Minus Zero

Bandcamp Friday is coming up, the first-Friday-of-the-month sale where the website becomes a nonprofit for a day, donating its cut of all music sales to the artists. It’s a nice gesture on their part, and a great way to support musicians. (Much better than Spotify. I do use Spotify, but independent musicians and creative-music artists lack the “scale of catalog” to earn even couch-cushion change from the platform.)

Bandcamp Friday is fun to support, and it takes on a different, equally glowing feeling when it comes to a nonprofit label that’s giving away its own proceeds already.

Minus Zero, founded in 2017, is an online label that donates its revenues to Planned Parenthood. “Label” might be the wrong word. Minus Zero is more like a community collective, a never-ending bake sale where artists (a combination of Bay Area folks and New Yorkers) can convert some of their work into money to a good cause. 

The catalog is a trove of current and archival recordings, including some live work: 

• ROVA Saxophone Quartet has contributed an album of graphic scores, and you can also buy the scores themselves.
• Vinny Golia contributed his manic Music for Woodwinds, Strings, Piano, and Percussion, originally released on the pfMentum label and reviewed here.
• The terrific improvised-jazz trio of Ben Goldberg, Vijay Anderson, and Sheldon Brown (clarinet/drums/sax) released a group of studio recordings combining full-length tracks and some miniatures
• As noted previously, improv-metal trio Trigger teamed up with vocalist/violinist Dina Maccabee to create a nice noisy album.

A lot of Minus Zero’s output takes advantage of the lack of a physical format — no LP sides or CDs to fill:

• Live at Temescal Arts, by Josh Marshall and Daniel Pearce, is a 22-minute sax/drums improvisation, energetic and thoughtful.
• Small Cities, by Vinnie Sperrazza and Noa Fort, is an 8-minute handful of percussion miniatures.
• Drummer Jordan Glenn’s group BEAK put forth a clutch of live tracks.

And there’s plenty more to explore from the likes of Beth Custer, Lisa Mezzacappa, Ava Mendoza, Marco Eneidi (!), John Tchicai, and Robert Dick. The label’s newest releases include For Diane, a multi-artist album of piano solos in tribute to the late Diane Moser. Plenty to explore, and this Friday marks a particularly nice moment to lay down a few dollars in support.

Separately, Minus Zero has forwarded around this group of links pertaining to the political assault on healthcare and women’s reproductive rights. If this isn’t the right time for you to support the cause with your wallet, you can support it in spirit by staying educated:

NPR 
www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/02/1022860226/long-drives-costly-flights-and-wearying-waits-what-abortion-requires-in-the-sout

Texas Tribune 
www.texastribune.org/2021/05/18/texas-heartbeat-bill-abortions-law/
www.texastribune.org/2021/07/13/texas-heartbeat-bill-lawsuit/

Democracy Now 
www.democracynow.org/2021/7/13/reproductive_rights_roe_v_wade_scotus

AP (Montana) 
apnews.com/article/health-abortion-laws-montana-planned-parenthood-92274e5af2f373b9a1fae952e2c4367c

Guttmacher Institute 
www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-policy-absence-roe#

ROVA’s Celebration of Butch Morris

ROVA: Orchestrova — No Favorites! (for Butch Morris) (New World, 2016)

The beauty of conduction, Lawrence “Butch” Morris’ method for conducted improvisation, is in the silences.

Anybody could conduct a large improvising group into a formless junkyard sound. (Maybe not anybody. I’ve tried it.) But a conduction moves in distinct syllables, bursts of activity from parts of the group that start and stop on command. The small silences between segments are your proof that something here as been created with precision and forethought.

No Favorites! isn’t an album of pure conduction, but it’s in the same spirit, using conduction, graphical scores, and text instructions to coax unified pieces out of 11 improvisers. It’s an exercise in community.

In fact, the album documents a June 2015 concert in honor of Morris, where the ROVA Saxophone Quartet teamed up with a foursome of strings (violin, viola, cello, bass), and — adding a nice electric jolt — three “rock” instruments (electric guitar, electric bass, drums). The three pieces, written by ROVA members, are meant to be played as a full program, preferably using the same combinations of instruments.

