An Alligator in Your Wallet
Steve Adams: alto saxophone
? A Zebra on Your Roof (Fujii) (9:51)
? An Alligator in Your Wallet (Fujii) (8:17)
? Survival (in Five Acts) (Adams) (16:14)
? Chuck (Adams) (16:07)
2004, ewe, CD0069
Satoko Fujii: piano
Natsuki Tamura: trumpet
Darren Johnston: trumpet
Michael Vlatkovich: trombone
Tom Yoder: trombone
Carla Kihlstedt: violin
Ken Filiano: bass
Scott Amendola: drums, electronics
Bruce Ackley: soprano saxophone
Larry Ochs: tenor saxophone, sopranino on track 8
Jon Raskin: baritone saxophone
At least once a year, Rova becomes much more than the world's premier avant-garde saxophone quartet. By commissioning new works under the auspices of their own Rova:Arts
organization, and rallying a host of tremendously gifted and adventuresome co-conspirators (mostly from the fertile San Francisco Bay Area scene), Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Bruce
Ackley, and Steve Adams become the reed section of Orkestrova, which in turn becomes the high-powered vehicle for startling new pieces that have been specially devised to expand
upon the fundamental Rova modus operandi of "comprovisation." The occasion for An Alligator in Your Wallet was Rovaté 2002, two nights of concerts that were part of Rova's 25th
Anniversary. The first of three enigmatically titled pieces on this live recording embody Fujii's notion of the "unexpected discoveries" that present themselves when musicians - especially those rooted in different cultures - meet in performance for the first time... The two remaining pieces on An Alligator in Your Wallet were composed by Rova's "newest"
member, Steve Adams.
-- From the liner notes by Derk Richardson
Cover art: Junya Kano and Genki Hashimoto; produced by Larry Ochs