Leap of Faith (2015 to Present)
The Origin of Mass
The second album of collective free improvisation from Leap of Faith expanded by Chinese musicians, from the core duo of multi-reedist David Peck and cellist Glynis Lomon, here with Chinese improviser, Boston-based Beijing guzheng player Jiaxin Wan, alongside trumpeter Bob Moores, for two exotic improvisations of patiently evolving global elements.
Excerpt from PEK Liner Notes
“…One of the players to attend the second LOFCO sessions was a gifted young woman named Jiaxin Wan who plays a Chinese zither instrument called the guzheng. She is in town to attend Berklee and will be around for another year or so. I liked her playing very much and I invited her to join this small format Leap of Faith set…”
The Origin of Mass:
Leap of Faith
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA – 5/13/2023
1) The Origin of Mass – 1:10:00
2) Subnuclear Forces – 5:42
PEK – clarinet, contralto & contrabass clarinets, alto & tenor saxophones, mussette, guanzi, bass tromboon, bass flute, 5 hole wooden flute, accordion, [d]ronin, 17 string bass, theremin with moogerfooger, korg ms20, arp odyssey, novation peak, moog subsequent, syntrx, prophet, Linnstrument controllers, spring & chime rod boxes, electric chimes, Tibetan bowls, chimes, brontosaurus bell, gongs, plate gong, temple blocks, log drums, cow bells, Englephone, danmo, wood & temple blocks, xylophone, balafon, almglocken, orchestral chimes, orchestral anvils, game calls, soma pipe, voice
Glynis Lomon – cello, aquasonic, voice
Bob Moores – space trumpet, flugelhorn, spring & chime rod boxes, Tibetan bell, nord stage 3, moog subsequent, novation peak, Linnstrument controllers, flex-a-tone, seed pod rattle, log drums, wood blocks, temple blocks, wind siren
Jiaxin Wan – guzheng, korg ms20, novation peak, moog subsequent, xylophone, balafon, almglocken
Joel Simches – Live to 2-track mix, real-time signal processing
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PEK Liner Notes
Leap of Faith is the core duet of the Leap of Faith Orchestra (LOFO) comprised of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, double reeds & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice. The ensemble is based in Boston and dates back to the early 90s. We utilize a huge arsenal of additional Evil Clown instruments to improvise long works featuring transformations across highly varied sonorities. At times, the core unit has been a trio or even a quartet. The longest running core unit was comprised of PEK, Glynis and drummer Yuri Zbitnov, who played for the last couple of years of the archival period and the first 5 years of the reboot starting in 2015. The ensemble has always been highly modular, and our many recordings (now over 150) feature the various core unit in dozens of configurations with a huge list of guests and occasionally as only the core unit with no guests. Currently, the core unit is the duet of PEK and Lomon and we are regularly presenting LIVESTREAMs to YouTube from Evil Clown Headquarters with other guest performers.
I have always liked the music of different cultures and play many woodwind instruments from Asia, Africa and other regions of the world. I have listened to a lot of world music and a lot of modern classical music to learn about sound worlds/sonority not present in tonal western music.
A relatively recent development here at Evil Clown has been the addition of a few Chinese musicians to the roster. Unusual percussionist Michael Knoblach, who joined the roster right before the pandemic, has been playing for a while with multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Zhao who plays many Chinese instruments with authority in traditional settings and an improvisation quartet with Michael called the JMDE quartet. Expanse, which is the ensemble which features Michael and me, joined together with the JMDE quartet for a few sessions and then Jimmy suggested a set with an expanded section of Chinese players. We’ve now done two sets for the Leap of Faith Chinese Orchestra (LOFCO) with Glynis and me, Michael, Chinese musicians, and a few others. These larger sets are interesting: the Chinese players play some traditional sounding Chinese music and the improvisors play off those sounds. The give and take is between the cultural groupings with sometimes one or the other dominating and sometimes an unusual combination.
One of the players to attend the second LOFCO sessions was a gifted young woman named Jiaxin Wan who plays a Chinese zither instrument called the guzheng. She is in town to attend Berklee and will be around for another year or so. I liked her playing very much and I invited her to join this small format Leap of Faith set. When I find talented students who are in the area, I try to get them involved in sessions while they are available, before they return to their homes.
The original concept for The Origin of Mass was to do a strings session expanding on the recent LOF trio set with guest violinist Tom Swafford, by adding Jiaxin and Albey onBass to make a quintet. Albey is back and forth between Boston and New York, so I schedule sessions around his availability. Eventually, we landed on 5/13 for this set with Glynis, me, Jiaxin and Albey signed up and with Tom down as possible. As the date grew close, Tom was unable to make it and then Albey’s travel plans changed, and he was unable to make it. I invited Evil Clown regular Bob Moores to join on trumpet and the final quartet with two strings and two horns was established.
As I expected, Jiaxin played really well in the more improvisation focused unit without the other Chinese musicians. With her presence Leap of Faith brings these wonderful Asian sounds into the small unit environment. There will be another LOFCO set in the fall when she returns to school, and I will schedule some small unit sessions with her as well starting in the fall.
I like this set and I bet you will too…
PEK out 5/14/2023
Paul Brennan Photos
