Press
All About Jazz Italia
5/2009
Poem of the Underground – Sound for the Organization of Society
by Vincenzo Roggero
It’s an interesting history for the Sound for the Organization of Society (Compliments! A good name!) Coming from diverse geographic areas and different stylistic backgrounds between them, the ten musicians found in their music and in the culture of New Orleans, the city in which they met for the first time, a strong cohesive motivation and from this they created a band. Then the devastating Hurricane Katrina dispersed the members of the group, who have since successfully reunited and have a constant presence in San Diego and in the general scene on the West Coast, naturally with New Orleans always at its core.
Poem of the Underground is the second recording and confirms that which we had already caught a glimpse of with their debut India and Africa, an explosive blend of rhythms and melodies from Mother Africa, scales and oriental chants and furious improvisations. This latest recording effort results in even more evidence of the liaison with the birthplace of jazz, not just from a stylistic point of view, but also philosophical and cultural, with a contagious vitality of the streets, with the ____ that permeates and heavily invades everyday life and therefore heavily descends upon the musical production, and with the liberating spirit that exceeds stylistic barriers and etiquette of every kind.
Poem of the Underground is the New Orleans of the new millennium, two drums, two keyboards, three saxophones, guitar, bass and vocals that have fun with a world of disorienting the listener, to change the focal point of the performance, from extremes like John Zorn and Indonesian music, from marching band and spoken jazz, from progressive rock and sultry blues of Albert Ayler, from avant-garde and folk. But when the needle of the compass stabilizes and faces north, one finds it difficult to escape from the fascination and magic of this music, it was almost as though I were hypnotized like a good voodoo service.
They are not primadonnas in the Sound for the Organization of Society, because the group functions like a true collective, from the point of view of the composition to the arrangement, and they have proven themselves to be an adventurous ensemble, rich with ideas, definitely ambitious, anarchists in their meticulous organization, explosive in their accomplished sound.
(translation: Maureen Oliver)
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Jazzmozaïek
2/2009 (page 10)
Sound for the Organization of Society – Poem for the Underground
Circumventium Music – 60:19
by Mischa Andriessen
The ‘woolly’ band name and CD title immediately strike you. Is this a very pretentious or a very naive band ? The answer is: they are both.
You don’t get any wiser from visiting their website, but Sound for the Organization of Society is clearly an idealistic band with strict views on a hierarchy-free way of collective improvisation. Poem for the Underground is their second album, so sparkling that the music makes you forget the theoritical treatises. Two drummers, two pianists, three saxophone players, a bassist, a guitarist and a poet who recites his texts. One might expect all of that to be far too much of a good thing, but SFOS easily gets away with it. The music is enthusiastic but controlled. The band sounds relaxed, partially because of the loose intonation of the horn section, but the playing is focused. Only sometimes does their experimentation seem unfocused, but just as the group is more important than the soloist, so the song structure override the experimentation. The enthusiasm of the playing is a strong point of SFOS. Another strength is the ability to write melodies with a twist that remain catchy despite their complexity. In this way SFOS not only explores musical boundaries with their imaginative music, but they succeed in making accesible music with a ‘drive’ that only the most cynical listener can ignore.
(translation: Bram Weijters/Andrew Oliver)
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Exclaim! Canada’s Music Authority
July 2009
Sound for the Organization of Society: Poem of the Underground
by Glen Hall
Founded in New Orleans and geographically scattered after Hurricane Katrina, this ten-piece ensemble, like their place of origin, is a melting pot of divergent styles, approaches and music. Dedicated to sustaining a “hierarchical equality” amongst its members, Sound for the Organization of Society’s musicians contribute and maintain a “pool of compositional forms” that’s the alphabet of the group’s musical language. The title track has shape, melody and orchestration from Indonesian gamelan music, but with some NYC downtown jazz blowing and Bach-like flourishes. The intensity in the unison declamation of “Darrell’s Ellipse” has a Zorn-ish resonance but Chris Mosley’s fretless guitar uses its elliptical logic to take the piece in an entirely different direction before returning to its muscular theme. “Research of an Aesthetic” starts with a Brotzman saxophone assault, yielding to pointillistic pianisms before returning to flat-out blowing that’s interrupted by mysterious electric piano and fluttering drums. “Constanence” has an engaging ensemble opening, with a repeated line and drum backing that yields to a lyrical soprano sax solo with intermittent intonation issues. “Ode to 89″ is perhaps the strongest track: hypnotic, celebratory and wholly uplifting. Short poems of socio-political, philosophic gambits punctuate the 12-track, hour-long CD. Sound for the Organization of Society are an intriguing social/musical aggregation and their music is engaging and thoroughly listenable. (Circumvention)
