Exploding Star Orchestra
We Are All From Somewhere Else[Thrill Jockey, 2007]
I was quite thrilled – and indeed a little surprised – by the appearance of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s new outfit Exploding Star Orchestra at Pepper Jack’s Café (now, with the demise of The Underground, Hamilton’s best music venue). Mazurek, a long-time player in the influential Chicago scene, has surrounded himself with an all-star cast of players including Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed, and the seemingly omnipresent John McEntire. After numerous live performances throughout 2005-6, the band retreated to McEntire’s studio for recordings which resulted in this year’s release of We Are All From Somewhere Else on the venerable Thrill Jockey imprint.
Unlike Mazurek’s previous outfits such as Chicago Underground Duo, Exploding Star Orchestra is more rooted in trad jazz. “Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time”, the opening suite of the album, would hardly sound out of place within Charlie Mingus’s output of the late ‘50s to the mid-‘60s. The first part of the suite invokes a highly propulsive energy, as McEntire’s rock-solid marimba is flanked by two drummers playing complex polyrhythmic patterns while the wind instruments stage tastefully improvised solos over several shifts in tempo and mood.
One should not expect tradition to overbear Mazurek’s orchestrations, as throughout his career he has been known more for his avant-garde analog and digital manipulations than for his bop and big band references. Furthermore, the digital manipulations of Mazurek’s processed and layered of sounds – notably the use of processed sounds of electric eels in the album’s opening suite – betrays the affections of jazz purists. As such, the album’s concluding suite "Cosmic Tones for Sleep Walking Lovers" owes more to Steve Reich and Sun Ra’s more adventurous excursions than to the swing era. That being said, the third part of the suite has quite a swing to it, and leads nicely to a downtempo, breathy, and “floating” conclusion that leaves the listener pondering whichever infinitudes are of intrigue.
As always, the integrity of jazz is maintained in the manner of Janus: an eye to the past balanced by an eye to the future. While not a groundbreaking release by any means, We Are All From Somewhere Else provides a thoroughly enjoyable listen.
MP3: Exploding Star Orchestra - Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time, part 1
