"It's natural music and it swings...these guys are on the case." - Ornette Coleman “Filled with stirring originals, telepathic interplay and surprising ideas.” - Scott Yanow "This is really exhilarating stuff, respectful of Ornette while tossing a pile of new ideas on the table." - Mark Saleski, jazz.com "...memorable and astutely engineered compositions, teeming with gobs of depth and snaking movements." - Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz Liner notes as they appear in the album: The genesis of a breath is the subconscious. The species that roam the earth – mammals, birds, fish, plants, even humans – rarely do we think about the process of respiration. And yet the breath happens, starting out unknown to the world or even the breather, expelled automatically, unconnected to anything except, perhaps, the cycle of exhalation and inhalation. Most breath escapes into the ether, commingling with but never really a part of other breaths or sounds. The genesis of sound is breath, moving air – directed, purposeful. In yoga, the practice of ujjayi breathing often produces a sound that could be mistaken for falling ocean waves, or deep, mournful sobbing. A yogi’s respiration starts in a place deeper than the lungs, and moves intensely to somewhere farther than is perceptible. A breath with intent. It leaves the body, seeking other similarly charged masses of air. It is the space created by that search that is home to emotions of every flavor. Breath travels along floors and up walls, through the physical world as a ghost, but with a density and gravity that allows it simultaneously to pass through fabric and time and still be felt. Breath-become-sound travels through the physical world, interacting with other like and discrete sounds, meeting, fighting, cursing, clashing – and in a moment suddenly quiet and tranquil again. This multiplicity of breaths and sounds, their life spans mere seconds or less, nevertheless leave behind powerful artifacts as they disappear, re-enter a body and are generated anew. The musicians of Search endeavor to give their breath life, to connect it to and through sound, to open a dimension within themselves and extend that portal – a place to explore and question love, anger, trust, and fear – engaging fully with the natural world, with each other, and with the listener. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The album introduction, Blues If It Is, opens the portal, creating a welcome space for the musicians and audience to grow comfortable in this new environment. This is followed by Herds, inspired by a muezzin’s call to prayer in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, his voice echoing from the minarets to the sitting rooms of working-class immigrants, their lives a struggle of readjustment and fear, reunited in the common experiences of assimilation and religious harmony. Uncivil Obedience is a withering critique of the cookie-cutter mentality that has insinuated itself into nearly every aspect of modern American life. Trumpet player R.J. Avallone describes the experience: “A crowd of thousands walks in a daze of material contentment, entering a coliseum presided over by a dictator. The despot announces instructions to his flock – what to buy, what to want, how to live. The crowd nods somatically. Upon leaving, a small number of them experience an awakening and begin to think for themselves…” Intentions spur the breath and the sound to find a place for honest interactions. They wind around each other in a Caducean embrace. As one changes shape and form, so follow the others. And yet, as the frenetic and unpredictable drumming of Bryson Kern shows, it is hard to know a person’s true intentions, or to find the roots of one’s own. Next, a ballad written by reedman Matthew Maley, is a meditative song that suggests to the listener a time for deliberation, a space in which to relax and reflect on the beauty of the mundane. The subtle influence of the pulse of time moves us forward, whether noticed or not. In the mountains of Morocco, Joujouka is a village populated by a tribe of Sufi trance musicians. One of the world’s oldest and most unique traditions, the musicians of Joujouka practice their art not simply as entertainment, but a form of spiritual healing, touching the faithless, the lost, and the physically and mentally afflicted. Following this is The Laws of Gravity. Isaac Newton first described it scientifically, but gravity is as old as the Earth, a constant manipulation of the physical world which, like this eponymous tune, affects time, direction, and movement. Milena tells the story of a woman, floating in the Caribbean as a ship passes, too far away to save her. She is drowning, but instead of a violent end, she is calmed by her environment, making her last corporeal moments a relaxing journey towards the inevitable. Before coming to the end of this musical voyage, take time to stop and Breathe, remembering that everything starts and ends with a breath. Finally, Day Terrors/It’s All Right Now is a song that presents two sides of the same coin. There is the morning, waking to a mind that has already hit top gear – like the hyperkinetic bass of David Moss – churning and fretting about life’s uncertainties. No clear path stands in front of you; yet the song changes, and becomes a piece of quiescence, as if a lullaby, bringing the comfort and peace that we all seek. Breath searches for sound searches for music searches for life. - Rob Liguori