ROVA has posted the scores and instructions to all three pieces here. Reading them beforehand enriches the listening experience immensely.

The strengths of conduction are well displayed on “Nothing Stopped / But a Future,” the lone piece featuring Gino Robair as conductor. Under his direction, the band darts and weaves, cleanly flipping channels to each new phase. Robair builds it all to a satisfyingly drawn-out conclusion with big, dramatic tones and just enough discord to retain the improvised feeling, even during the composed phrases.

“Contours of the Glass Head,” spanning 27 minutes, moves more deliberately, with the band lingering over a each of eight segments. The score consists of short paragraphs of text, describing environments for the group to dwell in

Some of those instructions appear to play off of pre-notated segments. Here’s part of a segment titled “Cycler Duos,” described thusly: “Designated pairs play short, repeated rhythmic ideas, eventually leading to a duo of Larry Ochs on tenor with Jordan Glenn on drums.”

 
“Contours” is a conduction piece, but this time, everybody shares the conductor’s duties. Like “Nothing Stopped,” it builds up to a definite conclusion, an agreed-upon crescendo that builds gradually, then wraps up abruptly.

Source: ROVA

The instrumental groupings (strings/rock/ROVA) are crucial to “The Double Negative,” which starts with each group giving an opening statement, directed by graphical scores. You get whispery strings, a delicate sax quartet, and as an exclamation point, a guitar-bass-drums segment anchored by Jason Hoopes‘ rattling bass. The piece ends with the three groups merging in a glorious slow crash.

Overall, there’s so much to savor. I’ve mentioned Hoopes’ guitar sound. The strings add moods from pensive to angry to madcap, led by Christina Stanley‘s violin and Tara Flandreau‘s viola. I haven’t heard John Shiurba on electric guitar much lately, and his sonically destructive crunch is just the right sound to get some of these segments really going.

And of course, there’s ROVA, punching and dancing as individuals or as a cooperative. They’ve planted Morris’ fingerprints all over this music, and it’s a fitting tribute.

ROVA & Saxophone Special

Source: emanemdisc.com.

ROVA Saxophone Quartet will pay homage to Steve Lacy with a performance of his album Saxophone Special on Wednesday Sept. 16 at the Center for New Music (55 Taylor St., San Francisco).

Lacy is the band’s collective hero and was also a friend. And for them, Saxophone Special stands out in Lacy’s catalogue because it’s a saxophone quartet album, recorded from a one-time concert with three other sax players, guitar, and synthesizer. The “three others” aren’t just others — they’re giants of the improvised music genre: Evan Parker, Steve Potts, and Trevor Watts.

Released by the Emanem label in 1976, Saxophone Special was one of the albums that “led to the formation of Rova in 1977-78,” according to the band’s press blurb.

The Sept. 16 concert, with Kyle Bruckmann on electronics and Henry Kaiser on electric guitar, serves as both an encore and a warm-up, because ROVA performed Saxophone Special once already, in July, and is scheduled to record its own version of the album next week.

Saxophone Special is out of print — both the orignal LP and Emanem’s expanded CD version. Close to its orbit, however, is the newly reissued ROVA album Favorite Street, a 1984 collection of Lacy tunes. Here’s a link to that album on eMusic.

Fred Ho Memorial Concert, Sunday in Oakland

The world had better damn well miss Fred Ho. Radical, revolutionary, bandleader, writer, philosophizer — he was a brash, larger-than-life character, the type who doesn’t come into jazz’s orbit much any more. He championed the baritone sax specifically for its loud, unyielding sound.

His fight with colorectal cancer, which ended early this year, drew generous platitudes from the media, not for the tragedy of the story but for his inspirational energy and determination. He released CDs and was awarded a Harvard Arts Medal, and he managed to get one final master work onto the stage.