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Ragazzi – Website fur erregende musik
July 2009
In the booklet there is a photo and they look amazingly normal and well behaved, as if their sound for which they got together would not fit their pretty, young and smart faces, which makes them look like laid-back, mainstream all-world-types (dude from next door/common joe). Nothing freaky or artistic in their looks und they smile as if they would be taking a class picture. Musically on the other hand they are more flipped out, turbulent, extravagant and atonal than most bands playing the well established and known fields between Jazz and rock. Sound for the Organization of Society….as weird as their name, so is their program. Two drummers, three horns, bass, guitar, keyboards and voice talk and play harmonically smoothly arranged, I want to say, never out of the ordinary harsh composition that are more Jazz than rock, free form than modern, avant-garde and new music in a tonal jazz wrapping than jazz. ”Rocktypical” and jazzrock harmonies play a role, NO Wave, Henry Cow, Indonesian gamelan music and blues, as Albert Ayler played it. SOS reflects the vitality of New Orleans as mentioned in their press latter and the ongoing importance of the crescent city.. The band dedicates it’s music to the city, which lost most of it’s jazz places after Hurricane Katrina, and the musicians that lived or are still living in the city. Astonishingly even the craziest and harshest sounds are in some ways still harmonic. The ensemble doesn’t break the open scale in loudness, atonality or improvisatory freedom. As well behaved as they look, so soft is the wildness of their radical pieces. That doesn’t man that the compositions are weak or mainstream, it is the opposite. Looks like the band tries to combine, in a harmonic and easy to follow way, alternative, disharmonic and radical melodic structures. Surely this is not, and the term itself is already stupid: Nu free jazz. The 12 songs always have, and the scale reaches from folkrock with melodic structure to atonal freejazz with turbulent scale passages, a contemplative and comprehensible arrangement that feel inviting, even so at first confusing.
Even Pop music doesn’t happen with just one tone. Urgent (absolut) Recommondation!
(translation: Ingo Deul)
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Eugene Weekly
April 2, 2009
This Thursday, April 2, Sound for the Organization of Society brings its rich, sometimes raucous sound to Cozmic Pizza. The collective improv approach of aggregations like the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Weather Report echoes through the septet’s music, and its members’ diverse backgrounds (they live across the U.S., including a couple in Portland, and have studied with mentors as diverse as Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith and Darrell Grant) add up to a wide range of material that embraces contemporary postclassical, various jazz fusions and more. Definitely a show for listeners who like their jazz adventurous.
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Willamette Week (Portland, OR)
July 30, 2008
Sound for the Organization of Society, Blue Cranes
[AVANT JAZZ] Keyboardist-cellist Andrew Oliver left Portland for New Orleans in 2002, but he was blown back home by a certain stormy lady named Katrina in 2005. While in the Big Easy, he formed the exceptionally accomplished nonet whose highly credentialed members now live around the world and are reconvening for a West Coast tour. With two drummers, two saxes, two keyboards, guitar and more, the group performs stylish, progressive jazz written by all its members. With the fab local jazz crew Blue Cranes opening, this is one of the best jazz shows of the summer.
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The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
July 31, 2008
SOUND FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY
Their potpourri song titles such as “Interval Mechanic,” “For Octet,” “Your Babbling Is Driving Me Crazy,” and “Invisible Beats” tell it all. Too brainy to be described as fusion, this nonet borrows, thieves, and transmutes classic ’70s fusion, funk, and 20th-century avant composition. Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave, 322-1533, 8 pm.
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Eugene Weekly (Eugene, OR)
July 31, 2008Not Your Grandfather’s Big Band
Keyboardist/cellist/composer Andrew Oliver left Portland for New Orleans in 2002 — and three years later was blown back home by a certain stormy lady named Katrina. While in the Big Easy, he formed Sound For the Organization of Society, an exceptionally accomplished nonet whose members boast an impressive range of backgrounds (classical, jazz, rock, microtonal, world music) and mentors (Darrell Grant, Wadada Leo Smith, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano). Now scattered from L.A. to Japan to Madison and points between, they’re reconvening this month for a West Coast tour which alights at Cozmic Pizza on Sunday. Don’t let the band’s somewhat pretentious name keep you away. With two of Oregon’s most adventurous jazzers (Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble founder Oliver and Blue Cranes leader Reed Wallsmith), two drummers, two saxes, guitar, two keyboards and more, the group members all compose and perform some of the most ambitious, progressive jazz-based music you’ll hear this summer. s, two saxes, guitar, two keyboards and more, the group members all compose and perform some of the most ambitious, progressive jazz-based music you’ll hear this summer.
