Released September 13, 2024
[ TAO 16 ]
CD - 6-panel digipak, featuring extensive & illuminating liner notes.
LP - Strictly ltd. LP edition of 500 on black vinyl // extensive & illuminating liner notes on back cover.
Jason Stein: bass clarinet
Joshua Abrams : bass
Gerald Cleaver: drums
Boon: guitar on 'Anchor'
With Anchors, Chicago-based bass clarinetist-composer Jason Stein arises from a six-year hiatus as bandleader with his most personal, nuanced, and expansive album to date. It was created together with bassist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society, of which Stein has been a member since 2017), drummer Gerald Cleaver (whose bona fides run deep & wide), and guest artist/co-producer Boon. Anchors is a suite of great beauty and potency, moving from meditative calms to lyrical buoyancy to gripping intensity and again to a transformative peace found in unity.
Anchors are, so often, symbolic of strength and stability. They reflect our capacity to steady ourselves in turbulent waters, allowing us to traverse the deepest seas. With anchors aboard, we can quell our fears, weather the storm, and chart forth. In all their looming weight, anchors allow us to be free. With Anchors, Jason Stein emerges with a luminous tribute to anchors of his own. Amidst the discomfort of transformation, he reaches into a reservoir of resilience and invites us to do the same.
Stein is joined by bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Gerald Cleaver, two illustrious improvisers rooted as much in the jazz tradition as they are in contemporary experimental approaches. Abrams’ grounding in multifarious music traditions gives way to a visionary synthesis of styles, perhaps most apparent in his acclaimed Natural Information Society. Stein has recorded and toured with the group since 2017, and the unmistakable intuitive interplay between these long-time collaborators is a through-line on Anchors. Gerald Cleaver, a definitive stylist in the international creative music community, works with Stein for the first time here, shaping the record with a skillful prowess as impressive as his distinctive sound.
1. Anchor I (2:42)
2. Boon (3:36)
3. Crystalline (7:28)
4. Cold Water (6:30)
5. An Origin (7:13)
6. Holding Breath (12:05)
7. Anchor II (2:14)
All compositions by Jason Stein, © Steinbassclar Publishing (ASCAP)
except "Anchor” by Boon & “Crystalline” by Jason Stein and Boon
Conceptual composition by Boon
Produced by Boon & Jason Stein
Co-produced by Steven Joerg
Recorded on December 19 & 20, 2022
by Greg Norman at Electrical Audio, Chicago
Mixed and mastered by Paul Wickliffe
at Skyline Productions, South Orange, NJ
Photography/design by Maren Celest
Layout/design by Ming@AUM