The Squid's Ear Magazine


Fisher, Colin Quartet: Living Midnight (Astral Spirits)

Toronto-area saxophonist Colin Fisher, best known for his group I Have Eaten The City, with his collective quartet of NY players Daniel Carter on tenor, alto & soprano saxophones + clarinet & flute, Brandon Lopez on upright bass, and Marc Edwards on drums & percussion, for three extended and exploratory improvisations of exemplary creative insight.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Colin Fisher-tenor saxophone, alto saxophone

Daniel Carter-tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute

Brandon Lopez-upright bass

Marc Edwards-drums, percussion


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Label: Astral Spirits
Catalog ID: AS107
Squidco Product Code: 28263

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Seizures Palace, in Brooklyn, New York, by Jason Lafarge.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Maybe it was an Astral Spirits reunion that kicked off the Colin Fisher Quartet's sessions for Living Midnight, or maybe it was just the collaborative (or incestuous) relationship that these crazy jazz cats have among themselves. Regardless, Colin Fisher, Daniel Carter, Brandon Lopez, and Marc Edwards all ended up in the same room, and fortunately most of them brought their instruments. (I wasn't there - I can't vouch for everybody.) The result is a whip on smart collection of moonlit magic and ESP on aided (again, probably, since I wasn't there) interplay that blew air into the lungs of the night and sent it on its adventurous way. This is that story.

Not one that I'm going to tell, that's for sure! I gotta step back and let the players take center stage here, because this Living Midnight is a charmed foray into voodoo nocturnes and spellbound serenades. Stretching the quartet's abilities over two lengthy sides, Fisher leads his cohorts like a shaman at a séance, each tune bursting to life and growing, expanding, evolving as the veil between the (astral) spirit world and ours becomes ever thinner, till we're whirling through forests with ghosts. The inky blackness of the wee hours is pierced by the glow of intense energy that flows like magma through the veins of Fisher, Carter, Lopez, and Edwards - heat and movement enliven everything around them.

Behold, the "Living Midnight"!"-Ryan, Cassette Gods

Also available on Cassette with Download Code.
Get additional information at Cassette Gods

Artist Biographies

"Multi-instrumentalist, composer, Colin Fisher is an active voice in the Improvised and Creative Music Community in North America.

His group I HAVE EATEN THE CITY is an improvising trio featuring cellist/keyboardist/laptop artist Nick Storring and percussionist Brandon Valdivia. They currently have 4 independently released CD's, were invited to play the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival last year to rave reviews, they played the prestigious Open Ears Festival with musician Francois Houle in April 2007, which is an international new music/creative music event. They have been touring Ontario and Quebec extensively for the last 2 yrs.

Another group of his Sing that Yell that Spell has released 2 CD's, one independently and another through the Toronto based label Escapegoat Records.

Other recent projects include a duo, with improvising guitarist Michael Keith, called Sandbox who have a monthly concert series at the Toronto Tranzac Club, A duo with flautist Rob Piilonen named Whisper, an improv quartet called ALLO CAVEMAN that features Justin Haynes, Alex Lukashevsky and Jean Martin, plays tenor sax in Nilan Perera's HolyBlueGhost, is a member of the AIMToronto Orchestra who recently performed at the guelph jazz festival playing the music of Anthony Braxton with Mr. Braxton conducting and playing with the orchestra, is a member of the Woodchoppers Association, plays guitar in Isla Craig's band and also with Anna Linda Sidall, and has also performed with singer/songwriter John Tielli, Neil Haverty, and others.

Colin has appeared and collaborated with: Anthony Braxton, Jah Youssouf, Rhys Chattam, William Parker, Dominic Duval, Sabir Mateen, Neil Haverty, Joe Mcphee, Maury Coles, David Daniels, Chris Kelsey, Paul Hession, Mark Hundevad, Jean Martin, Metal Kites, Christine Duncan, Nifty, Eric Chenaux, Evan Shaw, Michael Morse, Jason Hammer, Nick Fraser, Joe Sorbara, Glen Hall, Ronda Rindone, The Constantines,

A Toronto performance (opening for renowned bassist, Trevor Dunn and pedal harpist Shelley Burgon while on tour with them across Ontario/Quebec) of some of Colin's compositions, featuring Nick Fraser, Evan Shaw and Jason Hammer is to be released on DVD in the future on the local label Burn down the Capital.

3 duo records planned for future release - a 40min composition of Colin's for guitar and drums featuring Brandon Valdivia and a fully improvised CD of drums, saxophone/guitar duets with Toronto improvisor Joe Sorbara. Colin also received a Canada Council recording grant in 2007 that was used to create a duo recording with Jean Martin called The little man on the boat which was recently released on Barnyard Records."

