Bio information: MUJICIAN Title: THERE’S NO GOING BACK NOW (Cuneiform Rune 232) Cuneiform publicity/promotion dept.: (301) 589-8894 / fax (301) 589-1819 email: Press: joyce@[email protected] website: www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: JAZZ / IMPROVISATION One of THE best free jazz improvising quartets in the world, Mujician sets a gold standard for intuitive, highly spiritual, and near- clairvoyant communication within an improvising ensemble. Composed of four of the biggest names in the European jazz and improvised music community - Paul Dunmall, Tony Levin, Paul Rogers, and Keith Tippett – this “super group” is nonetheless a true cooperative, a collective critically praised for its sensitive interplay and coherent voice. “This is a band that breathes life together,” noted Coda, “The magic level of response and the creation of mood and event between players is masterful, inspiring…” In recent years, a groundswell of interest in improvisation has resulted in myriad groups of varied skill attempting this art; Mujician, however, stand as a band apart: “…Mujician shows how it can and should be done… Group members take some fine solos throughout, but the real quality of the performance is in the interplay, whether in various duos, trios or in full quartet. A real test of collective improvisation is the willingness and ability of a group to sustain a full range of dynamics, instead of slipping quickly into the full-title collective freakout mode. If you want to know where free jazz is at these days, check this one out.” – Option Mujician formed in England in 1988, after Dunmall assembled Tippett, Levin, and Rogers to play a gig on July 11, 1988. Impressed by how well they worked together, the four musicians decided to form an ongoing, leaderless cooperative ensemble. The group decided to call itself ‘Mujician’, a name that Tippett had used in the early ‘80s for his solo series on FMP. (Tippett agreed not to use ‘Mujician’ for any of his future solo projects after the band adopted it.) The term ‘mujician’ derived from Tippett’s daughter Inca’s mispronounciation of her father’s profession as a small child. All four musicians liked what ‘mujician’ evoked; in Tippett’s words: “a combination of magic and music…[and] also the word “mu” contained in it as well, which some people regard as a sacred word.” Describing Mujician’s music, critics frequently use the terms “masterful”, “epic,” “volcanic, “startling”, “surprising”, “marvelous”, “brilliant”, “flawless” and most commonly, “inspired”. The quartet plays completely free improvisation, adhering to their rule of never discussing music prior to playing it. As Levin maintains: “There is a spiritual feeling that emanates from the music; our shared aim is to create a holistic spontaneous composition.” Dunmall, who has called Mujician “the best band I’ve ever played in” remarked in a 1997 interview: “I believe there is telepathy in the group but it is instinctive, you don’t have time to think of anything, The music is based on trying to tune into spiritual energy, to get into this state of mind. Then it is projected out into the audience. When you are in this state the music takes care of itself and you just go with the flow of it… I suppose it’s like rivers that strive to get to the ocean and will not let stand in the way of its journey. As an artist you want to find whatever you can and see where it leads you…” Since its inception, Mujician has performed at countless international jazz festivals and released 7 highly acclaimed CDs, all but one on Cuneiform. Mujician's first Cuneiform release was The Journey (1992), a single, 55 minute unbroken improvisation recorded live by the BBC at the Bath Festival. Critics regarded the performance with awe; Jazz Times called The Journey “a small miracle, a spontaneously improvised large-scale canvas with form, textural variation and forward momentum.” Avant claimed the recording “…should be given awards in heaven.” Mujician’s subsequent Cuneiform CDs were live studio recordings featuring multiple tracks; Cadence called Mujician’s 2nd release, Poem About The Hero (1994), "a wonderful window on how improv begins, ends, and interconnects.” Mujician’s 3rd CD, Birdman (1996), was given 4-stars by DownBeat, who noted: “Sensitive interaction, but volcanic all the same; it’s organic free-jazz played just right.” Evan Parker produced Colours Fulfilled (1998), Mujician’s 4th CD, which appeared on numerous critic’s ‘Best of Year’ lists. Coda noted that “The magic level of response and the creation of mood and event between players is masterful, inspiring…” In 2000, the British label Whatever UK released Bristol Concert, a performance by Mujician and the Georgian Ensemble. In 2001, Cuneiform released Spacetime, which Signal to Noise called “state of the art free improvisation.” Reviewing Spacetime, Jazz Weekly noted that “the band situates itself in a space midway between what