Tracklist:

1. Ionization Jones 11:51
2. Perpetuo Mojo Jones 4:24
3. Jones Tolstoyevich Jones 20:17
4. Jonesnost 5:07
5. Dialectical Jones 5:55

Line-up:
Mark Dresser – bass
Larry Ochs – tenor & sopranino saxophones
Vladimir Tarasov – percussion

Recorded:

September 24, 2009 at the Manege Hall, Moscow.

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About:

Three long-time masters of the improvised music world team up here for genuinely touching, meditative sets of improvised music. The trio first performed as a unit in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the concert was very special; unusual, unique, and leaderless sound-explorations among three musicians whose ability to listen and respond shone forth during the concert.

Performing entirely improvised music, every Jones Jones musical performance draws on all the individual musicians’ past experiences and thus adds up to something unique and very special that could only have happened within this particular trio configuration. The band performed in Europe in June/July 2008 in Amsterdam, St Petersburg and festivals in Lithuania and Latvia. Jones Jones also was featured at The 2008 Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, California. The group then returned for the Moscow Biennial in 2010 where its show was recorded live.

 

What the critics say:

Featuring Mark Dresser on contrabass, Larry Ochs on tenor & sopranino saxes and Vladimir Tarasov on drums. This is the second release from this wonderful trio which features three master musicians: reeds-wiz Larry Ochs (from Rova & What We Live), contrabassist Mark Dresser (currently a professor in San Diego) and Russian drummer Bori Tarasov (from the legendary Ganelin Trio). This disc was recorded liv  e in Manege Hall in Moscow in September of 2009. There is strong connection between these men, a collective spirit which constantly expands and evolves. There is a very organic, natural sound to this set, clean and warmly recorded. Outside of a recent quartet effort with Jesper Lovdal, Butch Lacy & Kresten Osgood on Ilk and a bass duos 2 CD set on Out-Now (just released this week - 5/6/16), we haven’t heard much new from bassist Mark Dresser recently. The trio take their time to stretch out so that each member gets their chance to play solos, duos and trios. Russian drummer, Vladimir Tarasov, has long been one of the most creative drummers in Russia and Europe. I’ve listened to his solo drums 11-CD set a couple of times and he is fine form here as well, often nimbler and consistently engaging. Bay area saxist, Larry Ochs, is the most prolific of this trio and has several ongoing projects, besides the Rova Sax Quartet, who’ve been around for close to forty years. This trio does have their own group sound which is often more reflective than explosive, remaining engaging throughout. -
(Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG)

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The Moscow Improvisations is from a 2009 concert in the Russian capital. A co-op trio with the enigmatic name of Jones-Jones, it includes Bay area tenor and sopranino saxophonist Larry Ochs and Russian percussionist Vladimir Tarasov. More accomplished than ad hoc, the band operates during the five selections as if participating in Soviet-US trade talks during the glasnost era. With many textures literally hard-hitting, as Tarasov smacks his drums with the power and productivity of Alexey Stakhanov, who reputedly set ‘30s USSR coal-mining productivity records, the others’ responses relate to anarchistic freedom not Stalinist rigidity. Ochs’ altissimo reed-biting and crusty asides are taken to the limit on “Perpetuo Mojo Jones”; and evolve via theme variation to sturdy distinctiveness on the concluding “Dialectical Jones”. Meanwhile Dresser’s string augmentation goes through more twists and turns than pre-Second World War Soviet foreign policy. One dazzling display is on the extended “Jones Tolstoyevich Jones” where his cantering string stroking produces a spray of snapping tones by the end.

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(Ken Waxman, Jazzworld.com)