WAVE MECHANICS UNION
Eight years ago, a couple of arrangers-for-hire decided, for a change, to hire themselves instead. Refreshingly freed from the constraints of client expectations, but now dauntingly faced with an endless spectrum of possibilities, they whittled it all down and focused on revisiting, as jazz arrangements, some of their favorites from the genre known as “Progressive Rock.” They felt an abiding affinity with the bold, adventurous pioneers of the 60’s and 70’s – musicians who eschewed boundaries and wanted to cut loose and show the world what was possible on their instruments when social dancing was no longer the driving imperative.
As arrangers, this fledgling cabal wanted the same thrill – to express ideas and techniques, accumulated over the years, that they’d rarely had the opportunity to exploit in the course of their work.
They invited some monstrously talented, like-minded friends to share in the creation/performance/recording of said artifacts, and Wave Mechanics Union was born.
Along the way, the nascent collective mutated and grew to embrace a wider palette of sounds, styles, and songs – as much as they loved Prog and Classic rock, there was more stuff out there calling to them and their creative impulses. So the paradigm evolved, as paradigms do. Perhaps it would be best described, now, as “we think these tunes are cool. How ’bout you?”
When you let your mind roam freely, the pigeon-hole genre labels get harder to apply. Is this “jazz?” Well, that depends how you define it, if defining it is even necessary. It’s music, rendered with love. let’s leave it at that.
The men and women of Wave Mechanics Union invite you to peruse and enjoy Volume II, “Further to Fly”, and hope you’ll find the same joy in listening that we felt working with some great music – arranging, playing, singing, and recording as our OWN clients.
September 2012. RF, RVJ, LM, & JFK
