Mark Dresser, Bass / Vladimir Tarasov, Percussion / Larry Ochs, Sopranino and Tenor Saxophones

Three long-time masters of the improvised music world – MARK DRESSER – LARRY OCHS – VLADIMIR TARASOV - team up as Jones Jones for genuinely touching, sometimes meditative and sometimes explosive sets of music. 

‘Supergroup’ is old rock music terminology.  I know no one in Jones Jones thinks of themselves in those terms.  Nevertheless, each one of these musicians has been involved in critical groundbreaking music in important ensembles outside of double Jones.  The interesting thing is if you mention the classic Anthony Braxton Quartet (Braxton, Crispell, Dresser, Hemingway), the Rova Saxophone Quartet (Ochs, Ackley, Raskin, Voigt) or the Ganelin Trio (Ganelin, Tarasov, Chekasin), despite the game-changing music produced by each of these bands, there’s no guarantee that people today will make the connection.  Pity, I can’t stress enough just how groundbreaking those three early 1980’s strands of history are to the development of the post-new wave of avant garde jazz today. Dresser, Ochs and Tarasov, otherwise known as 'Jones Jones', are no throw-back to past glories.  They inhabit our millennium as contemporary Global nomads.They each have homes, they chose to travel. --- Steve Day in SandyBrownJazz.co.uk (review of The Moscow Improvisations)

Note: The band plans a tour of Europe from May 16 to May 26, 2024, including 2 major concerts May 24 and 25 in Lithuania. More news as details come in

Performing entirely improvised music, every Jones Jones musical performance adds up to something unique that could only have happened within this particular trio configuration. The band performed in Europe in June/July 2008 in Amsterdam, St Petersburg and festivals in Lithuania and Latvia. Jones Jones also was featured at The 2009 Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, California. The group then returned to Europe for the Moscow Bienniale in 2010, where its show was recorded live. That recording was released in late April 2016 by the CD label Not Two and is called The Moscow Improvisations.  (A first CD entitled We All Feel the Same Way was produced by the Moscow label SoLyd in time for the trio’s appearance during the 2010 Moscow Biennale; currently out of print but available from online retailers.) USA shows and tours occurred between 2012 and 2016. The trio performed two concerts in Moscow in 2016. “A Jones in Time Saves Nine” - a recording of pieces performed in California in 2016 - will release on No Businsess Records in early 2018.

 

From: Dusty Groove:

There's no keeping up with these Joneses – as the well-matched trio is alive with energy throughout – really moving past any expectations we might have based on the individual players, as they make all these fantastic choices throughout – and find ways to really reach forward as a single unit, in a range of really wonderful sounds! Bassist Mark Dresser may well be our favorite part of the triangle here – as he's got this sonorous power that's completely compelling – often echoing the work of Larry Ochs on tenor and soprano saxes, but also very much standing apart – while Vladimir Tarasov moves between punctuated passages and more textural aspects of his work on drums and percussion. Titles include "A Fistful Of Jones", "Twelve Angry Jones", "Three Jones Outside Ebbing Missouri", and "The Jones Who Knew Too Much".  © 2019, Dusty Groove, Inc.

 

Jones Jones Discography:

We All Feel The Same Way (recorded live in 2008 / released on SoLyd 2010)

The Moscow Improvisations (recorded live 2010 / released 2016 on Not Two))

A Jones In Time Saves Nine (recorded live 2016) /  released 2018 on No Business Records

Just Justice (recorded in a studio in January 2020 / will be released March 2022 on ESP-Disk’

 

MARK DRESSER (USA) is an internationally acclaimed bass player, improviser, composer, and  interdisciplinary collaborator. A major focus has been extending the sonic and musical possibilities of the double bass through the use of unconventional amplification. A chapter on his extended techniques for contrabass, “A Personal Pedagogy,” appears in the book, ARCANA. He is documented in over one hundred recordings including nearly thirty CDs as a soloist, band-leader or co-leader. For eighteen years he lived and worked in New York City where he recorded and performed with some of the strongest personalities in contemporary music and jazz including nine years with Anthony Braxton. In 2001 he was nominated for a Grammy. He is Professor of Music at University of California, San Diego. He has also been a lecturer at Princeton University, faculty at the New School University, and Hampshire College. He is on the board of directors of the International Society of Bassists and the advisory board of International Society of Improvised Music.  www.mark-dresser.com

 

VLADIMIR TARASOV (LT) was described by Nat Hentoff (in The Wall Street Journal) as a master of decorative brushwork, “a drummer of rare subtlety and cunning, who takes sensual delight in the very touch of his extensive array of instruments, from finger chimes to cymbals.” From 1971 to 1986, Tarasov was a member of the well-known contemporary jazz trio – GTC/The Ganelin Trio. With the Trio and many other artists and orchestras he has recorded more than 100 records and CDs including numerous solo performances. He has written music for orchestras, film, and theatre: Staatstheater, Stuttgart – 1995, Majestic Theater at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York – 1995; Josef Nadj Centre Choreographique National Orleans, Orleans – 1998, 2004; Theatre Vidy-Lausanne, Meierhold Centre, Moskow – 2003, etc.  Vladimir Tarasov has performed with such musicians as Andrew Cyrille, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Lauren Newton, Butch Morris, Thomas Stanko, Gyorgy Szabados, Masahiko Satoh, among others. For more information please visit www.vladimirtarasov.com.

 

As a member of Rova Saxophone Quartet since 1977, LARRY OCHS  (USA)  has made more than two-dozen CDs and 40 tours to Europe and Japan. He has recorded dozens of CDs with his other touring bands including Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core with Scott Amendola, Don Robinson, Satoko Fujii, and Natsuki Tamura ("Stone Shift"- 2009 CD; next CD in 2015 on Rogue Art) and Kihnoua with vocalist/performance artist Dohee Lee, Scott Amendola and special guests ("The Sybil’s Whisper"- 2012 CD - music samples here). He is performing in and composing for more “collective” bands such as: East-West Collective - with Didier Petit, Sylvain Kassap, Miya Masaoka, Xu Fengxia ("Humeurs" - 2014 CD - music samples); Ochs-Robinson Duo with drummer Don Robinson (2014 CD = The Throne - l); Jones Jones - with Mark Dresser and Vladimir Tarasov ("We All Feel the Same Way"- 2010 CD- music samples); Maybe Monday - with Miya Masaoka and Fred Frith (Unsquare -2008 CD);  Shelton-Ochs Quartet with Aram Shelton, Kjell Nordeson and Mark Dresser;  Trio Dave Rempis- Darren Johnston- Larry Ochs (Spectral- 2014 CD - preview track). Details on tours and recordings, and several interviews at www.ochs.cc. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, John Lindberg, Scott Amendola, Andrew Cyrille, Butch Morris, Marilyn Crispell, Henry Kaiser, Wadada Leo Smith, Peggy Lee and many others. www.ochs.cc

 

Latest Release

Jones Jones : A Jones In Time Saves Nine

NoBusiness Records (2019)  Read more..

Bandcamp audio