The ROVA Saxophone Quartet commissioned a work from Ho, back when. “Beyond Columbus and Capitalism” appeared on The Works (Volume 2) in 1996, and they’ll be revisiting it for a concert Sunday afternoon at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

The piece plays like a big-band suite, with those same tight horn harmonies and some aggressive swinging rhythms. Like most of Ho’s work, it’s a fun ride — and it includes a burly, unaccompanied solo for the baritone sax, of course.

For more about Ho, check out his Big Red Media web site (which automatically launches a music player, so be forewarned); an early 2014 NPR interview; a detailed, pre-cancer, 2005 interview for Harvard Magazine, and his elegant obituary in The New York Times.

Here’s the info about the concert, cut-and-pasted from ROVA’s mailer.

STRUGGLE FOR A NEW WORLD: Fred Ho Memorial

Sunday, September 7, 2:00 – 4:30 PM

Oakland Asian Cultural Center
9th Street #290
Oakland 94607

The memorial will feature performance by many of the forward-thinking artists touched by Fred Ho‘s significant cultural contribution. Rova will perform Ho‘s 1992 composition, Beyond Columbus and Capitalism, a work commissioned by Rova through The Meet the Composer / Reader‘s Digest Commissioning Program.

Other performers include: Ben Barson, Royal Hartigan, Mark Izu, Jon Jang, Masaru Koga, Genny Lim, Hafez Modirzadeh, John Carlos Perea, Akira Tana, Marty Wehner, Francis Wong, Brenda Wong Aoki, with speaker/emcees: Diane Fujino and Matef Harmachis.

Favorite Street: Steve Lacy Remembered

It’s hard to believe Steve Lacy passed away 10 years ago this week. Doesn’t seem that long ago.

For many musicians in the Bay Area, Lacy was a contemporary, a peer, a mentor, a correspondent, and even a fan. They knew him and admired his work, and his passing at the age of 70 was like a color dropping from the spectrum.

So when the members of ROVA Saxophone Quartet arranged a commemorative concert, it also served as a 10-year wake and a community catharsis. Held at the Community Music Center in San Francisco, back on June 6, the show was a celebration of Lacy’s music, a chance to share memories, and a repainting of Favorite Street, ROVA’s 1984 album of Lacy compositions. (The CD is even back in print, part of a re-emergence of the Black Saint record label, although ROVA noted it might be hard to find in stores.)

I wanted to see the show not just for the music, but to learn a little more about Lacy and his influence.

Bruce Ackley did a lot of the talking for ROVA, explaining how Lacy’s influence had crept into their musical lives. ROVA members would attend many a Lacy show — and he would attend theirs in turn. (Lacy, a native New Yorker, spent most of his career in Paris and was a frequent Bay Area visitor. ROVA probably encountered him in both places.)

Ben Goldberg talked about the album Evidence, which he and ROVA both mentioned as a key influence. It’s got Steve Lacy and Don Cherry, but more importantly, it came out in 1961, when Lacy wasn’t as well known. His records weren’t numerous and were hard to come by. Evidence was a portal into a new sound world and a revelation, to hear the musicians tell it.

Years later, Goldberg received the news of Lacy’s death just days before a previously booked studio date. That album — which would become The Door, the Hat, the Chair, the Fact — was meant to be an homage, songs Goldberg assembled upon hearing Lacy had cancer. It turned into an emotional therapy session, as the whole community was rocked by Lacy’s passing. One track is a brief, classically styled song, “Cortege,” where the lyrics are the text of a fax Lacy sent Goldberg. The concluding line is a casual comment by Lacy that becomes poetic in its new context: “I am hardly here these days.”

The Concert

The first act was a variation of the quartet Cylinder, with bassist Doug Stewart sitting in for the traveling Lisa Mezzacappa. They started with a thundering take on “Trickles,” a fast-moving free-jazz rendition propelled by Kjell Nordesson’s drums and percussion. Aram Shelton (sax) and Darren Johnston (trumpet) took the lead voices, spelling out Lacy’s melodies — which have always struck me as simple and playful, but bent with a foreign accent of a country only Lacy’s mind could inhabit — and spiraling into solos inspired by the music. Johnston, in particular, seemed to be working the Monk-like strategy of using the melody to overtly build a solo (Monk being a fascination of Lacy’s, of course).

