We live in a world more globally connected and interwoven than at any point in our known history...well, at least the accepted version. For all the cat videos, memes, and political vitriol spewed forth by the great "like machine" that is social media, that interconnectedness yields some truly wonderful moments, and in some cases, even beautiful collaborative art.
Imagine having the opportunity to make an album with one of your heroes because you reached out on Facebook. Well, that's exactly what launched the Weston/Saxon Groove Assembly's inaugural outing, Acceleration. Los Angeles percussionist Jonathan Saxon contacted on of his drumming idols, the legendary Philadelphia drummer Grant Calvin Weston (Ornette Coleman, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lounge Lizards), on a whim one day, after seeing one of his Facebook posts. Weston had announced that he could record drums at his own studio in Philly, and collaborate via the internet to produce tracks and albums. To Saxon's delight, Weston was totally on board for an album collaboration, at which point he reached out to two veteran Los Angeles creative musicians, Steuart Liebig (Julius Hemphill, Eddie Harris, G.E. Stinson), and Wayne Peet (Nels Cline, John Rapson, Alex Cline) to flesh out some ideas. Co-writing some driving psychedelic groove tunes, these four produced a funky, trippy, and exciting album, perfect for whipping past city lights on a warm summer night.
This tradition of online collaboration, particularly prevalent in the beats music and electronic worlds, opens up an amazing world of possibilities for music. But the potential for collaboration goes far beyond our own mediums. Rolling with this approach, Saxon reached out to videographer Michael Bloom through social media to create a music video to one of their tracks. Bloom loved the music, and was thrilled to be a part of it, and created a gorgeous visual ride through landscapes and city scapes:
Weston/Saxon Groove Assembly "Acceleration" from the upcoming release, "Acceleration" (LIEBIG/PEET/WESTON) Legendary jazz/rock drummer Grant Calvin Weston and iconic LA creative musicians, Jonathan Saxon, Wayne Peet, and Steuart Liebig team up to make a psychedelic, groove-oriented driving record. Director: Michael Bloom vimeo.com/michaelbloom Audio Edited by Wayne Peet newzonestudio.com Acceleration by Steve Shelton A distance from here to there is where I am. Acceleration. Constraints and motion, and degrees of freedom. Time and gravity bring the up... down. A different kind of waking, walking into a different kind of sleep. Here to there, and there again. And the next here is already gone. Free beams of density. Free dreams where the center of percussion and the sweet spot are the same to amplify the false impressions, harmonic balance, constant speed along a circular path, radial, towards the center of the circle. Constantly changing. Tangential, the respected points of ambiguity lend them legitimacy, hung at the pivot point, where the center of oscillation is the position of the mass, the high mass of a simple pendulum. Imagine a dream suspended from a wire so that it can move freely as the wire disappears into the axis of rotation, the center of the dream. And the mass is falling in curved spacetime where things become more complicated since there is no straight line. Curved manifolds. Motion and gravity breathe geodesic dreams, a relative acceleration, and the distance from here to there is still where we are. Acceleration Grant Calvin Weston - Drums Jonathan Saxon - Congas, Mbira, Electric Mbira, Clave, Bells, Rainstick, Orchestral Bells, Bowed Cymbal, Cowbell, Berimbau, Shakers Wayne Peet - Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Synthesizer, Clavinet Steuart Liebig - Basses, Electronics, Loops Drums recorded by Grant Calvin Weston at The Third Floor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 2015; Edited, mixed, and mastered by Wayne Peet Produced by Wayne Peet (C) (P) Orenda Records 2015 www.orendarecords.com
But the online facilitation didn't stop there. Saxon reached out to us at Orenda Records to see if we were interested in releasing this music - and of course we were! Once again he'd heard about us and read about us through social media and thought, "why not contact them?"
It's that kind of adventurous spirit that drives so much of the creative process. The question "well, why not?" serves such an immense purpose. Whether it's a physicist re-examining the laws of nature, or a historian digging for alternative answers, or a musician reaching out to make music with his heroes, the open-minded, deep-end-diving spirit drives the very best of our human expansion. And here at Orenda Records, it's the driving force behind nearly everything we do.
—Daniel Rosenboom, September 2015
Weston/Saxon Groove Assembly // Acceleration
Grant Calvin Weston - Drums
Jonathan Saxon - Congas, Mbira, Electric Mbira, Clave, Bells, Rainstick, Orchestral Bells, Bowed Cymbal, Cowbell, Berimbau, Shakers
Wayne Peet - Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Synthesizer, Clavinet
Steuart Liebig - Basses, Electronics, Loops