Album Notes

San Francisco has earned its place in history for producing groundbreaking musical acts which combine the love of danceable improv with the outer reaches of mental and spiritual exploration.

And now...
Modus.

The Twin Jade Sessions.

Ambitiously recorded in one day in a San Francisco Victorian among friends, it stands as a true testament to the power of improvisation and inspiration. A true virtuoso tour of styles, the CD ranges through valleys of deep and hard funk, mystical jazz overtures, epic songcraft, African drum circles, soul, world rhythms, rave-up rock and an ode to jazz with a version of The Godfather theme that was rehearsed for the Hells Angels at their weekly raffle at the Voodoo Lounge in the Mission District.

Believe me. It's not an easy city to live in.

From meeting in a dysfunctional self-destructive funk band that still managed to headline the classier dives, Modus was formed as the members abandoned the battered field of dreams and instantly saw themselves playing everything from boats in the bay filled with near riotous Widespread Panic fans, to classy jazz clubs, to scenes in Marin that really should have been left back in 1972.

The challenge was (as it always has been): how does one capture the spontaneous excitement of improvisation while elevating it with the known traditions?
How can you truly create an integral vision of music which visits the ghosts of soul, blues, jazz, funk and (dare they?) world rhythms which enhances the
traditions and harms none?

The CD was recorded in the classic Blue Note fashion. One day. Several takes, keeping the best ones.

What they acheived was something even greater. The Twin Jade Sessions represents the summation of the lives of two musicians that have studied the craft deeply enough to honor their ancestors and inspire the music forward.