Organic, Spontaneous, Free-er Jazz Describing themselves as "post-modern, freely improvised, spontaneously composed jazz", SugaWack blends the technical and the organic, creating a hybrid of sound as each piece develops. They often perform and record in various groupings of duos, trios and quartets. This keeps it fresh, and provides opportunities to more deeply explore their relationships and varying roles.
About Sacred And Profane album: This album was completely improvised in the studio. There were no second takes, no talk-downs, and no editing; only minor trimmimg for presentation. SugaWack is a group of South Florida based musicians with a long-standing collective musical history, who co-create spontaneous jazz compositions, chamber-type pieces, and soundscapes. One could call what they do 'jazz art'. They are quickly becoming known around Florida, having performed concerts in Jacksonville, Orlando, Ft Lauderdale and Palm Beach, and live on FAU College Radio in Boca Raton.. This album proudly features NYC pianist/composer Marc Puricelli. Marc has performed with Chet Baker, Sonny Fortune and Alvin Ailey. He has presented clinics and master-classes worldwide on the art of improvisation, and was a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” heard on National Public Radio. Also featured is circuit-bending free improvisation artist Lucy Bonk. Using her electronics as a jazz instrument, she employs a Korg Monotribe in the studio, and adds a circuit-bent Kaossilator on 'Tesla'. Personnel: Richard Brookens, alto flute, alto/bari saxophones, bass clarinet, tibetan singing bowl, whirly tube John D. Beers lll, trumpet, flugelhorn, electronic and vocal effects, percussive effects Marc Puricelli, piano, melodica Lucy Bonk, monotribe, circuit bent kaossilator David Tomasello, doublebass, Jeff Abbott, drums, percussion, aluminum tube xylophone
About Live At Timucua album: Live recording of a 11/17/2014 quartet performance at Timucua Arts White House in Orlando, FL, recorded and mixed by Benoit Glazer, Timucua's curator. John D. Beers lll, brass and effects, Marc Puricelli, piano and melodica, David Tomasello, doublebass, and Jeff Abbott, drums and microKorg synth.
Previous performances: Jacksonville Alt Jazz Festival, SoLo Gallery, Jacksonville, FL Boynton Beach Art Walk, Boynton Beach, FL Sun. Afternoon Improv at Urban ReThink, Orlando, FL Radioactive Records, Ft. Lauderdale, FL FAU Owl Radio Live Broadcast, Boca Raton, FL Int'l Kinetic Art Festival, Boynton Beach, FL KEROWACKED! Festival, Boynton Beach, FL Beat Cup Cafe, Delray Beach, FL Art On Wood Benefit Opening Reception, Melbourne, FL Timucua Arts White House, Orlando, FL
SugaWack recorded their new debut CD, Sacred and Profane,
completely
through unscripted improvisation. The disc features Fort
Lauderdale multi-instrumentalist Richard Brookens; Palm
Beach County-based musicians Abbott, trumpeter John
Beers,
bassist Dave Tomasello and pianist Marc Puricelli (who
performed with the likes of Chet Baker and Sonny Fortune
in
New York City before he moved to Delray Beach); plus
Gainesville-based electronic instrumentalist Lucy Bonk.
“That initial gig was in March of last year,” Abbott
says.
“I hadn’t been working much, and Beers was trying to get
me
to
Read more
SugaWack recorded their new debut CD, Sacred and Profane,
completely
through unscripted improvisation. The disc features Fort
Lauderdale multi-instrumentalist Richard Brookens; Palm
Beach County-based musicians Abbott, trumpeter John
Beers,
bassist Dave Tomasello and pianist Marc Puricelli (who
performed with the likes of Chet Baker and Sonny Fortune
in
New York City before he moved to Delray Beach); plus
Gainesville-based electronic instrumentalist Lucy Bonk.
“That initial gig was in March of last year,” Abbott
says.
“I hadn’t been working much, and Beers was trying to get
me
to. So we played with Brookens, and Steve Bristol on a
laptop computer, synthesizer and percussion, and things
just
clicked. It was a sound I’d been hearing in my head for
many
years, and it finally came together.”
On the CD, bandmates weave a variety of colors and
textures
into the sonic tapestry of tracks such as “A Brief
History
of Man,” “Geppetto’s Dream,” “Coral Cathedral” and
“Tesla’s
Diode Zero Resistance.” Brookens shifts among alto and
baritone saxophones, alto flute, bass clarinet, Tibetan
bowl
and whirly tube. Beers adds occasional flugelhorn,
effects,
vocals and percussion. And Puricelli contributes
melodica,
while Abbott also works aluminum-tube xylophone,
alongside
Tomasello’s unorthodox bass lines and Bonk’s array of
noises.
“We went into the recording with an absolutely blank
slate,”
Abbott says. “The only exception is Richard’s tune ‘As a
Whole,’ which is a 12-bar blues melody. I think people
can
actually hear how we’re listening to each other,
like our free-improvised jazz influences: John Coltrane,
Paul Motian, Paul Bley, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
It
was all recorded live in the studio, and Lucy’s
contributions were on unusual keyboards and homemade
instruments. She recently made me an electric kalimba [an
African thumb piano] with a synthesizer inside.”
The group’s free improvisation flows through
multiple configurations. Their September show in
Melbourne
will feature the quartet of Beers, Puricelli, Tomasello
and
Abbott. Bristol, a longtime South Florida jazz and blues
drummer, is a charter member who often adds multi-
instrumental mayhem even though he isn’t on the CD.
In fact, Sugawack is constantly in flux. “Our first gig
was
without a bass player,” Abbott says.
“But the improvisational nature of the music allows for
things like that. Our shows can range from pieces
by a duo and trio to quartet and quintet. It changes up
your
palate. Bristol had been playing in the free-
improvisational
scene for a long time in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, so
he’s
introduced me to many like minds from here to Orlando
and Jacksonville.”
Sugawack has played both of those cities during its 18
months together, along with Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach
and Boca Raton. And if Abbott has his way, it’s Florida,
then the world. “I’m hoping to market the European and
Japanese scenes, as well,” he says. “They’re really into
new
original music like this. They’re not afraid of
anything.”
Neither is Sugawack, a group brave enough to have
paid for studio time with no preconceived notion of what
they would do once they got there. Except to listen to
one
another, react and pass unspoken ideas around — all in
the
spirit of their improvisational heroes. -Bill Meredith,
Jazz And Blues Florida, Sept. 2013
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