ROVA Saxophone Quartet Celebrates 40th Anniversary & CD Release in Concert

Rova Saxophone Quartet: a group that can move you the way an Eastern European choir of voices can move you, but also a group with force, a force that can feel as if it is tearing the walls of the listening space down, celebrates its 40th Anniversary and the release of their new CD, "In Transverse Time." Rova will play music from their new CD (on the adventurous Canadian label Victo) and reprise vintage Rova material from the vaults.

Since their beginnings in 1978, ROVA has been able to instigate, to challenge, and to inspire both listeners and other musicians by exploring the synthesis of composition and collective improvisation, creating exciting, genre-bending music.

ROVA remains one of the world's leaders in improvised music, creating remarkable, adventurous art and inspiring generations of fans and fellow musicians. ROVA has toured the world many times, headlining innovative music festivals and collaborating with new music giants such as Anthony Braxton, John Zorn and Terry Riley. Past highlights include their being the first American, new music group to tour the Soviet Union in 1983. A documentary video of the tour, Saxophone Diplomacy, aired on PBS stations throughout the U.S. They returned to the USSR in November 1989 and subsequently released a live CD from the tour, This Time We Are Both (New Albion Records). Between those visits, Rova presented a San Francisco performance by the Ganelin Trio, the first Soviet jazz group to appear in the U.S. The trio performed with Rova at its first Pre-Echoes series.

Rova's efforts to further the sax quartet repertoire have been recognized repeatedly by Meet the Composer. In fact, with 20 commission awards, Rova is the most frequent award recipient in that prestigious program's history

With over two dozen recordings Rova Saxophone Quartet (Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Steve Adams, and Bruce Ackley) has developed an international reputation, recognized as pioneers in the fields of experimental and improvised music. With influences ranging from jazz and contemporary classical/new music to the traditional musics of Africa, Asia, and Europe, Rova's music is improvisational without being free-form, and composed without being predictable.

Recently their Electric Ascension concerts recreated John Coltrane's great Ascension album, and has been performed to universal acclaim at festivals in Europe and the U.S., often featuring great guest musicians such as Andrew Cyrille, Trevor Dunn, Tom Rainey, Hamid Drake, Lisle Ellis, Natsuki Tamura, Peter Evans, Eyvind Kang, Jason Hwang, Zeena Parkins, Elliot Sharp, and Wayne Horvitz, among others. Recently, a fantastic 5-camera concert-video was released as a DVD and Blu-ray, documenting Electric Ascension as performed at the 2012 Guelph Festival, was combined with the documentary "Cleaning the Mirror - the hows and whys behind the making of Electronic Ascension" - to make up a 2 hour package called Rova Channeling Coltrane.

One thing is certain: Rova's music and the events presented by Rova:Arts continue to stimulate the improvised music scene and bring groundbreaking music to wider audiences.

Friday, May 4, 8PM $16adv/$20door https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3390255

Photo Credit: Myles Boisen