Where the Cylinder group presented Lacy in a jazz context, the duo of Michael Coleman (piano) and Ben Goldberg (clarinet) showed off a more classical-oriented side, more akin to a recital-plus-improvisation. It turns out they were, in fact, playing Lacy’s etudes, a book of intentionally difficult exercises called Hocus Pocus. For much of the set, Coleman and Goldberg played the melodies in unison, the piano following the same fractally linear paths as the clarinet. Coleman expertly darted and dodged his way through, sometimes tripping up but always able to jump back in within a couple of sixteenth notes; it was all very impressive.

On a few occasions, Coleman had arranged chords to go along with the themes, adding unexpected and dramatic effects. “Herky Jerky” took on a deep ocean-waves color; it didn’t remind me of McCoy Tyner but it was that same monumental spirit. “Hustles,” dedicated to Niccolo Paganini, got a brief passage of insane circus music (at least, I’m pretty sure it was the Paganini piece and not the one dedicated to Karl Wallenda).

During ROVA’s set, I found myself suddenly paying attention to rhythms. This might have been because they opened with the funky bassline of “The Throes,” with Jon Raskin chugging away at the baritone sax. Several pieces also broke the group into a 2×2 format, with duets playing counterbalancing themes — again, tickling the ear’s sense of rhythm. While they played the songs from Favorite Street, some of them got new interpretations. (I know that not because I’m a brilliant Lacy-ologist, but because Steve Adams contributed some arrangements, and he wasn’t in ROVA in 1984.) It was a joyous set that ended with a new arrangement of “Cliches,” a track that’s not on the album.

It was a concert, a remembrance, and an education. I’m glad I was able to be there.

Flanked by Drummers

1. Just because you think of something doesn’t mean you should blog it.

2. Oh, what the heck.

There is no reason to expect two bands to sound the same just because they use the same instrumentation. Rock music makes that obvious. The raw materials that go into steel girders can also be used to produce silverware.

Even so, I recently found myself contrasting the John Lurie National Orchestra with the Larry Ochs Sax and Drumming Core. Both groups consist of one saxophone and two drummers — with the drummers being essential to the sound. But the two bands travel towards different destinations.

Lurie’s album, Men With Sticks, consists of three improvisations. I came across this one when it was released in 1993, and while I’d become a fan of the Lounge Lizards, I was scared off by the 36-minute span of the opening track, “If I Sleep the Plane Will Crash.” Loved the title, feared the scope. About a decade later, I snatched up the album and enjoyed it immensely.

Calvin Weston and Billy Martin, two huge names in adventurous mainstream jazz, flank Lurie’s sax. Their drums meld into one determined, driving groove, full of tiny details and subrhythms, while Lurie flutters and buzzes on his sax. It’s one big, joyous jam, and it doesn’t slow down for quite some time.

Eventually, Lurie sits out, and you suddenly realize just how much is going on under the surface of that beat. Lots of tiny changes and polyrhythms get spat out from the drums.

This album gives me the same impression I got with Pat Metheny’s Zero Tolerance for Silence, namely, that the first track is the project, and the rest of the album is like a B-side. Two shorter tracks round out the album, and while they do tread new ground — one starts with a quieter, relaxed attitude, for example — you get the feeling that the statement has already been made.

Sax and Drumming Core has a different purpose altogether. (Which I knew going into this exercise, and maybe that’s coloring my listening. I’ve seen this band at least twice and heard all three of their albums — and reviewed the most recent one, Stone Shift, here.)

Sax and Drumming Core is highly improvised, but it plays off of Ochs’ compositions. The band also covers a lot of ground — fast versus loud versus quiet versus slow. Men with Sticks feels like an idea put down on record. Sax and Drumming Core is more calculated, a band assembled for the creation of a body of work.

Drummers Scott Amendola and Donald Robinson are held apart, each drum in one speaker, to highlight the contrasts in their styles, and the visual experience of watching them work separately was a crucial part of their live sets.

