Balance Point Acoustics : Damon Smith

CONCERTS

calendar

NEWS

reviews
workshops
projects

MULTIMEDIA

audio
video
visual

Featured CD:

Firestorm is an intense and musically assaultive release of killer, balls-out free jazz that will appeal to those who long for the most bombasic works of Broetzmann, Ayler, Takayanagi and Cecil Taylor! This release reveals many shades of intensity and mood while remaining frenzied and inventive at all times. Featuring Taylor alumni Marco Eneidi (alto), Marc Edwards (drums), Lisle Ellis (bass), Elliott Levin (tenor), Sun Ra Arkestra legend Marshall Allen (alto), bassist Damon Smith and manic Austrian reedist Mario Rechtern, Firestorm is a delerious concoction of new energy music that pushes beyond the stratosphere of sound!

You can send a paypal for $15 pp to damon@balancepointacoustics.com If you would like one. Buy This CD

A few copies of "Healing Force" are available You can send a paypal for $15 pp to damon@balancepointacoustics.com If you would like one.

Vinny Golia-reeds
Aurora Josephson-voice
Henry Kaiser-guitar
Mike Keneally-piano, guitar and voice
Joe Morris-guitar and double bass
Damon Smith-double bass
Weasel Walter-drums

Seven major figures from the art-punk, free-jazz, brutal prog, improvisational and modern jazz world come together for a ROCKING tribute to the unfairly ignored, misunderstood and vilified late period works of Albert Ayler. These late period songs have always seemed to me like they may have been some of the most personally spritually resonant for Ayler, but the musicians and the culture of the late 1960s were possibly not able to successfully translate and perform his concept of spirituality, free jazz, boogaloo, nursery rhythms, marching bands, blues and r'n'b, and certainly the free-jazz following public was not ready to accept it. Now, 40 years and many stylistic mash-ups later, perhaps these works can be better enjoyed.

“Albert Ayler's later works (Love Cry, New Grass and Music is the Healing Force of the Universe) seem to be generally reviled. Through meditations, dreams, and visions, the players on this project were given the message to once again attempt to send the people of earth a message of love, peace, and spiritual understanding. We selected a representative set of tunes for this material and essentially let it play itself through us. We hope you will be as surprised as we still are by the results of this invocational experiment. We hope you will like this record.”
- Henry Kaiser, producer and guitarist Buy This CD

Limited copies of the "Noisy People" dvd are available here. It is a Film by Tim Perkis featuing Damon Smith and other Bay Area Musicians. Includes footage of Gratkowski/Bryerton/Smith and Wolfgang Fuchs' Six Fuchs Project. Buy This CD

Improvised music form Oakland and Tel Aviv from the Jerusalem based Kadima Label.
Aurora Josephson - voice
Ariel Shibolet - soprano saxophone
Jen Baker - trombone
Scott R. Looney - piano
Damon Smith - double bass Buy This CD

"Ghetto Caylpso" Peter Kowald/Marco Eneidi/Damon Smith/Spirit out now on NOTTWO records. Buy This CD

New from Nuscope Records: Biggi Vinkeloe, alto saxophone, flute; Damon Smith, double-bass; Kjell Nordeson, drums, vibraphone Buy This CD

Forthcoming CD's

BPA 013 "Pepper Spray" Ariel Shibolet/Jen Baker/Damon Smith/Jerome Bryerton

Bertram Turetzky/Damon Smith ThoughtBeetle

"Sextessense: A Tribute to John Stevens & SME "
Players: JOHN BUTCHER/HENRY KAISER/AARON BENNETT/DANIELLE DEGRUTTOLA/DAMON
Reviewed by: Bruce Galanter
JOHN BUTCHER/HENRY KAISER/AARON BENNETT/DANIELLE DEGRUTTOLA/DAMON SMITH/JEROME BRYERTON - Sextessense: A Tribute to John Stevens & SME [Spontaneous Music Ensemble] (Balance Point Acoustics 11; USA) Featuring Henry Kaiser on guitar, John Butcher & Aaron Bennet on saxes, Danielle DeGruttola on cello, Damon Smith on acoustic bass and Jerome Bryerton on drums, plus Kurt Newman on guitar on one track. John Stevens is perhaps the most influential and most beloved of all British modern "jazz" drummers, he certainly cast a large shadow on the entire European avant/jazz scene since his the mid-sixties. As a leader or co-leader of so many diverse and influential ensembles, Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME), an original member of Company, Amalgam, Detail and John Steven's Away, his playing embraced so many different streams, free/jazz, Ornette-like grooves, fusion, South African and rock-like groove-space. He played in duos and trios with Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Frode Gjerstad, John Butcher and Gary Smith. He worked with musicians as diverse as Bobby Bradford, Dudu Pukwana, Alan Holdsworth, Julie Tippetts and John Martyn. So, it makes perfect sense that a musicians like Henry Kaiser, John Butcher and Damon Smith, would want to do a tribute to this great man, spirit, teacher, drummer and multi-bandleader. Much of Stevens' best work was done with the legendary SME, which le led for nearly thirty years (1967-1994), with changing personnel on almost every recording. Although SME were known as a "free" ensemble, it is Steven's direction that made them so cohesive and often so magical. I get the feeling that the same vision or direction was used to guide this extraordinary session. Henry has chosen some like-minded players here and although I am unfamiliar with Mr. Bryerton, Mr. Bennet & Mr. Newman, everyone fits just right into the often nimble, yet focused world of directed improv. Most carefully recorded so that one can swim within sea of rich details. This is one of the finest improv dates I've heard in recent memory, you get the feeling that there is some close listening and responding going on here. Nice to hear from the wonderful cellist Danielle DeGruttola, whose playing can only be heard on a few other discs with Henry. An extraordinary session on all accounts. - BLG