Since arriving here from Richmond in ’05, saxist Darius Jones has kept mighty busy, gigging with Mike Pride’s From Bacteria to Boys, Trevor Dunn’s Proof Readers and the noise-jazz quartet Little Women. And he’s not phoning it in, either: Each time we’ve seen Jones play, we’ve been seriously impressed with the sheer gut-level intensity he projects, whether he’s blasting out a furiously minimal riff or digging into a deep blues groove.
So it pleases us greatly to report that Jones has hooked up with Aum Fidelity, a local label that knows plenty about the horn man’s brand of gritty free jazz, for his debut as a leader, Man’ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing), due out October 13. The disc teams Jones with two heavyweight improv elders, drummer Rakalam Bob Moses (Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pat Metheny) and multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore. Check out a preview track below and hear the band live October 15 at Abrons Arts Center at an Aum-sponsored showcase that also features saxist David S. Ware and William Parker’s mammoth Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. Advance tickets are available here.
When a well-known musician shows up at a big rock gig, they’re just a face in the crowd, at best fodder for the next day’s gossip column. But when the same thing happens at a jazz club, it creates an electrifying tension—everyone’s wondering, Will they sit it? The latter scenario played out last night at Zebulon, as veteran saxist 