Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFUNK

Wet Robots

"Few vocalists have the sheer boldness – the outright fearlessness – of Fay Victor as an improviser. The New York native has long been a creative force on the avant-jazz scene, as a singer, bandleader, composer, arranger, and teacher. She has worked on both sides of the Atlantic with the likes of Misha Mengelberg, Roswell Rudd, and Anthony Braxton, along with recording several distinctive albums as a leader. Reviewing her recent disc Absinthe & Vermouth, NPR declared evocatively that Fay’s original songs sound “as if Joni Mitchell wrote lyrics for a lost Betty Carter prog-rock album – and it totally works.” Fay has also recorded edgy blues in a duo with guitarist Anders Nilsson, and she is an inspired re-animator of vintage instrumentals as vocal material, in the spirit of Carmen McRae in Monk; to this end, Fay has performed with her In Praise of Ornette group and with her house-rocking Herbie Nichols Sung band.

"Now we have on record Fay’s SoundNoiseFUNK quartet, featuring Joe Morris, Sam Newsome, and Reggie Nicholson – each an exceptional maker of music in the moment. Although Fay enjoyed a rapport with each of these players in various combinations, this foursome had never played together as a unit before the single summer day last year when Wet Robots was captured in a Brooklyn studio. If jazz is the sound of surprise, this album startles – a sonic funhouse of left turns. The band floats in its own space, untethered by a bass. Morris’s guitar moves like a snake. Newhouse keens, taps, sighs on the straight horn. Nicholson makes his percussion set-up a skittering, rattling thing. Then there is Fay – her voice primal and wild, as attuned to unfettered expression as Albert Ayler’s tenor." - from Bradley Bambarger's liner notes

This is Fay Victor's first album as a leader released on an American label other than her own Greene Street Music, but she is already a star on the New York avant-jazz scene.


Personnel:  

Fay Victor, vocals, lyrics

Sam Newsome, soprano saxophone

Joe Morris, electric guitar

Reggie Nicholson, drums


Track List:

01. Funky Dunk                                 3:55

02. A Witness in the Wilderness     5:24

03. Information Highway                 5:16

04. Police Lights and Sirens            7:20

05. Squeeze Bottle                            5:01

06. The Blues Are Always Free        5:51

07. Creative Folks!                             4:49

08. Textured Pines                          10:00

09. Whistling on a Skateboard        7:18

10. I Sing                                              7:44

11. The Ha-Ha's                                  1:56

12. Holding Back the Scream           7:03

Total time                                          66:37

 

Press Quotes::

“Vocal colossus Fay Victor has been performing otherworldly acrobatics with her pipes since the ’90s…. Wet Robots is her debut record as a leader for ESP-Disk’, and it’s a doozy. The supergroup that the improviser/lyricist calls SoundNoiseFunk—soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome, guitarist Joe Morris, and drummer Reggie Nicholson—is entirely deserving of its name; although the foursome had never played together before stepping into a Brooklyn studio for this project, their red-hot chemistry is evident from the get-go.” Brad Cohen, JazzTimes

“Victor has been singing pretty and singing wild, singing standards and improvising with the heavyweights for years in both Europe and New York.... Wet Robots, however, is her date with a hand-picked band of peers, and it will blow your ears clear out of the water.” – Will Layman, PopMatters

“Victor wields an outsized personality, and however ecstatic her group gets, the ideas she works to impart to listeners refuse to be overwhelmed by the churning backdrop.” – Dave Cantor, DownBeat editor’s pick

Musicians: Fay Victor / Joe Morris / Sam Newsome / Reggie Nicholson

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Compact Disk Digipak with liner notes
  • Product Code: ESP5025
  • Availability: In Stock
  • CD $12.98
  • WAV Download $8.99
  • MP3 Download $8.99

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