Contents: Disc 1: Is That You (Earl)?/Dogs Don't Bark at Ghosts , Raincastle, Sleeping Against Other Warnings (Limited Only by Our Dreams), East on 53rd Street; Disc 2: A Murder of Crows, Making My Way Thru It/Waiting in Vain, Next Love (All Things Want to Fly), Don't Look Says the Crow (I Don't Believe You)
2-CD large ensemble recording featuring prominent voices in Southern California's improvised and creative music world.
Skeleton Key Orchestra draws upon a wide cross section of Southern California's improvised and creative music world. Nathan Hubbard's compositions seamlessly blur the distinction between improvisation and composition and highlight the strengths of the 35+ members of the orchestra. In the tradition of jazz and large ensembles, Hubbard's music is influenced by the free jazz ensembles of Ornette Coleman, Mike Mantler, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and William Parker, the european ensembles led by Barry Guy, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brotzmann and Pierre Favre as well as the West Coast ensembles led by Vinny Golia, Glenn Spearmen, Jeff Kaiser, Marco Eneidi, Scott Rosenberg, the NOW orchestra and the sorely missed New Art Orchestra. The music traverses an array of territories, from complex grooves to surreal electronic landscapes, free-wheeling high-energy collective improvisation to meditative woodwind fugues, improvised street marches to minimalistic repetition.
...Hubbard comes out of this one a born leader with a clear and original vision. Skeleton Key Orchestra is one of the most generous, consistently provoking and rewarding albums of 2004.
-François Couture/All Music Guide
It's a huge, dense set and one that will keep your ears busy, your feet tapping and your neighbours howling with joy until summertime. Reach for the key.
-Paris Transatlantic