think of her as a singing Axel Dorner—set the mood for both Wright and Mueller to keep this affair at its minimalist best. Genetti’s murmurs, groans, fidgeting overtones, and throat singing avoid the screeching and shouting you might have expected. Wright either stuffs his saxophone with a cloth or plays against the fabric of his pants to keep within the temper of the two pieces. For his part, Mueller, playing an amplified snare, allows for his small gestures to keep the flow of this music continually moving ahead.
The attraction here, like the direction of more and more improvisation, is the subtle nuances that space and silence grant the listener's imagination. The slightest sounds now available on digital recordings can be the fizzle and pop produced by the artist. The inspired smaller gestures seem to have more to say here than most “improved” recordings these days.
--Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
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Since the end of the 1970's, saxophonist Jack Wright has displayed an unconstrained hard-line policy concerning his way of approaching improvisation. Destroyer using unusual gestures, he has also worked at the sides of John Butcher, William Parker or Michel Doneda, that initiated more confidential groups, for little that they can hope to hold of the happy combination.
It is in this category that NomTom could be ranked, a trio that Wright forms at the side of the vocalist Carol Genetti and the percussionnist Jon Mueller. On this concert recording going back to 2004 the musicians weave two experimental pieces thus holding of the new.
Covering the field of the unspoken as, initially, with the sound of the overlap of the incartades free of the saxophonist, murmurs, breaths and expiries of Genetti, and accents enthusiastic which exemption the clear case. Driven back lyric sentences and virulence out of silencing device are of setting, before the beater decides to accelerate the discursive matter for better crossing short to the moanings and other breaths preaching the impurity. Then, the 3 speakers invade space more concretely, the notes are done clearer, everywhere - saxophone and voice. The amalgam, more effective, not with the shelter, however, of a sudden relapse. There near to the alleviating rail of the digeridoo, the voice of Genetti will convince the trio to remain about it. After having tried out and having reflected all at the same time.
--Guillaume Grisli, Infratures (French online zine)
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Even with Snailmail musical information exchange becomes by CD-R and completely in DIY direction a rapid and casual affair. For the Coverdesign of Nom Tom (SGM 14, CD-R) sat down the Vokalistin CAROL GENETTI personally to the sewing machine and quilted ever individual thread graphics. My copy ziert a kind aphasischer Christmas tree. The contribution to SGMs Ears Only row developed for live in Chicago with a roofridge DATE of Genetti, Labelmacher JACK WRIGHT with its Alto &Sopranosax and the Perkussionisten JON MUELLER already BA relevant in the Crouton context, who here however only its strengthened Snaredrum abstaubte. While it ticks less in the underground and tockt and scheppert as rather only ominoes scrapes and schnarrt metallic, muffelt, faucht and WRIGHT strangled, half suffocated compressed air from its tire pumps spotzt and Genetti aechzt and kraechzt in addition with pain and oh like garottiertes a something, like an asthma accumulation, how someone, to which a fishbone is in the neck. It gurrt and keckert and Oeoeoeoet and Haeaeaet, intoniert "fish Nachtgesang` and spells glossolalisches Abracadabra, intersperses Ami Yoshida and Lauren Newton Parodien and puts at all a loose mouth work to the day. Into the second xundzwanzig minutes it enters with Throatgesang, Mueller lets on its blechtrommel of bang frogs burst, to WRIGHTS blockage finds a thin, cheeping furzelnden exit, saxophone and a Kehlkopf imitates itself mutually, Mueller comes into rolling and Tickeln, Genetti shrills like a hysterischer Kakadu, the Snare becomes the steam locomotive, white the devil, who drove in the meantime into Genettis throat, how. If no challenge is the Exorzismuszoeglinge new for Benedikts?
Bad Alchemy, German print publication, riculous literal translation by babelfish
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Carol Genetti's voice patches splintered memories of ancient times without forcing your attention on her subdued creativity, necessary like oxygen in such a context. Tiny harmonics, uncertain hissing and amicable Tuvan revolutions are gently sustained by Jon Mueller's minimal intrusions, as the Milwaukee percussionist - one of the shrewdest snare drum microscopist on the free music scene - blocks unwanted irregularities by keeping intensity levels equal to the beating of wings of a scared butterfly, his timbral palette constantly updated by more than adequate experiences and fine ears. Jack Wright's saxes (alto and soprano) give us the impression of being the regulating valve in a complex breathing apparatus, the immediacy and the pulse discarded in favour of a more controlled ideology which, in this live recording, allows Wright's just presumed phrasing to assume a monitoring role for an extremely frail, yet still functioning body of sound.
--Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
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