Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet & 7-tette
Purchase or sample the latest release: Navigation, a 4-album set on Firehouse 12 Records
- Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, compositions
- Jim Hobbs - alto saxophone
- Bill Lowe - bass trombone, tuba
- Mary Halvorson - guitar
- Ken Filiano - bass
- Tomas Fujiwara - drums
- with 7-tette: Chad Taylor - drums, vibraphone
The Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet (now occasionally a 7-tette) has been Bynum’s primary working ensemble since 2005, and has toured throughout the USA and Europe. Navigation (release date: 11/12/13, on Firehouse 12 Records) is the group’s fourth recording, following the critically acclaimed releases The Middle Picture (Firehouse 12, 2007), Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (hatOLOGY, 2008), and Apparent Distance (Firehouse 12, 2011).
The Sextet and 7-tette bring together some of the finest musicians from the Boston and New York scenes, demonstrating a remarkable diversity of backgrounds and generations, with members of the group born in every decade from the 1940s to the ‘80s. All the musicians are composers and bandleaders in their own right, and have collaborated with some of the most admired figures in creative music, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred Anderson, Bill Barron, Tim Berne, Bobby Bradford, Anthony Braxton, Connie Crothers, Thad Jones, Warne Marsh, Myra Melford, Nicole Mitchell, Jason Moran, Marc Ribot, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, and countless others.
The group’s latest release is a four-album, multi-format set, documenting four different versions of Bynum’s modular composition Navigation, recorded over two days, December 7 and 8, 2012. The live Sextet recordings (subtitled Possibility Abstracts X & XI) are available as a limited edition double- LP, and the studio 7-tette recordings (Possibility Abstracts XII & XIII) are available as a double-CD. The entire four-album set is available digitally, and buyers of either the LPs or CDs will receive a complimentary download coupon for the entire body of music.
Bynum writes: “My desire in writing Navigation was to maximize the freedom, choice, and agency of the performing musicians while maintaining the challenges and rewards of compositional structure. The composition is broken into six movements…Each movement has a markedly different sonic identity, with notational styles ranging from traditional to graphic to cartographic. However, while the materials within each section are pre-composed, the overall structure and order of Navigation is modular and improvisational in nature, so each performance creates a markedly different version of the music. What to play next and how to play it is the real-time decision of the members of the ensemble. (This only works with artists of exceptional creativity and musicianship, and it is my ongoing good fortune to have such brilliant and trusted collaborators.)”
Click on album covers for more samples, information or purchasing options
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Navigation (The Complete Firehouse 12 Recordings)
Firehouse 12 (2013)
Possibility Abstract XIII: KID-WUK -
Apparent Distance
Firehouse 12 (2011)
“Thoughtfully tumultuous new album…It’s all seductively challenging, full of standout moments that nevertheless dissolve into the whole.” Nate Chinen, The New York Times.
Source (excerpt) -
Live at the Vision Festival
Bootleg (2008)
Taylor Ho Bynum – cornet; Matt Bauder – tenor saxophone and bass clarinet; Jessica Pavone – viola and electric bass; Mary Halvorson and Evan O’Reilly – electric guitars; Tomas Fujiwara – drums.
My favorite live concert of the ‘original flavor’ sextet.
JP & the Boston Suburbs, Parts 1 & 2 - Woods - whYeXpliCitieS -
Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths
hatOLOGY (2008)
Same personnel as Live at the Vision Festival.
“One of the most indispensable ensembles in contemporary jazz…five stars.” Theirry Lepin, Jazzman Magazine, France.
whYeXpliCitieS (part three) (excerpt) -
The Middle Picture
Firehouse 12 (2007)
Same personnel as Live at the Vision Festival.
“A measured, highly intelligent project that points the way forward for jazz…four stars.” Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Ninth Edition.
mm(pf)