Their first album, The Neon Truth (Black Saint, 2002), opens with “Wrong Right Wrong,” a spiky piece where the melody is intentionally off-putting; it’s aggressive and ugly, in a good way. The drums stab out at their own will, behaving as separated but symbiotic entities, composers in their own right.

They’re given a grand showcase in “Finn Crosses Mars,” an energetic, 11-minute piece that includes a spirited drum duet, nice and loud. I also love the subtle space created in “Xanic Rides Again,” where Ochs burbles relatively calmly, surrounded by ethereal cymbals played like gongs, or by the careful patter of drum brushes, applied sparely.

I guess the final analysis is that I hadn’t listened to either of these albums in a while and wanted to hear them again. I like them both. Lurie’s National Orchestra makes for simpler listening; it demands less concentration, although concentration certainly gets rewarded as you peer into the Weston/Martin groove. But Sax and Drumming Core feels to me like a richer brew, full of fresh challenges.

(For more: read the anecdote about someone calling the cops on Sax and Drumming Core.)

ROVA’s Ascension

“Ascension” has become a signature piece for the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, or at least a favored experiment-in-progress. They’ve performed the album-length Coltrane epic at least seven times, usually under the auspices of “OrkestROVA,” where the quartet gets augmented with other great musicians. They’ve recorded it twice, once in acoustic form (on Black Saint, 1998) and later — with Nels Cline and others on hand — in a searing reading called “Electric Ascension” (on Atavistic, 2005).

They’d like to document the next performance of “Electric Ascension” on video, and there’s a Kickstarter fund underway to help with the substantial costs.

The performance, at September’s Guelph Jazz Festival (an hour west of Toronto), will feature a stellar crew of current and former Bay Area musicians, most (if not all) of whom have played a ROVA “Ascension” before. Special guests augmenting the band will include cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Hamid Drake. The “electric” part will be provided by Nels Cline (guitar), Fred Frith (bass), and Ikue Mori and Chris Brown (electronics).

That performance will happen regardless. The Kickstarter money would fund a highly professional filming of the concert, capturing this epic work in its entirety, with a visual scope to go along with the audio documents of the past. As ROVA’s Kickstarter pitch puts it, “a five-camera, high quality video of Electric Ascension, performed in its entirety, will be an unprecedented musical document.”

There’s more: The concert footage would punctuate Cleaning the Mirror, a documentary about the evolution of “Electric Ascension.” The film, four years in the making, follows the musicians as they develop “Electric Ascension” and explore their relationships with Coltrane’s music and this epic piece.

The original Ascension is probably familiar to anybody who’s curious enough to find this blog. The idea is deceptively simple: a majestic theme, played by the band, followed by a succession of solos, with composed or pre-arranged material appearing between solos.

It’s not just a 50-minute blowout. In past ROVA shows, a band leader used hand cues to indicate which pre-written segment would emerge next, and to trigger a soloing section or a large-group attack. (Coltrane apparently used hand cues as well, according to the liner notes to the Black Saint album.) The music is big, aggressive and mighty, but it adheres to a plan. The concert audience gets a taste of that plan, and now a video audience would be able to as well.

(There’s also the fact that the band playing “Ascension” has to be big. As I’d remarked before, the song takes on a different vibe when played by a smaller group.)

I don’t think it’s out of character with Coltrane’s late period to consider “Ascension” to be a live quest for a truth. It’s a spirit rally, a “seance,” as one review put it. That’s what makes the piece worth revisiting, and it’s what makes the process worth documenting.

Plenty of worthy concerts, CDs, and tours are seeking funds on Kickstarter. This film is a little different — more ambitious, more historic. Let’s help make it happen.

Upcoming Shows: 6/3/11 and Onward

Lots going on in Bay Area music circles for the next several days.  In chronological order, starting with tonight:

* Mission Eye and Ear — The latest in Lisa Mezzacappa‘s ongoing series of film/music collaborations, featuring short films with live-performed soundtracks. Tonight’s installment includes music by Darren Johnston, Aaron Novik, and Matt Ingalls. There’s a little more information in this article about Mezzacappa’s own band. At Artists Television Access (992 Valencia Street @21st, San Francisco), Friday June 3, 8:00 p.m.

