BILLY MOHLER
Bassist Billy Mohler’s 2019 debut Focus, hailed by Nextbop.com as “an incredibly free, unconstrained and inventive record filled with exciting twists and turns and constant detours,” marked the auspicious start of an exploratory new quartet led by one of LA’s most accomplished musicians. The quartet featured a cohort of Mohler’s close friends who happen to be jazz heavyweights: tenor saxophonist Chris Speed, trumpeter Shane Endsley and drummer Nate Wood. So inspired by the Focus session was Mohler that he wrote the material for the follow-up, Anatomy, right away. Now that fiery, sonically inventive sophomore effort is here, capturing a lineup with deeply intertwined personal and musical histories that continue to ripen and evolve.
“I’ve always loved chordless quartets or trios,” says Mohler of the band’s format with no chordal accompanying instrument (e.g., piano or guitar). “It’s a very liberating configuration, that naturally provides space within the music.” Anatomy brings that kind of loose, raw, indeterminate band chemistry to the fore, but adds a new sonic dimension to the improvisations as well. You can hear it at times during Speed’s tenor flights, or in the ghostly echoes lurking around Endsley’s angular solos: the sound of post-production effects, implemented by Mohler and producer Dan Seeff in the most organic, artistic way.
“Each horn player’s effects track was performed live,” Mohler explains. “On Chris’s solos, for instance, Dan and I would ‘play’ the Echoplex effect to the solo live. We wanted the efx tracks to enhance the performances, and build upon the lines that Chris and Shane played. We did this kind of thing on Focus but we hinted at it and kept it very, very back in the mix. For Anatomy we wanted to let it out a little more. It was a conscious effort that Dan and I took, to make the album unique and give it a voice.”
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2022 RELEASE
