Houston-based sax player-improviser-eductor sax player Danny Kamins, founded his own independent label Musical Eschatology to present his many musical activities and interests.
The Ojai Sessions is a seven-movement, free improvised suite for a sax trio that covers the whole range of the saxophone family, with legendary, veteran Vinny Golia on sopranino, soprano, baritone and bass saxes, and generation younger Kamins on alto and baritone saxes and fellow Texan Garrett Wingfield on alto, tenor and baritone saxes. This trio was recorded at TV Tray Recording Studios in Ojai, California in July 2018. The cover artwork is by Chicago-based drummer Jerome Bryerton. This impressive chamber-like suite develops patiently and organically, stressing engaging and conversational dynamics while exploring the full timbral possibilities of the respective saxes and, obviously, with a remarkable array of extended breathing techniques.
Bound To Live brings together Texan poet David LeJeune reading five of his poems («… A thousand little prickling sensations in the land of tornado, hurricane, and sun worship…») with Kamins – on alto and baritone saxes, and double bass player Ethan Adkison who add chamber, thoughtful and compassionate improvisations to LeJeune’s poetry. Kamins and Askison frame and color LeJeune’s suggestive delivery and poetic images in a gentle and caressing atmosphere, and only in «One Line Poem» and «Stir Crazy Quiet» attempt more intense and urgent dynamics, with extended breathing and bowing techniques. LeJeune also did the cover artwork.
Grem Feedanl offers a series of nine short and muscular, intense and dense free improvisation duets with San Antonio-based drummer Ethan Campa (who also goes by the name Coach Campa), who is known for his musical experiments with noise, punk and free jazz. Kamins alternates here between the baritone sax, bass clarinet and tenor sax, while Campa suggests hyperactive rhythmic patterns. But this duo sounds as if it works on separate channels. Both Kamins and Campa are playing on high octane, but each one is doing his own thing and both are aiming for different, rarely parallel courses and only occasionally sound as affected or motivated by each other’s ideas.
Eyal Hareuveni
David LeJeune (poetry), Ethan Adkison (double bass), Danny Kamins (alto saxophone, baritone Saxophone, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone), Vinny Golia (sopranino saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone), Garrett Wingfield (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone), Ethan Campa (drums)
