THE TOM BAKER QUARTET: Look What I Found

The Tom Baker Quartet

Look What I Found

© 2007 Present Sounds Recordings (634479412219)

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Avant-Jazz with simmering improvisations, haunting soundscapes and ear-catching tunes. Explore the Jazz Cosmos with TBQ - Jazztronauts.

notes

Exploring the territory of the in-between. Blurring the boundaries between avant-jazz and free improvisation. Creating a music beyond and around "isms". An interstitial music.

Check it out.

look what I found tom baker quartet PS0701

Recorded at Soundhouse Recordings by Scott Colburn
Mixing by Scott Colburn
Mastering at Seattle Disc Mastering by Mark Guenther
CD Design by Mikiko To
Cover Art © Dave Thomas (www.davethomasart.com)
Produced by Tom Baker, Ben Thomas and Mark Radonich for Present Sounds Recordings (www.presentsounds.com)
Present Sounds Recordings PS0701

Special thanks to Alissa Rupp, Stephanie Deshaies, the Campbells (Marni, Amelia, Thomas, Eliza), Hamlet and Alma, Anton and Louis, Peggy Shafer, Greg Sinibaldi, Bill Smith, François Houle, Doug Haire and Dave Thomas.

"...trippy jazz-hued soundscapes..."
-Guitar Player Magazine, 2006

"...a delicate, eccentric compositional sense with a tendency toward unruly improvisation."
- Time Out New York, 2005

"Jazztronauts: Tom Baker Quartet explores the jazz cosmos..."
-Go! Magazine, 2006

"...gentle swells and slow-moving texutres create a beautiful, ethereal music."
-Methow Valley News, 2006

These four acclaimed musicians have enjoyed working together in various combinations over the past few years, and now they have joined forces as the Tom Baker Quartet. Tom Baker (guitar, fretless guitar), drummer Greg Campbell, clarinettist Jesse Canterbury and bassist Brian Cobb have diverse musical backgrounds, which include jazz, modern classical, world music, and free improvisation. They have been working as a quartet since November of 2004, playing music by Baker and Cobb, as well as crafting beautiful and haunting improvisations. Their music blurs the boundaries between notated music and free improvisation; the unique sonic landscapes that result are grounded in history, while pushing at the boundaries of avant-jazz music.

Guitarist Tom Baker has been active as a composer, performer and music producer in the Seattle new-music scene since 1994. He is the artistic director of the Seattle Composers' Salon, and co-founder of the Seattle EXperimental Opera (SEXO). Tom performs on fretted and fretless guitars, and has worked with many innovative musicians, including Stuart Dempster, William O. Smith, Christian Asplund, Chinary Ung, Ellen Fullman and Henry Threadgill. His first solo CD Sounding the Curve was released on the label Present Sounds in 2002.

Greg Campbell plays drum set, vibraphone, percussion, and French horn. He has studied with Dave Holland, Cecil McBee, George Russell, and Tom Collier, and has performed with Muhal Richard Abrams, Wayne Horvitz, Stuart Dempster, Bill Smith, and Francois Houle, among others. He has also been a member of Seattle EXperimental Opera and the Seattle-based groups Brainstun (led by Christian Asplund), Project W, Ota Prota, and Jessica Lurie's Motorbison.

Clarinetist Jesse Canterbury has performed new music in a variety of contexts, ranging from modern classical music to chamber-style free improvisation. He has worked and performed with some of the world's finest improvisers and musical innovators, including George Lewis, Butch Morris, the Shaking Ray Levis, Walter Thompson, Philip Gelb, Matthew Sperry, Gino Robair, Kevin Drumm, and Daniel Carter.

Bassist Brian Cobb is also an accomplished composer and educator. He has studied composition with Salvatore Macchia, John Bavicchi, Robert Stern, Dennis Leclaire, Juan Pampin, and Diane Thome. Through the years as a jazz musician he has toured Europe; recorded with jazz artists Ron Bosse, George Garzone, and Karl Rausch; and performed with Bob Guilotti, Bob Moses, Jeff Galindo, Max Vax, Teodross Avery, and Aaron Goldber.

reviews

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  • Buy this now, peeps!
    author: Gregory Hendricks

    I was thoroughly floored by Look What I Found. This is incredible music that very much appeals to the way I like to do things. First, it works with themes and melodies...and develops them completely--looking for ways to get every last idea out of a theme. You guys take a handful of instruments and really make the most of them. There's plenty of space, but it doesn't feel wasted at all...everything is mixed and arranged nicely. I really just love the music too; your playing and the playing of your bandmates is tremendously good. Next, it has a jazz quartet feel to it, and I'm a big fan of traditional jazz...so it was very appealing to me! When I heard it, I thought that I could have heard some of this on NPR before...they often play very interesting little snippets of music like this between segments, but they rarely tell you who did the music.

  • Great music!
    author: Marco Oppedisano

    Super tasteful playing, sense of space and respect to composition. Although primarily a jazz inspired CD, there are wonderful elements of ambient, contemporary classical and free improvisation. It all works together so well, with many memorable moments. Also for a quartet it's such a full sounding disc which is a testament to the quality in performance and arrangements. Unlike many jazz discs, there is never a hint of pointless self indulgence or overplaying. Everything is perfectly placed with the utmost respect to composition. It's been getting steady rotation here. Highly recommended!

  • These tunes have an internal spring-loadedness that’s electrifying.
    author: Andrew Bartlett - Earshot Jazz Magazine

    "Look What I Found" bears the marks of Henry Threadgill, the halting rhythms, the wide-open spaces in the middle of a tune – big enough to picnic in but never a misuse of territory, and the sibling focal points of tonalities and tunefulness. Woods are a huge part here, with Baker reveling in his guitar’s rich middle and the clarinet floating and weaving like a closely huddled fog. Campbell’s percussion is rumbly, not snappy, and when prone toward the clang of cymbals almost always opting for bell-like tones. Brian Cobb’s bass has an acoustic bound that’s a pontoon, everything else atop it. These tunes have an internal spring-loadedness that’s electrifying.

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