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ROVA Saxophone Quartet – This, This, This, This (LP 01080)

Four saxophones, no rhythm section, no limits. The ROVA Saxophone Quartet from San Francisco is one of the most important all-saxophone ensembles in contemporary music. The name comes from the founders’ surnames: Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley. This, This, This, This is their only album on Moers Music, from the quartet’s first and wildest years.

Between them the four play the whole saxophone family from sopranino to baritone, plus clarinets and flute. Their music moves between composed structures and free improvisation. Each member brings his own writing: Larry Ochs’ “Exiles”, Jon Raskin’s eleven-minute “Flamingo Horizon” and Bruce Ackley’s short miniature “3 x 30° Each”. “Trobar Clus #5”, a group composition of almost 15 minutes, takes up all of side B. Expect dense textures, sharp contrasts, sudden silence and passages of great intensity.

This is a must for fans of the World Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy, and of avant-garde jazz and new music in general.

Original pressing from the label’s own stock. This LP comes from Moers Music’s original stock. It’s not a reissue or a re-pressing. Buy directly from the label, originals only.

The Side Story

ROVA was formed in October 1977, almost at the same time as the World Saxophone Quartet (also on Moers: Point of No Return, LP 01034). The occasion was the Third Annual Free Music Festival in the Bay Area, and their first concert was at Mills College in Oakland in February 1978.

Only a few months later, in autumn 1978, the young quartet was invited to the 1979 Moers Festival. It was their first European festival, followed by a tour of several European cities. Just before they left, they had opened for the band Air at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner. Back home, they recorded this album at Mobius Music in San Francisco in August 1979, and Moers Music released it in 1980.

ROVA went on to make history. Their 1983 tour of the Soviet Union was filmed and shown on PBS. They recorded The Aggregate with Anthony Braxton and worked with Terry Riley, John Zorn, Fred Frith and the Kronos Quartet. In 1978 Larry Ochs and guitarist Henry Kaiser founded the label Metalanguage. Andrew Voigt left the band in 1988, and Steve Adams took his place.

Tracklist

• Side A

  1. Exiles (Ochs) – 10:20

  2. Flamingo Horizon (Raskin) – 11:42

• Side B
  3. 3 x 30° Each (Ackley) – 2:35
  4. Trobar Clus #5 (Ackley, Ochs, Raskin, Voigt) – 14:34

Personnel

• Larry Ochs – tenor, alto & sopranino saxophones

• Bruce Ackley – soprano saxophone, B♭ & alto clarinet

• Andrew Voigt – alto, soprano & sopranino saxophones, flute

• Jon Raskin – baritone, alto & soprano saxophones, B♭ clarinet

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP

• Label: Moers Music

• Catalog no.: 01080

• Recorded: August 17 & 24, 1979, Mobius Music, San Francisco

• Released: 1980

• Producer: Larry Ochs

• Price: €17.00