Jack-Bob

THE BOB-JACK TOUR - MIDWEST - APRIL 2016

These two have been playing together since they met in Detroit in 1986, their duo transforming over time as their music has developed. This despite moving far apart, and never more than at present; after fifteen years in the Bay Area Bob now lives in Pueblo CO and Jack is in Easton Pa, so their meetings are infrequent. They have toured on the East and West Coast and the Midwest, most recently connecting in the Bay Area, before that tours that took them from the east coast to Chicago. Their music has shifted from a huge web of notes and fast-shifting directions on conventional instruments to sound and space, with Bob playing electronics and distorted voice....yet still they are indelibly the same duo. And the best of friends.

A review of a 2012 performance in Philadelphia from Cadence Magazine: "Jack Wright (sax) and his longtime collaborator, Bob Marsh (cello, voicings) sat in cramped quarters with records stacked all around, low ceiling strung with Christmas lights, and frightful paintings lining the wall. The two explorers seemed to like the atmospheric space and quickly went about their business of quietly merging tones and thoughts. Marsh, who was on a rare trip to these parts from this California abode, used everything out of his cello case on his instrument except the kitchen sink, which he was unable to get down the steep stairs of the lair. Also of note was the sighting of Wright in real pants and not his ever-present shorts..."

The past few years Bob has been sporting sonic suits. The one above is The Fallen Angel

Duo with Bob on air synth and voice

With Jack on contralto clarinet and Bob on cello here

Video of Bob as The Fallen Angel here

Described 25 years ago as an "undergrounder by design," Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone improviser based in Philadelphia but living in Easton PA. In 1979, after an academic career at Temple University and activist politics he returned to the instrument of his youth. Almost immediately he found himself playing freely, which he has done exclusively since then. He plays mostly on tour through the US and Europe in search of interesting partners and performing situations. Now at 73 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as he was called back in the 80s, continuing to inspire players. He plays sessions with players old and new at his Spring Garden Music House, and does university workshops across the country.

A reviewer for the Washington Post said, "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king."

For more info, discography and sounds go to springgardenmusic- and for writing jackiswright.

Bob Marsh, improviser, composer, performance artist, sculptor, instrument inventor, wordsmith, costume designer, multi-instrumentalist. Coming out of Detroit, Bob has lived in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently an economic refugee in the high desert town of Pueblo Colorado. He has toured the United Sates several times, most frequently with Jack Wright, and performed in Italy, Barcelona and Paris.

Bob says, “ I am under the influence of the sublime Ananke, the Greek goddess of Compulsion. There are certain, or better, un-certain things I must do for reasons I do not fully, or at all, understand.

In December of 2010, a broken leg led me to begin a series of wearable sculptures which make different sounds when I move. With time, some of these efforts evolved into performance personae:

The Visitor, The Fallen Angel, The Spirit of Detroit and in the works The Downtown Clown.”

“Then in February of 2015 I decided that I had to wear clothes which I hand painted, from head to toe, every day, everywhere. I guess I just wanted to see what would happen. I felt I should do this for at least a year, maybe three years. Then when I decide not do this any more, I can take the clothes apart along the seams and display the results. The various reasons to wear such clothes daily and ubiquitously came to me along the way. I become a moving mural, a one person art show without the prison of gallery walls, a revolutionary act against the merchants of style and popularity.”

For more info on Bob go here