* ROVA + DJ Olive + DJ P-Love — As mentioned here, it’s the 33-1/3rd anniversary of ROVA’s first concert, and they’re celebrating with an SFJazz-sponsored, one-time concert.  At Swedish American Hall (2174 Market St., San Francisco; same place as Cafe Du Nord), Saturday June 4, 8:00 p.m.

* sfSound — The modern-classical troupe performs a daytime set inspired by the Legion of Honor’s exhibit, “Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Bochgrave.” Compositions will be interspersed with group improvisations. The program mentions some early-music influence, but don’t count on hearing harpsichords and recorders. Concert is free with museum admission. At the Legion of Honor Museum (100 34th St., San Francisco), Sunday June 5, 12:00 noon.

* ROOM: Longer Burning — Pamela Z‘s ROOM series of shows has spotlighted individual instruments from time to time. Now it’s the violas’ turn. Hank Dutt (Kronos Quartet), Charlton Lee (Del Sol String Quartet), and Jhno (better known to me for electronics work) will perform solo and together and with Pamela Z. The program’s title comes from the classic portfolio of viola jokes that classical players know.  At Royce Gallery (2901 Mariposa St., San Francisco), Sunday June 5, 8:00 p.m.

* Michael Formanek Quartet — Part of a West-coast tour with the band from The Rub and Spare Change:  Formanek (bass), Tim Berne (sax), Craig Taborn (keys), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). Previously noted here. A rare chance to see these guys in California. At Yoshi’s Oakland (501 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, Oakland), Monday June 6, 8:00 p.m.

UPDATE:  The L.A. Times has a review of Formanek’s June 1 performance at the Blue Whale.

* Jazz at the Make-Out Room — First-Monday jazz returns to this friendly Mission District bar. I think they’d had to move elsewhere for a month or two, so hopefully, the bar has welcomed them back. (This is another series that was being organized by Lisa Mezzacappa.) This installment includes the Steve Adams Trio (Adams being from ROVA), Doug Stuart’s Catfish, and the latest edition of Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy.  Adams did a Trio album a while back, eventually released on Clean Feed; Forward Energy is an improv-jazz group that’s been Ryan’s vehicle for a couple of decades at least. Because it’s at a bar, there’s a good chance they’ll start late — meaning it might be possible to catch both Formanek and this show. BART could do the Bay-crossing for you. At the Make-Out Room (3225 22nd St., San Francisco), Monday June 6, 8:00 p.m.

ROVA/Nels Cline Webcast Tonight

The ROVA Saxophone Quartet and The Nels Cline Singers (combined to form The Celestial Septet) will perform tonight (Feb. 22) in Philadelphia, and you can watch it on a live, free webcast: http://arsnova.webillishus.com.  The concert starts at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.

The concert and webcast are the product of Ars Nova Workshop, an impressive Philly organization that brings free jazz and creative music artists into town for concerts. The group plays host to Philly’s own musical community sometimes, but more often, they draw from the deep pool of NYC talent, probably taking advantage of being within driving distance. I’ve been to one of their shows — Tim Berne’s Bloodcount reunion at the International House in 2008 — and the operation is impressive in its organization and its ability to draw an audience.

I don’t believe that musicians benefit every time they give away their work for free. But here’s one instance where it probably doesn’t hurt. Fans in California certainly can’t attend the Philly show. And those in Philadelphia who are interested in the music have plenty of incentive to see it in person. Key to that second point is that the Ars Technica shows are hand-picked and infrequent — maybe a half-dozen shows per month — which keeps the series fresh in terms of novelty and quality. (But just in case fans don’t realize that, the webcast is being blocked in Philly.)

The value of a webcast is doubled in the case of The Celestial Septet, given that the band isn’t easy to convene; the five shows on this tour might be their last for a long while. That’s why Ars Technica is going through this effort, which sounds like a one-off project. I hope it goes well. Most of the groups in this genre are necessarily ephemeral, and some video documentation would go a long way. And it would help nurture fan bases in remote areas like mine, where it’s just too costly for east-coasters to tour.

