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ESPDISK 5042CD
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The second album by this all-star quartet Far Victor's SoundNoiseFunk -- both on ESP-Disk' -- was recorded over two sets mixing planned and freely improvised music. It is a cry of frustration, but also determination and celebration. Frustration with the state of our country, determination to do something about it, and celebration of the power and joy of spontaneous creativity. There are so many things contributing to this album's joyousness in the face of adversity: the funky grooves that Joe Morris and Reggie Nicholson sometimes lock into; the sonic derring-do of Newsome; the breath-of-life singing of Faye Victor that balances radical and traditional, naturalness and craft. Most of all, the way the players' talents mesh into a greater whole. Recorded in concert at Firehouse 12 in New Haven on October 25, 2019. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg DiCrosta. Produced by Steve Holtje. Credits: Fay Victor - voice, texts, compositions; Sam Newsome - soprano saxophone; Joe Morris - electric guitar; Reggie Nicholson - drums. Design & layout by Jochem van Dijk. Liner notes by Fay Victor.
"Wet Robots is her debut record as a leader for ESP-Disk', and it's a doozy. The supergroup that the improviser/lyricist calls SoundNoiseFunk -- is entirely deserving of its name -- their red-hot chemistry is evident from the get-go. On Wet Robots, Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFunk sound extraordinarily alive indeed." --Brad Cohan (JazzTimes) on Wet Robots (ESPDISK 5025CD, 2018)
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CD
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ESPDISK 5025CD
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Wet Robots is Fay Victor's first album as a leader released on an American label other than her own Greene Street Music, but she is already a star on the New York avant-jazz scene. From Bradley Bambarger's liner notes: "Few vocalists have the sheer boldness -- the outright fearlessness -- of Fay Victor as an improviser. The New York native has long been a creative force on the avant-jazz scene, as a singer, bandleader, composer, arranger, and teacher. She has worked on both sides of the Atlantic with the likes of Misha Mengelberg, Roswell Rudd, and Anthony Braxton, along with recording several distinctive albums as a leader. Reviewing her recent disc Absinthe & Vermouth (2013), NPR declared evocatively that Fay's original songs sound 'as if Joni Mitchell wrote lyrics for a lost Betty Carter prog-rock album -- and it totally works.' Fay has also recorded edgy blues in a duo with guitarist Anders Nilsson, and she is an inspired re-animator of vintage instrumentals as vocal material, in the spirit of Carmen McRae in Monk ; to this end, Fay has performed with her In Praise of Ornette group and with her house-rocking Herbie Nichols Sung band. Now we have on record Fay's SoundNoiseFUNK quartet, featuring Joe Morris, Sam Newsome, and Reggie Nicholson -- each an exceptional maker of music in the moment. Although Fay enjoyed a rapport with each of these players in various combinations, this foursome had never played together as a unit before the single summer day last year when Wet Robots was captured in a Brooklyn studio. If jazz is the sound of surprise, this album startles -- a sonic funhouse of left turns. The band floats in its own space, untethered by a bass. Morris's guitar moves like a snake. Newhouse keens, taps, sighs on the straight horn. Nicholson makes his percussion set-up a skittering, rattling thing. Then there is Fay -- her voice primal and wild, as attuned to unfettered expression as Albert Ayler's tenor."
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