Zermos is a group of 3 excellent musicians who decided to get together and record a cd (in an hour) with no plan as to WHAT they were going to record. The members are: Gary Robertson (alto sax), David Minnick (piano) and Ryan Enderle (bass..the big kind).
Minnick and Robertson played together in the American ska band "Gangster Fun", and have worked together on other Crabid Music releases (The Sursiks, Oven Mitt Johnson and Christmas in March). Ryan Enderle is an accomplished jazz bassist living and playing in Detroit.
All 3 members shared an interest in free-improv, and decided one night in August 2006 (the LAST night in August) to pack up some recording equipment, go to a place where there was a grand piano, and record a cd in one night.
NO rules were set down beforehand as to style, song lengths, or how closely the musicians were to follow each other. They literally just pressed the record button, turned off the lights, and started playing.
The sound of "The Last Night in August" alternates between the quiet stillness of Morton Feldman, and the over-the top, ecstatic free jams of Sun Ra (with, of course, many steps in between). It has been described as "an extremely attractive hour of random notes", "an accurate representation of the firing synapses of 3 people", and "you'll be lucky if you sell 5 of them".
"The Last Night of August" is the first of 3 releases projected for Zermos. The next release ("The Last Night of April") will examine how the imposition of rules (and penalties for not abiding by those rules) affects the sound of improvised music.
On the next 2 releases, Zermos will morph from a music ensemble into a social experiment...Good Day
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