Jazz
Michael Moss releases “Quantum Butterfly” on 1 November, a four-CD box set on Fourth Stream Records running past four hours. The New York saxophonist and clarinettist collects combo, chamber and electroacoustic work on it, the three lines he has alternated between since he came out of sixties free jazz and the downtown loft scene.
Each volume goes by ensemble. The first is his ROOTS to SHOOTS group, with arrangements of Chick Corea’s “La Fiesta” and Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday”. The second, “Ensemble Bows for Strings, Piano and Reeds”, is the written block and includes the nineteen-minute “Abyss”. The third gives the set its name and carries the long piece, “Quantum Butterfly/Adjacent Possibles”, at twenty-five minutes. The fourth is a ROOTS to SHOOTS concert at Westbeth in September 2025, with Bill Evans material and Moss’s own “March On”.
The players are pianist Anthony Coleman, vibraphonist and percussionist Warren Smith, pianist and synthesist Alexis Marcelo, bassist Adam Lane and singer Bobby Harden, with percussionists Jackson Krall, Michael Wimberly and Ismael Baiz and electronics by James Dashow. Moss moves between tenor, soprano, B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet and flute.
The borrowed repertoire adds Coltrane, Ellington, Mingus and Corea. No live presentation has been announced.
Text by Aina Torrents