Liner Notes by PEK

Leap of Faith is the core duet of the Leap of Faith Orchestra (LOFO) comprised of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & 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 (well over 100) feature the 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.

Lexical and Syntactic Ambiguities was in the planning stage for roughly 6 months and I was really looking forward to the first performance by this edition of Leap of Faith.  Vance and Albey Evil Clown regulars and both have recently played with both Tor and Marc who drove up from NYC.  Albey knows Marc from his long association with Cecil Taylor.  Marc wrote 4 or 5 excellent reviews of Leap of Faith in the first few years after the reboot in 2015 and came to see us in person a few times at Leap of Faith’s infrequent performances in NYC.   Glynis and I played with Tor in Raqib Hassan’s bands and some other settings in the 90s.  Vance, Tor, Glynis and Albey all performed recently on a Linda Sharrock performance in New York City arranged by Evil Clown pianist Eric Zinman.

When everyone is a strong and very experienced improvisor, as in this case, I expect an excellent performance!!!  It is typically not necessary for everyone to have played together on prior sessions to have an outstanding improvisation when all the players are advanced in their technique and listening skills.  The group dynamic is different:  When you are playing for the first time there is a lot of discovery and newness, when you are playing with groups with enormous history, there is less discovery and much more advance knowledge of the improvisational language of the others.  This session is mixed:  there are relationships here that have continued across decades and some combinations of players that have never performed together even once.  This mixed scenario is not uncommon at Evil Clown where the roster is large, and I recruit new musicians based on the recommendations of current roster members.

Anyway, Tor and Marc, the Evil Clown newcomers played very well and will certainly be back from NYC for more.  I enjoyed the set, and I sure you will too!!  Check it out.

PEK 10/15/2023