Biography
For more than fifteen years, with intermittent breaks, Boston’s ten-piece Either/Orchestra has delivered distinctive large-ensemble jazz that stands apart, simultaneously functioning as an early proving ground for players who later earned substantial popular and critical success once they moved beyond the group. Composer and tenor/soprano saxophonist Russ Gershon has served as the constant guiding force since Either/Orchestra formed in 1985. Under his direction the ensemble has merged disciplined musicianship and fidelity to jazz tradition with an eccentric, occasionally absurd comedic streak. Although Gershon and fellow members have supplied most of the band’s original pieces, Either/Orchestra is equally recognized for its covers—sometimes respectful, sometimes subversive—of repertoire drawn from both jazz and non-jazz sources. The group’s expansive musical outlook renders almost any composition eligible for reinterpretation: works by Ellington, Mingus, and Monk are unsurprising, yet songs by Bacharach, Dylan, and even Robert Fripp or Bobbie Gentry routinely surface in recordings and live sets. Either/Orchestra takes pleasure in upending expectations and repeatedly introduces surprising shifts to its listeners. While the band fluidly combines disparate idioms, it continues to satisfy the criteria of the finest large jazz ensembles; its members execute solos with both fervor and precision, manage elaborate charts, and swing without restraint.
Between 1987 and 1996 the ensemble issued six albums on Russ Gershon’s Accurate Records imprint: Dial “E” (1987), Radium (1988), The Half Life of Desire (1990), The Calculus of Pleasure (1992), The Brunt (1994), and Across the Omniverse (1996), the last a decade-spanning collection of previously unreleased tracks. Trumpeter Tom Halter and trombonist Russell Jewell appear on every one of those recordings, while alto/baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase, who first joined on Radium, has remained another steady participant. During the initial decade, several notable musicians passed through the shifting lineup, among them keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Matt Wilson, trombonists Josh Roseman and Curtis Hasselbring, and saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo. After departing Either/Orchestra, these players became sought-after session musicians and members of forward-thinking New York ensembles in the 1990s, or, in Medeski’s case, a recognized figure within the neo-hippie jam-band audience through his work with Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Either/Orchestra entered a hiatus in 1997 yet returned the next year with fresh momentum and seven younger musicians augmenting veterans Gershon, Halter, and Kohlhase. The revised roster featured Surinamese drummer Harvey Wirht and Dominican percussionist Vicente Lebron, who, together with bassist Rick McLaughlin, generated perhaps the strongest rhythmic foundation the band had attained up to that point. In 1999 the new lineup recorded More Beautiful Than Death, issued in 2000 as the first Either/Orchestra album in four years. The disc contained potent new Gershon compositions and also marked a new avenue for the group: E/O treatments of 1970s Ethiopian pop numbers “Amiak Abet Abet” by Teshome Sissay, “Musicawi Silt” by Girma Beyene, and “Feker Aydelmwey” by Ayalew Mesfin. Lively and irresistibly rhythmic, these Ethiopian pieces proved ideal vehicles for Gershon and Halter to exercise their inventive arranging abilities and for the current incarnation of Either/Orchestra to perform with abandon. More Beautiful Than Death demonstrated that after several years away from the studio the ensemble could return as vital as before, preserving links to its history while incorporating new talent and continuing to draw inspiration from unexpected quarters. Another two years elapsed before the next release, yet Afro-Cubism was presented as the initial installment of two discs scheduled between autumn 2002 and spring 2003. The album arose from an excess of recorded material the band wished to issue, prompting a division between its Latin-inflected pieces and its conventional jazz compositions.
Between 1987 and 1996 the ensemble issued six albums on Russ Gershon’s Accurate Records imprint: Dial “E” (1987), Radium (1988), The Half Life of Desire (1990), The Calculus of Pleasure (1992), The Brunt (1994), and Across the Omniverse (1996), the last a decade-spanning collection of previously unreleased tracks. Trumpeter Tom Halter and trombonist Russell Jewell appear on every one of those recordings, while alto/baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase, who first joined on Radium, has remained another steady participant. During the initial decade, several notable musicians passed through the shifting lineup, among them keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Matt Wilson, trombonists Josh Roseman and Curtis Hasselbring, and saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo. After departing Either/Orchestra, these players became sought-after session musicians and members of forward-thinking New York ensembles in the 1990s, or, in Medeski’s case, a recognized figure within the neo-hippie jam-band audience through his work with Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Either/Orchestra entered a hiatus in 1997 yet returned the next year with fresh momentum and seven younger musicians augmenting veterans Gershon, Halter, and Kohlhase. The revised roster featured Surinamese drummer Harvey Wirht and Dominican percussionist Vicente Lebron, who, together with bassist Rick McLaughlin, generated perhaps the strongest rhythmic foundation the band had attained up to that point. In 1999 the new lineup recorded More Beautiful Than Death, issued in 2000 as the first Either/Orchestra album in four years. The disc contained potent new Gershon compositions and also marked a new avenue for the group: E/O treatments of 1970s Ethiopian pop numbers “Amiak Abet Abet” by Teshome Sissay, “Musicawi Silt” by Girma Beyene, and “Feker Aydelmwey” by Ayalew Mesfin. Lively and irresistibly rhythmic, these Ethiopian pieces proved ideal vehicles for Gershon and Halter to exercise their inventive arranging abilities and for the current incarnation of Either/Orchestra to perform with abandon. More Beautiful Than Death demonstrated that after several years away from the studio the ensemble could return as vital as before, preserving links to its history while incorporating new talent and continuing to draw inspiration from unexpected quarters. Another two years elapsed before the next release, yet Afro-Cubism was presented as the initial installment of two discs scheduled between autumn 2002 and spring 2003. The album arose from an excess of recorded material the band wished to issue, prompting a division between its Latin-inflected pieces and its conventional jazz compositions.
Albums