could be called Brit Improv and American energy music,” and commented that “Mujician is, if anything more exhilarating than it has ever been.” [continued on verso…] Mujician’s new release on Cuneiform, There’s No Going Back Now, consists of a single, 45:30 live, spontaneous composition. Questioned about the title, Dunmall remarked: “in life you make choices and as you work on something for years you realize there is no going back… you can’t, you study and play music in a certain way and that’s who you are.” An unbroken instrumental epic, There’s No Going Back Now returns to the format Mujician used on The Journey. When it reviewed Mujician’s 1st CD, Alternative Press noted that “This is a journey, and a journey is a sum of all its footsteps.” The music on There’s No Going Back Now is the sum of nearly 20 years of experience by four of the best improvisers and master musicians on the planet, working together in a singular goal of artistic search. For the past two decades, their interwoven instruments have flowed together as a river, cutting a distinct and shining path through the musical wasteland. There is no going back now, and this legacy cannot be erased. Mujician’s music has left a lasting impression on jazz improv, as permanent as a canyon carved through rock walls. As DownBeat once noted: “this working Brit quartet breathes as a unit, while leaving each player room to dominate for a while... They’re individuals, but years together have made them some other kind of animal: a mujician, singular.” An active performing ensemble, Mujician has been showcased at music festivals worldwide. It has performed at Britain's Greenwich (1989) and Bath (1990+2001) Festivals; at Italy's Sardina (1990), Saracusa (2000) and Clusone (2002) Festivals; at France’s Grenoble and Le Mans festivals (1998); and at Canada’s Victoriaville Festival (FIMAV, 1999). In 1991, Mujician traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia (former USSR) to play concerts with Georgian improvisers and be taped for television; What Disc/ Whatever UK released a CD of these recordings. The band toured South Africa in 1996 and the UK in 2001. Besides their on-going work with Mujician, the band members remain active in numerous other recording and performance projects, both solo and in groups, and often include their fellow Mujician members within larger ensembles that they lead. ********************* PAUL DUNMALL efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mdunmall.html, www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/paul-dunmall.htm Reed player Paul Dunmall was born in 1953 in Welling, England. Described by the Guiness Who’s Who in Jazz as “A powerful player often cited as the cream of British saxophonists,” Dunmall was classically trained on clarinet and also plays bagpipes and other wind instruments. Since beginning his professional career in Marsupilani in 1969 and joining Guru Maharaj Ji’s Divine Light Mission, Dunmall has worked with countless musicians including Richard Thompson, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Polly Bolton, Alice Coltrane, Elton Dean, The London Jazz Composer's Orchestra, British Saxophone Quartet, John Adams, Mark Sanders, Philip Gibbs, Hilary Jeffries, Simon Picard, Paul Rutherford, and many more. He has released a staggering numbr of recordings on Slam, EMI, Intakt, FMP, HatArt, Cadence, Rare Music, Cuneiform, and other labels, and in 1999, he founded the limited edition label DUNS to further faciliate his prodigious recorded output. In addition to his work in Mujician, Dunmall leads The Paul Dunmall Octet, which includes all members of Mujician and has released two CDs on Cuneiform: Be-bop Starburst (1999) and The Great Divide (2001). He also leads the Paul Dunmall Moksha Big Band, a 14 piece big band whose recording, I Wish You Peace, was sponsored by the BBC in honor of Dunmall’s 50th birthday and released in 2004 by Cuneiform. TONY LEVIN www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/tony-levin-biog.htm Percussionist Tony Levin, described as “one of the UK’s top drummers…equally adept in both wholly improvised and straight ahead jazz” by The Rough Guide to Jazz, was born in 1940 in Shropshire, England. Self-taught, he began his jazz career in mid-50s Birmingham, playing with such Londoners as Ronnie Scott, Joe Harriott, Peter King, Dick Morrissey and Don Rendall. He joined Tubby Hayes’ quartet in 1966, recording on 2 albums, and played with Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Humphrey Littleton, Hank Mobley, Red Rodney, Zoot Sims, and vocalists John Hendricks and Annie Ross. He has performed and/or recorded with numerous artists, including Gordon Beck, Nucleus, John Surman, John Taylor, Third Eye, Kenny Wheeler, Andy Sheppard, Jerry Underwood, The European Jazz Ensemble, Gerd Dudek and others, and worked on numerous projects with Alan Skidmore (recording TCB on Phillips), Dunmall, and Rogers.