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.

Most recent Turbulence sets have been Turbulence Orchestra with between 8 and 11 players – bass and drums with the rest horn players (doubling the auxiliary instruments at ECH).  I have about 20 horn players in the Roster and all of them are invited to these sessions which I schedule in pairs with one on a weeknight and one on the weekend to accommodate various scheduling obstacles.  I’ve been using Scott Samenfeld on the bass along with Jared Seabrook, John Loggia or Michael Knoblach on drums as the rhythm section.  Scott is a great bass player who is the most jazz oriented of all the bassists in the Roster, so the Turbulence Orchestra has been sounding like a 3 horn free jazz quintet but with lots of additional horn players.

This set is a bit different.  Albey onBass is a very frequent participant at Evil Clown Headquarters and a great player who performed for many years with Cecil Taylor in New York.  He has played on 31 albums by 8 ensembles.  He travels back and forth between the Boston Area and New York, so I’m in the habit of scheduling sessions around his availability – If he is going to be in town, I either invite him to a previously scheduled set, or I schedule a set specifically around his presence.  This time, he mentioned to me that he had seen one of the LIVESTREAM recordings with the relatively new drummer Jared Seabrook who has done a session each with Turbulence and Leap of Faith.  He asked me to set up a session bringing them together, so we scheduled a three-horn quintet around this rhythm section. 

I invited John Fugarino on Trumpet and Michael Caglianone on saxophones who are two very strong horn players and EC Regulars.  As often happens with busy people and the age of Covid, the ensemble underwent a bunch of changes before the hit.  First, Albey recommended a new horn player, Hilary Noble.  Since I value Albey’s recommendations we added Hilary and became a sextet.  A week or so back, Hilary developed a conflict and had to withdraw (we’ll do a set with him in December), so we became a quintet.  Then Michael developed a conflict and we became quartet.  I sent out a sub request to some of the horn players and added Bonnie Kanoe (flute, sax & electronics) and Bob Moores (trumpet) so we became a sextet again.  Then the morning of the performance, Bob called in sick.  So we ended up recording a three horn quintet…  Just like we planned!!

I like having 3 horn players, which I consider in some ways the optimal number of horns in a smaller ensemble.  With 3, there are very elegant permutations of consonance and dissonance.  All three can play with each other or against each other.  Two can play with each other with one against.  Also, all the single horn and two horn combinations are available.  More horns have more permutations, but tend a bit more chaotic and fewer horns don’t have as many combinatorial options.

Wormholes is an excellent example of a three horn free improvisation quintet in top form.  As predicted, the rhythm section of Albey and Jared was stellar, and the combo of me, Bonnie and John performed the three-horn scenario very well.  A very satisfying performance.

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

PEK – 10/1/2023