Liner Notes by PEK

I formed Turbulence in 2015 as I started to assemble players for the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Turbulence, the extended horn section for the Orchestra (along with guests on other instruments), also records and performs as an independent unit. As if this writing in 2023, we have recorded over 40 albums on Evil Clown with greatly varied ensembles.  All the smaller Evil Clown bands are really more about a general approach, rather than a specific set of musicians.  A session gets credited to Turbulence when it is mostly horn players and the only musician on all of them is me.  A session gets credited to Turbulence Orchestra when the size of the band reaches 8 or more performers.  The sessions range from an early duet with Steve Norton and me (Vortex Generation Mechanisms) to a 5-horn band with bass and two percussionists (Encryption Schemes) to four albums by the side project Turbulence Doom Choir which feature myself, multiple tubas, percussion, electronics, and signal processing and many other configurations.

Currently, the Evil Clown Roster has about 20 horn players.  When I schedule Turbulence sets, I put one on the weekend and one on a weeknight since some players can only do one or the other.  Jet Stream is the first of two Turbulence Orchestra sets for Fall 2023.  Since there are more horn players in the Roster than any other instrument groups, the ensemble is often bigger than the other bands and this is the seventh fairly recent set to be credited to Turbulence Orchestra.  This time we had eight musicians – two reeds, four brass, bass and drums. 

All these recent Turbulence Orchestra sets have included both a drummer and a bass player.  The ensemble is kind of a supersized 3-horn Jazz Quintet (with lots of extra horn players).  Scott Samenfeld (bass) makes his 5^th appearance on this set.  The previous sets have had for drummers the relative newcomer to Evil Clown on drums, Jared Seabrook, or on the weekend sets, John Loggia, who drives in from Western Mass with tenor sax/flute/electronics wiz Bonnie Kane.  Jared was booked for this session but was sick and had to withdraw at the last second.  Michael Knoblach, who is now an Evil Clown regular, generally plays a wide variety of world percussion and non-traditional percussion, also is excellent at the trap set and has subbed for drummers in other ensembles on several occasions.  Expanse, which is the ensemble featuring Michael and I along with different guests, always has Michael in this percussion role and he has also used these instruments on Leap of Faith sets and a few other sessions. 

This large Turbulence edition with bass and drums is the closest thing to a jazz ensemble in the Evil Clown universe.  Scott’s bass playing is the most jazz of any of the bass players in the roster and the capable drumming from these drummers make a rhythm section that functions more like a jazz rhythm section than is typical in any of the Evil Clown projects.  In addition, the auxiliary instruments available for all the players to double on include a very nice unit called the Nord Stage 3 which has good piano sounds and good action.  Several of the players on Jet Stream periodically visit this keyboard and add to the rhythm section.

I’m super happy with this session.  The regulars and the newer arrivals really played extremely well together, listening intently and exercising admirable restraint.  Generally speaking, as ensemble size increases, so increases the difficulty of making music which is well-formed and tight.  I’m very interested in the aesthetic problems of larger group pure improvisations.  My Broad Palate concept is a solution to this problem which works by introducing many different possible sonorities.  Over the duration of the work, the combination of instruments undergoes tremendous variation, leading to a sequence of very different movements. 

Anyway, I like this set and I bet you will too…

PEK – 8/23/2023