The music of Isotope
217
is as complex and varied
as the influences of it's
members. The following
is a short run down of
the members of Isotope
217:
John Herndon (drums,
percussion) and Dan
Bitney (drums,
percussion) have been
playing together since
1990 when Dan joined
Tortoise.
Jeff Parker
(Guitar) began playing
with Herndon and Bitney
in Tortoise live as early
as 1995. Parker has
played with Joshua
Redman, Roy Hargrove, all
the Marsalis', Lisle
Ellis, Charles Earland,
Lester Bowie, Ed
Wilkerson, Fred Anderson,
Fred Hopkins, Famadou Don
Maye and Malachi Favors
to name a few. He is
affiliated with Chicago's
AACM through his
membership in Ernest
Dawkins' New Horizons
Ensemble with whom he
has recorded 4 albums and
also logs time in
Tortoise, and the Chicago
Underground
Orchestra.
Rob Mazurek
(Cornet) early recordings
owe a debt to Hard Bop,
but his more recent work
with the Chicago
Underground
Orchestra has "taken
his playing towards the
fringes with the assured
muscle of Lee Morgan
(which) pulses through
Mazurek's solos on more
swinging material (while)
the piquent phrasing of
Don Cherry or the
gorgeously abstract
smears of Bill Dixon are
just as likely to
surface," says the
Chicago Reader's Peter
Margasak.
Sara P.
Smith (Trombone) plays in
the Chicago Underground
Orchestra with Rob and
Jeff and spent a few
years at Berkely School
of Music where Sara began
playing with Jeff Parker
in The Last Quartet.
They have been working
together off and on ever
since. Smith still
spends a considerable
amount of time working on
the west coast. She
recorded with Viggo
Martensen in a group with
DJ Bone Break and
Buckethead and has also
recorded with Ralph
Carney, Steve Hodges and
Larry Taylor in a group
"Henri" released on
Action Box Records. Her
live teeth were cut with
the infamous soul man Sam
Taylor Jr.
Matt Lux
(Bass) is a veteran of
Chicago's Funk scene and
has played with numerous
groups in Chicago, most
notably Tranquility Bass.
Though unfortunately
without access to Chicago
scene, the group names
would be of no
consequence as they were
largely unrecorded.
Matt's imaginative
variations and his
flexibility are
indespensible to Isotope
217, whose compositions
flow directly from
extended improvisational
work.
Here's what Isotope 217
had to say on Isotope
217:
"It is hard to
state exactly what this
band is because of the
diverse influences of
the participants. One
might say an eclectic
avant funk ensemble
dedicated to the
Phonometric* system of
universal thought. One
might also say a
freewheeling
trans-moleculer unit
dedicated to the
betterment of all worlds.
*phonometrics are, as
described by Satie, the
Science of measuring
sound.
