Onoffon

Onoffon, a Southern Californian band, creates music that resists straightforward classification yet proves immediately engaging, though it shares nothing with the easy-listening genre. Their rock style fuses progressive structures with unadorned jazz. Traces of the cool jazz developed by 1950s West Coast players surface throughout their sound, together with the layered complexity associated with Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, sources the musicians openly cite. Von Babasin, who plays bass, vocals, and keyboards and is the son of 1940s and 1950s jazz bassist and cellist Harry Babasin whose Nocturne Records advanced West Coast jazz, had performed with Dave Goode on drums and percussion for more than a decade when they met Don Lake on guitars, vocals, and harmonica and established Onoffon around 1996. The group operates essentially as a musician-owned production company that channels most distribution through its website at www.onoffon.com. Band members retain full control over every stage, from composition and performance to CD manufacturing. Their debut album Surrender Now appeared in 1997 and drew strong notices from many quarters for its accomplished musicianship. They issued their second album at the start of 1999.