Music Review: "Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time: Part 1" by the Exploding Star Orchestra

How can you classify this track, "Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time: Part 1" by the Exploding Star Orchestra? The rhythms remind of Latin jazz. The solos definitely have a bebop feel. But one could also argue that this is modern classical composition; there are field recordings of eels (eels!) mixed into a few of the tracks on the Exploding Star Orchestra's "We Are All From Somewhere Else" recording, released in 2007. Some of the pitches the flute hits at the very beginning of the song is reminiscent of free jazz, but with fourteen players, a true free jazz rendition of this piece would be chaos. The sheer number of musicians involved may be the reason this track is unclassifiable: Everyone is bringing different influences and musical ideas to the table, welding them together under the banner of the Exploding Star Orchestra. Rob Mazurek assembled this group in 2005 out of mostly Chicago-area avant-garde musicians. Members of post-rock giants Tortoise are involved and Ken Vandermark played with the group at live shows last year.

This tune explodes from the gate, sounding like the soundtrack to a funky, 70's film chase sequence. The rhythm is kept tight with percussive bells, a marimba and two drummers, but every once in awhile you catch the whiff of some timbre experimentation under the surface (the bending of a saw, for instance). The brass and woodwind sections, which includes cornet, flute, trombone, flugelhorn, clarinet and saxophone, take turns soloing until the music drops out altogether at the 4:05 mark. When it kicks back in, the band has entered a new section of the song, one that sounds like they are tumbling through one of those twisting portals used on screen whenever our television heroes are being transported to another dimension. The effect is dizzying, but we soon escape the portal and return to that funk which has become even more bizarre, the drummers and percussionists really mixing it up with heavy syncopation. The electric guitar takes a solo, and then the music drops out again. This time the vibraphone speaks up with a progression that harks back to the portal. Every few seconds a new musician joins in, and this is a section of free jazz if there ever was one. "Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time: Part 1" is an eleven minute adventure, a rollercoaster with enough twists and turns to return to for repeated rides.

For a free MP3 download of "Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time: Part 1" by the Exploding Star Orchestra, visit this link provided -- (http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14482).