Jack Wright & Reuben Radding - This Is Not An Exit (2006)

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Jack Wright & Reuben Radding - This Is Not An Exit (2006)

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RUEBEN RADDING was born in Washington DC to a family of classical musicians, and relocated to New York City in 1988 where he studied contrabass with Mark Dresser and quickly became a busy stalwart of the downtown/improv scene. His powerful sound and sensitive listening has contributed to countless ensembles ranging from Jazz, to Classical, as well as ethnic genres, and he has been featured on over 40 recordings.
His current projects include the Reuben Radding Trio with vibraphonist Matt Moran, and clarinetist Oscar Noriega. Their first album, Intersections, was released in 2005 by Radding's own Pine Ear label featuring his dodecaphonic jazz compositions. The next release from Pine Ear, Fugitive Pieces, is a collection of improvisations derived from graphic and text-based scores featuring Nate Wooley (trumpet), Andrew Drury (percussion), and Matt Bauder (saxophone, clarinet). Radding and Wooley are also members of the group Transit whose CD was released in 2005 by Portugal's Clean Feed label. Frequent collaborations include duo projects with pianist Ursel Schlicht (einstein's dreams, Konnex, 2005), saxophonist Jack Wright (This Is Not An Exit, forthcoming CD from Sachimay Interventions, 2006), Texas trombonist Brian Allen (TromboneContrabass, Braintone, 2005) and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter (much-acclaimed CD, Luminescence on AUM Fidelity), and an improvised chamber trio with Bay-Area violist Tara Flandreau and North Carolina oboeist Carrie Shull (The Branch Will Not Break, Umbrella Recordings, 2005).
Reuben Radding has also performed or recorded with John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Saadet Turkoz, Wally Shoup, Wolfgang Fuchs, John Oswald, Dylan VanDerSchyff, Dave Douglas, John Hollenbeck, Ned Rothenberg, Billy Martin, Scott Rosenberg, Anthony Coleman, Butch Morris and many others.
Reuben Radding is also an accomplished recording engineer and producer, working mostly from his own Studio STATS, in Brooklyn, NY

JACK WRIGHT was born Pittsburgh PA in 1942 and grew up around Philadelphia and Chicago. He began playing saxophone in 1952, with private instruction; meanwhile also singing in groups large and small through 1964, after which he ceased playing music. Attended Lafayette College in Easton PA, where he studied European history and literature and graduated 1964; Johns Hopkins University, MA in European history, 1972; taught history at Temple U. 1968-72, after which he left the academic world. In this latter period he was involved in left politics, organizing on a community level.
In the late seventies he returned to music in earnest, and began playing free improvised music on the saxophone, and piano. He sought out partners in NY and the East Coast, then in 1983 began extensive tours in Europe, which continued until 1986. In the US his partners were Toshi Makihara, Jim Meneses, William Parker, Todd Whitman; in Europe he performed with Hannes Bauer, Joe Sachse, Wigald Boning, Lars Rudolph, Wittwulf Malik, Peter Hollinger, Bernhard Arndt, and Andreas Stehle, touring Germany, England, Switzerland and Italy. In 1984 he began touring the US, either as soloist or with his European partners, Roger Turner and Lars Rudolph, and an American dancer from Chicago, Bob Eisen. In this period of the eighties his music would be considered free jazz, very full and expressive. He was known for playing in places that had never been exposed to free improvisation, and encouraging young players everywhere, such that Davey Williams titled him the 'Johnny Appleseed' of North American free improvisation.
In 1988 he moved to Boulder CO and got involved in painting and writing, continuing his private study of European literature and philosophy. Yet he continued playing, as a member of the local community of players, and touring the US regularly. In the late nineties there was a resurgence of interest in non-idiomatic free improvisation in the US, especially coming from Boston, but increasingly throughout the country. In 2000 Wright did an extensive tour of the West Coast with Boston soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey, and recorded with him in three different groups. His music became largely sound-oriented, using space, texture, and sustained tones, but always with a characteristic energy and musicality. He moved back to the East Coast in 2003 to be closer to his playing partners and now lives in Easton PA. Since then he has become closely involved with the New York scene.
He has presented his music at most of the new improv festivals in the US: four years at High Zero in Baltimore, The Seattle Improv Festival, the SFALT Festival in the Bay Area, California, the Autumn Uprising in Boston, and the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn. In recent years he has renewed his label, Spring Garden Music, which presents his own music and that of his partners. He continues to seek out new partners, and in 2002 returned to Europe to that end, performing with John Butcher, Tony Wren, John Russell, Birgit Uhler, Axel Doerner, Carl-Ludwig Huebsch, Thomas Lehn, LeQuan Ninh, and Michel Doneda. He also played privately with Tim Hodgkinson, Uli Phillipp, Wolfgang Schliemann, Martin Theurer, Andrea Neumann, Michael Griener, Sabine Vogel, and Phil Durrant, among others.

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Jack Wright & Reuben Radding - This Is Not An Exit (2006)

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