-Barnyard Records (http://www.barnyardrecords.com/colin%20fisher%20bio.html)
11/18/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Daniel Carter (born December 28, 1945, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is an American experimental saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s.

Carter is a prolific performer and has recorded or performed with William Parker, Federico Ughi, DJ Logic, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth, scientist/musician Matthew Putman, Cooper-Moore, Sam Rivers, David S. Ware, Yoko Ono, Living Colour, Medensky Martin and Wood and Jaco Pastorius among others. He is a member of the cooperative free jazz groups TEST and Other Dimensions In Music."

-577 Records (http://www.577records.com/danielcarter/)
11/18/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"[..] Composer/bassist, Brandon A. Lopez, deemed "The Ubiquitous Free Improv Bass Ace" by the Village Voice and said to play with a "Bruising Physicality" by the Chicago reader.

He was born and raised in the splendors of Northwestern New Jersey, in the shadow of the (New York) city. It was there that he cultivated a taste for the left of center musics and subsequently, dug graves.

He's had the pleasures of working with many of the world's luminary weirdos. Here's a list: Nate Wooley, William Parker, Chris Corsano, Justice Yeldham, Weasel Walter, Peter Evans, Tyshawn Sorey, Gerald Cleaver, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Tony Malaby, Paul Lytton, Mette Rasmussen, Jooklo Duo, Michael Foster, Leila Bordreuil, Jaimie Branch, Joe Morris, Brandon Seabrook, Cactus Truck, John Dykeman, Daniel Carter, and many others.

He's currently leads a trio dubbed "The Mess", another one called the Brandon Lopez Trio, works as a soloist and is formerly/currently/latterly writing more and more music. He may play some it sometime soon (see "gigs").

He attended New England Conservatory."

-Brandon Lopez Website (http://www.brandonlopez.nyc/)
11/18/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Marc Edwards (born July 23, 1949) is a free jazz drummer who has played and recorded with artists such as Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, and David S. Ware. His influences include Charlie Parker and Buddy Rich. He is currently playing with a project with Weasel Walter, and with his own group, Marc Edwards Slipstream Time Travel, an afrofuturistic free jazz ensemble. Many of his solo works have a science fiction theme. He also plays in the band Cellular Chaos, his first foray into rock drumming.

Edwards was raised in New York City, and did not initially take an interest in music. He dabbled with several instruments, but it was during junior high school when he was able to get out of wood shop class by playing drums that he first played the instrument.

In 1994. Edwards returned to music after a lengthy hiatus. He formed Slipstream Time Travel and released their first record, Time and Space Vol. 1. Current members are Ernest Anderson III, Takuma Kanaiwa, Alex Lozupone, Gene Janas, Alexis Marcelo. This line-up's performance at the Dizzy Gillespie Fundraiser of 2012 was described as "a climactic point in the evening's program ".

Edwards was interviewed on WKCR New York City after the release of Time & Space, Vol. 1 and Red Sprites & Blue Jets. During the 1970s, Apogee performed live on the station two separate occasions. His trio with Sabir Mateen and Hilliard Greene, performed at WKCR again just before playing at the Knitting Factory's sponsored festival, the Texaco Jazz Festival in 1997.Marc Edwards at the Silent Barn in Brooklyn in 2011

In 2013, Marc Edwards contributed a version of "Amazing Grace" to a benefit album to raise funds for Donovan Drayton's release from prison and trial. He also released a CD with his new group Sonos Gravis, which was described as "freely fused out rock that takes "free jazz" and cranks it." The album was listed as #12 on Steve Holtje's Top Jazz albums of 2013, along with his release with Slipstream Time Travel called Planet X Just Blew Up!, which was #13. The New York City Jazz Record says that "Sonos Gravis could, in fact, be the conceptual merger of the New York Art Quartet, Black Sabbath and Last Exit, though despite signposts reflecting noise and free jazz, this music has little actual precedent".

Grego Applegate Edwards described his 2014 release, Sakura Sakura, as "very vibrant free rock, a sort of Ascension in the metal zone. It is bracing. You will either gravitate towards it by predisposition or not. And that has something to do with your open mind about a free metal blast or the opposite." He says of the 2015 release, Mystic Mountain, "This may be their most anarchically exhilarating album yet!".

For many years, Edwards played only jazz drums, but recently has started playing rock and punk."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Edwards_(drummer))
11/18/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Crescent Moon Furnace 29:06

2. Embryonic Breath 23:45

3. Valley Spirit 18:46

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Toronto Area Improvisation
Collective Free Improvsation
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Astral Spirits.


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