Rova: THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF REASON

Bruce Ackley – soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Adams – alto and sopranino saxophones
Larry Ochs – tenor sax
Jon Raskin – baritone sax

December 2021 Downbeat Review by Josef Woodard:

After 40-plus years in action, the ROVA
Saxophone Quartet has mastered and reinvent-
ed the sound of four varied saxophones work-
ing together, individually and toward some “X”
factor collective voice. That unique legacy gains
further proof of vision and forward motion on
its new project on ESP.

Covering a range of tools in the saxophonic
toolbox/palette, the combined forces of Bruce
Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs and Jon
Raskin offer up six tracks, bristling with the
characteristic mesh of free play (often group
improvisation versus soloing) and taut struc-
tural passages. Additional saxophonic refer-
ence comes in the form of homages to the late
Glenn Spearman (who shared with ROVA
a San Francisco Bay Area grounding). An
Ochs-arranged version of Spearman’s “The
Extrapolation” opens the album, which
closes with Adams’ muscular elegy “The
Enumeration,” dedicated to Spearman.
Keeping options and concepts open and
subject to change is a long-running ROVA
mandate, as evidenced here by two very differ-
ent versions of the tune “NC 17,” by turns atmo-
spheric and antic.

While essentially operating under the aegis
of jazz, nebulous though that moniker can be,
ROVA incorporates aspects of modernist har-
mony and rhythm — shades of Messiaen,
Bartók and unraveled Ravel, for instance —
and swing-free minimalist kinetics, remind-
ing us of the saxophone’s original intention as a
“classical” instrument (an intention that never
fully came to fruition). Here, “Xenophobia” and
the title track, “The Circumference Of Reason,”
assert chamber-like frameworks, interlaced
with solo outings.

In all, Circumference teems with the stuff
that makes ROVA an important institution,
including locomotion, abstraction and a partic-
ular avant-reedy glory of its own devising.
—Josef Woodard

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Announcing the October 15, 2021 release of Rova’s first quartet recording since 2018, The Circumference of Reason, on ESP-Disk’. Yes: despite the obvious obstacles, this singular San Francisco Bay Area band is staying on mission, moving forward. Over its 4-plus decades the quartet has defined itself by applying an array of improvisational strategies to an ever-expanding body of new music.

The Circumference of Reason includes 6 tracks composed or, in the case of the piece NC17, designed between 2011 and 2016. Then – in typical Rova fashion - the pieces were worked over and performed by the quartet in rehearsals and concerts until perceived to be ready for recording. They include an arrangement of a Glenn Spearman piece as well as a piece by Steve Adams dedicated to Glenn; the playing on both inspired by that expressive saxophonist’s spirited personality and playing.

As well, this recording features two distinctly different versions of NC17, another in the series of Rova’s structured-improvisations, all of which have been designed using an ever-expanding set of visual and aural cues that the quartet has invented, or borrowed and adapted. On its face, NC17 is simply a specific set of conceptual options to cue in, in any order, and to then explore, populating the spontaneously chosen series of cued events with immersive music/sounds/energies etc. The group creates a palpable sonic architecture for each new performance of the piece. Even as we write this, we can say that the takes of NC17 you will hear on this CD are unique; no one take of NC17 can be exactly the same as any other take of NC17.

“Rova performances can reach the soaring lyrical intensity of bel canto, the rough-and-tumble tumult of a garage rock band, or the insistently patterned matrix of a minimalist chamber work.” So wrote Andrew Gilbert in 2018. The piece from which the CD’s title comes, The Circumference of Reason, is a good example of a minimalist piece when penned by a Rova composer, in this case Steve Adams
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ROVA SAX QUARTET BIO:

Bruce Ackley – soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Adams – alto and sopranino saxophones
Larry Ochs – tenor and sopranino saxophones
Jon Raskin – baritone and sopranino saxophones

Formed in San Francisco with its first concert being in February 1978, the Quartet quickly became well-known for its vital blend of compositions and structured improvisation, and has performed - over its 40-plus years - at some of the most prestigious jazz clubs and festivals throughout the world, including festivals that are well-known but barely support the cutting edge of “jazz” - such as The Monterey Jazz Festival - and other festivals with truly creative programming such as Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon, Portugal), Music Unlimited (Wels, Austria), and Vancouver Jazz Festival (Canada).

Rova's repertoire features works by composers at the forefront of musical creativity, including USA composers Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Tim Berne and Robin Holcombe; UK composers Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith, John Butcher, Barry Guy; California composers Chris Brown, Terry Riley, Miya Masaoka, Ben Goldberg, Gino Robair; and many other works commissioned by Rova with support from Meet the Composer (MTC), the Gerbode Foundation, and others. As an ensemble, Rova has commissioned more works - 20 in all - than any other MTC grantee; and in 2002, the ensemble garnered MTC's first "New Music Champion Award," which commended Rova “for over 20 years of innovative presentation of the music of our time and unwavering support to living composers." In 2004, Rova received an ASCAP - Chamber Music America Award for "Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music." Rova:Arts celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2003 with concerts that featured an expanded 12-piece ensemble, including Nels Cline, Otomo Yoshihide, Carla Kihlstedt, and Jenny Scheinman, performing John Coltrane's concert-length work Ascension, captured live for the Quartet's 2005 disc, Electric Ascension. Since then, Orkestrova has performed the work in USA and Europe, mostly at festivals. A live concert-video from the 2012 Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada) and a documentary on Electric Ascension, both completed in 2012/13, will be released on Rogue Art (Paris label) in January 2016.

Rova has a zillion CDs available (see disco at www.rova.org) though they appear less frequently now, perhaps, than in past decades. The four most recent hits prior to the new ESP disc: In Transverse Time (2018): sax 4tet pieces penned by the 4 Rova members (Victo, Canada)… Channeling Coltrane; Electric Ascension (2016): live DVD/BluRay/CD package of Coltrane’s Ascension, reimagined by Jon Raskin and Larry Ochs for large ensemble; this performance documented at 2012 Guelph Jazz Festival (Rogue Art, Paris)… No Favorites! (2015): 3 extended Rova compositions for “Orkestrova” and dedicated to the spirit of Lawrence Butch Morris (New World Records, New York)… A Short History (2012): featuring new 4tet works by Ochs, Raskin and Adams of Rova (Jazzwerkstatt, Berlin)… The Celestial Septet (2011): a collaborative CD with Nels Cline Singers (New World Records, New York) .

Rova:Arts, the sax quartet’s non-profit umbrella organization has produced or co-produced at least one annual premiere in the Bay Area for decades, many of those shows exported to festivals world-wide.