Motor Totemist Guild | |
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Origin | Orange County, California, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 1980 | –present
Labels | Rotary Totem |
Members |
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Motor Totemist Guild is an American rock band, formed in 1980 in Orange County, California by band leader James Grigsby. [1] Described as an avant-prog, [2] avant-rock and chamber rock band, [3] Motor Totemist Guild was noted for its songs that worked into epic durations and rich instrumentation but also forayed into free improvisation, sound collage, and other avant-garde techniques. [2]
Being the only constant member, Grigsby assembled an everchanging lineup, that featured vocalist Emily Hay, as well as Rod Poole (acoustic guitar), Bridget Convey (piano), Hannes Giger (contrabass), and David Kerman (drums). Grigsby disbanded the group in 1989 to focus on the project U-Totem. Nevertheless, Grigsby and Hay reunited the group in 1997 with a largely expanded lineup, including former members Lynn Johnston (clarinets, saxophone) and Eric Johnson-Tamai (bassoon). The new lineup also featured musicians from 1990s West Coast new jazz scene, such as Vinny Golia (clarinets, saxes), Jeff Kaiser (trumpet), and Brad Dutz (marimba and vibraphone). All of the band's albums were released through Grigsby's own label, Rotary Totem. [1]
Motor Totemist Guild discography as adapted from Discogs: [4]
The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by French instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus (1813–1876), whom he credited with the concept of the instrument, though it is not clear whether Sarrus benefited financially. The instruments were intended for military bands, to serve as replacements for oboes and bassoons which at the time lacked the carrying power required for outdoor marching music. Although originally designed as double-reed instruments, single-reed mouthpieces were later developed for use with the larger bass and contrabass sarrusophones.
Alamaailman Vasarat is an avant-garde Finnish musical group formed in 1997. Their music is influenced by European folk, klezmer, jazz and metal. Though not officially disbanded the group has been inactive since 2014. The band's founder Jarno Sarkula died on 12 July 2020 in Portugal.
The bass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family—larger and lower than the more common baritone saxophone. It was likely the first type of saxophone built by Adolphe Sax, as first observed by Berlioz in 1842. It is a transposing instrument pitched in B♭, an octave below the tenor saxophone and a perfect fourth below the baritone saxophone. A bass saxophone in C, intended for orchestral use, was included in Adolphe Sax's patent, but few known examples were built. The bass saxophone is not a commonly used instrument, but it is heard on some 1920s jazz recordings, in free jazz, in saxophone choirs and sextets, and occasionally in concert bands and rock music.
The sopranino saxophone is the second-smallest member of the saxophone family. It is tuned in the key of E♭, and sounds an octave higher than the alto saxophone. A sopranino in F was also described in Adolphe Sax's patent, an octave above an F alto (mezzo-soprano), but there are no known built instruments.
Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.
Music for Prague 1968 is a programmatic work written by Czech-born composer Karel Husa for symphonic band and later transcribed for full orchestra, written shortly after the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring reform movement in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Karel Husa was sitting on the dock at his cottage in America at the time, listening to the BBC broadcast of the events on the radio. He was deeply moved, and wrote Music for Prague 1968 to memorialize the events. This piece is a standard among wind ensemble repertoire.
The 5uu's were an American avant-rock group founded in Los Angeles, California in 1984 by drummer-composer Dave Kerman. The group released their first album in 1986 and recorded a second in 1988 with Motor Totemist Guild, a similar band from the area. The two groups merged in 1988 to form U Totem and made two albums. When U Totem split up in 1994, the 5uu's reformed and went on to make two more albums. In 2000 the band became known as Dave Kerman/5uu's and released a further two albums under this name. After a long pause, an album, The Quiet In Their Bones was released in 2022.
David Kerman, better known as Dave Kerman, is an American experimental rock drummer and composer, best known as the founder and member of the Los Angeles avant-rock group 5uu's. He is also a member of the Belgian progressive rock band Present and the Israeli avant-rock band Ahvak. Kerman has been a member of the United States bands U Totem and Thinking Plague, and the Dutch band Blast. He has collaborated with several musicians, including Bob Drake, Chris Cutler and Fred Frith.
The California Outside Music Association was a nonprofit music presenter and networking organization operating in the Los Angeles area from 1983 until 1991. The organization is best known for producing the album A Beginner’s Guide to COMA and a series of festivals called Day of Music. Founded by Titus Levi and Eric Potruch, COMA officially launched on March 3, 1983, when the two founders passed out a flyer describing COMA’s planned activities. This flyer came to be known as The COMA Manifesto. COMA's goals included bringing an eclectic scope of artists from diverse genres, for concerts and festivals. Genres included jazz, jazz rock, progressive rock, experimental 20th century compositions, ambient music music-concrete, free-jazz, post-rock improvisation, experimental rap, and multicultural/trans-cultural experiments.
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Irma is a 1969 experimental opera by artist Tom Phillips, Fred Orton and Gavin Bryars.
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Orchestre National de Jazz was created by French Ministry of Culture in 1986. In more than three decades, this institution has played a large part in the institutional and cultural legitimization of jazz, notably in offering a vast panorama of the French creation. The Orchestra has seen 12 successive musical and artistic directors, welcomed more than 200 soloists and invited numerous international artists, recorded 33 albums. Orchestre National de Jazz received many awards including Victoires du Jazz in 2009 and 2020 and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012 for the album Shut Up And Dance composed by John Hollenbeck.
Prataksis is a collaborative studio album by the jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, the multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia, and the double bass player Bertram Turetzky. The album was released in 1997 by Golia's Nine Winds Records.
Steuart Liebig, born July 25, 1956, is an American bassist and composer of modern creative jazz and the free improvisational music. He plays 6-string bass guitars.
Nothing Is Not Breath: Music for Double Quartet is a live album by Jeff Kaiser, released in 1998 on Nine Winds, NWCD0206. AllMusic said that "Many fans of avant-garde jazz find his 1997 recording Nothing Is Not Breath: Music for Double Quartet to be one of the best presentations of Southern California improvising talent ever recorded, indicating his superior talents as a bandleader and conductor."
13 Themes for a Triskaidekaphobic is a live album by The Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet, released in 2003 on pfMENTUM – CD013.
Rascal Reporters is an American avant-garde progressive rock band founded in 1974 by multi-instrumentalists Steve Kretzmer and Steve Gore. Based in Oak Park, Michigan, the band consisted of the duo of Steve Gore and Steve Kretzmer from its founding until Gore's death in 2009. They released seven studio albums between 1980 and 2008, and in 2017 were reformed by Steve Kretzmer with new member James Strain.