My review of The Celestial Septet (the CD) is here.

There’s a similar philosophy — albeit an entirely different purpose and result — in the Telematics concerts that Mark Dresser has been participating in, where groups of musicians in different cities are linked together via Internet2, a high-speed Internet offshoot that links research sites. As Dresser mentions at the end of this All About Jazz essay, Telematics is not a substitute for live, in-person interaction. It’s a good alternative, though, given today’s economic realities. It’s a subject I’m hoping to investigate more in the coming weeks.

ROVA’s Russian Return

ROVA plays tonight (Feb. 19) in Marin County, at The Dance Palace Community Center in Point Reyes. Then they’re touring the northeast.

ROVA Saxophone Quartet — Planetary (SoLyd, 2010)

Planetary is a nice slice of classic ROVA, in my imprecise idea of what “classic” means. While it’s great seeing or hearing the band doing full-on improvisation with graphical scores, or appearing in augmented form with electronics (see the upcoming 33-1/3 concert or The Celestial Septet), there’s always something to be said for the straight lineup of four acoustic saxophones and some robust composing.

The other reason why “classic” comes to mind is because Planetary, released on a Russian label, extends ROVA’s connection to what used to be the Soviet Union.

In 1983, before the Iron Curtain fell, out-there jazz was outlawed — which, of course, created a thriving underground scene. ROVA accepted an invitation to make a clandestine tour through Russia, Latvia, and Romania. It sounds like it was tremendous fun, and they were treated like underground rock stars. The results came out on the CD, Saxophone Diplomacy (Hat Hut, 1991).

ROVA would return in 1989 for a formally welcomed tour — bigger venues and probably bigger audiences, but not the same enthusiasm, according to liner notes on the CD, This Time We Are Both (New Albion, 1991).

In addition to those recordings, there’s a marvelous double CD called San Francisco Holidays (Leo, 1992) by the Ganelin Trio, a Soviet group that Leo had been championing. It documents the Ganelins’ 1986 trip out west, including a couple of short performances with the trio and ROVA combined.

Planetary itself has no direct ties to Russia, other than the SoLyd label. The recordings, from 2003 and 2009, were made in the East Bay rather than Eastern Europe. But it’s still a nice excuse to revisit the whole Soviet story.

The album consists of two tracks by Larry Ochs (ROVA’s “O”) and two by Steve Adams (nominally, the “V”). As you’d expect, the songs combine aggressive group work with more thoughtful moments, the latter often in the form of untethered playing by subsets of the quartet.

Ochs is good at writing really chipper themes for the quartet (a fave of mine is “Torque,” from This Time We Are Both). His track, “Planetary,” does take you on a 17-minute journey, but don’t expect something reverentially cosmic. A catchy opening theme is followed by a suite of solos, including what I think are long stretches of Ochs unaccompanied — gruff and blustery in an almost comical way for one long stretch; later, calm and colorfully kinetic. It ends with a gravely shrill march, maybe a nod to Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War.”

Ochs’ other composition, “S,” starts by playing around with overlapping sax lines for a tumbling, perpetual-motion sensation. Later themes get more swingy, providing backdrop for individual members’ solos.

Adams’ tracks include the breathy, wandering “Parallel Construction #1” and its perkier companion, “Parallel Construction #2.” They take similar themes and carve different pathways with them — “#1” has a wide-open feel and a chamber-music lilt, while “#2” gets more dense and frenzied. Adams also contributes a peppy, upbeat track called “Flip Trap.”

The track that’s easy to overlook, because it’s quiet, is Adams’ “Glass Head Concretion.” It creeps along, starting with careful foreshadowing and light tension, working its way through some ostinato themes and composed passages that are actually quite catchy, if you don’t let them drift past unnoticed. It’s full of long tones and agile but whispered soloing — a great, close listen if you’re in a quiet environment.

The “SoLyd” link up top connects you to the distributor Forced Exposure. You can also purchase the CD directly from ROVA.