Bill Dixon With Exploding Star Orchestra

Trumpet fueled hipness that is worthy of residing in the same bin as Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. Technically this is “Rob Mazurek’s” Exploding Star Orchestra, an all-star group of Chicago hipsters that have bands like Tortoise on their resumes. Dixon goes back to the 60’s, is associated with the free-jazz movement of the era, however his playing is more musical, more experimental than just the seeming “randomness” one usually associates with the genre. I wouldn’t be surprised if Miles Davis lifted the use of the Echoplex with the trumpet from Dixon. Some of Dixon’s early work with the Echoplex is mind expanding, numbing, and his spoken word poetry of past makes its way into this work. This CD features 3 long tracks, each an exploration in drones, standard musicality, and experimentalism. Fantastic material. Miles Davis didn’t think much of the whole “free-jazz” movement but I’m sure that he considered Dixon “a motherfucker” (his highest compliment).

1) rumbling deep intense steady beat, crazy dissonant horns, some desperate vocalizations, intense, chills a bit after ~7 minutes giving way to vibes/piano, about 5 minutes remaining things get very quiet with experimental bass bowing and things are very chill all the way out
2) spoken word with vibes/bass bowing, blasts into a cacophony of free-jazz after about 2.5 minutes, briefly so, with Dixon’s echoplex’ed trumpet tones, things get mindful, chill, lovely, then goes through waves of exploding jams and chillness, bookended with more spoken word toward end and an amazing mouth/trumpet freak out at end
3) upbeat jazz beat, deep, grows into an ordered cacophony, if that makes sense, all the while maintaining a toe tapping swinging beat for the first 8 minutes, then a somber shift with bowed bass, ebbs and flows, false ending around 1.5 minutes remaining, very chill ending so be careful