Ancestral Numbers I, by Jason Robinson, Michael Dessen, Joshua White, Drew Gress, Ches Smith

Ancestral Numbers I

by Jason Robinson, Michael Dessen, Joshua White, Drew Gress, Ches Smith

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Pre-order of Ancestral Numbers I. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

First release in Jason Robinson's Ancestral Numbers series, featuring a quintet version of his Janus Ensemble. PDF bonus item included with purchase, featuring beautiful art from Marcelo Radulovich and more.

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releases May 14, 2024

$8 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
6-panel gatefold digipak with an 8-page booklet insert. With stunning art designed by Marcelo Radulovich invoking the richly evocative visual and sound worlds that unfold over the two albums, this one and the subsequent Ancestral Numbers II.

Includes digital pre-order of Ancestral Numbers I. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around May 14, 2024

$14.95 USD or more

1.	Second House 06:25	info	buy track
2.	Malachi
3.	Potentiality
4.	Remembering Water
5.	Roots and Routes
6.	Wattensaw
7.	Vestibule
8.	Ancestral Numbers (alt)

about

Jason Robinson
Ancestral Numbers I
Playscape Recordings, PSR#082323

Jason Robinson, tenor & soprano saxophones, alto flute
Michael Dessen, trombone
Joshua White, piano
Drew Gress, bass
Ches Smith, drums, glockenspiel

All compositions by Jason Robinson (Circumvention Music/ASCAP)

www.jasonrobinson.com

What does ancestry sound like?

I’ve long been fascinated by the idea that underlying patterns influence our lives and that they manifest enigmatically and mysteriously across and within generations. I don’t necessarily believe in fate, but uncanny syncretisms–the stubborn coincidences whose songs lurk in the edges of the mind’s ear–bloom across my ancestral record, as they might yours as well.

Ancestral Numbers is a sound meditation on genealogy and family history comprising an ongoing series of compositions for varying instrumentation. The present album, Ancestral Numbers I, along with its subsequent partner Ancestral Numbers II, are the first published documents of the project.

Numbers: the numerical relationships revealed in one’s ancestry, perhaps a guide or motivating energy, a companion, a guardian.

Number: a song, a tale, an imaginative fragment or universe, momentarily drawn out of one’s ancestry and generational histories, but also as a broader investigation of who we are and from where we come.

I began composing the Ancestral Numbers series shortly after the passing of my grandmother on my mother’s side. Ruby Annette Kilbury (nee Thomason) was the oldest of four siblings and was raised on farms in Arkansas and Texas, before settling in California as an adolescent. Ancestral Numbers I and Ancestral Numbers II are inspired by the loving warmth of her influence in my family.

credits

releases May 14, 2024

Recorded on August 23-25, 2023 at Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT
Recorded by Nick Lloyd, assisted by Greg DiCrosta
Mixed by Nick Lloyd and Jason Robinson
Mastered by Rich Breen, Dogmatic Sound, Burbank, CA
Art by Marcelo Radulovich
Graphic design by Marcelo Radulovich and Tom Beckham
Photography by Julian Parker-Burns, Maurice Robertson, Scott Friedlander, Bill Douthart, and Mathew Mueller; family photographers unknown
Produced by Jason Robinson
Executive producer: Michael Musillami

My deepest thanks to Michael, Joshua, Drew, and Ches for their artistry and friendship, without which this recording would not be possible. A special thanks to Michael Musillami, for the support and great music. And for various logistical and other support, my sincerest thanks to Glenn Siegel, Priscilla Page, Ann Braithwaite, Ashley Redbone, Mathew Mueller, Ian Behrstock, Anna Wetzel, Cliff White, and Ken Irwin. To my dearest Piccolo: thanks for imagining all of this with me, for being a part of it all, for being the gravity that keeps me from floating away, for this life of wonder that we live together.

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about

Jason Robinson

The music of American saxophonist and scholar Jason Robinson ("rugged and scintillating," New York Times) thrives in the fertile overlaps between improvisation and composition, acoustic music and electronics, tradition and experimentalism.

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