Water Shed 5tet: Circuit Breaker
1. Circuit Breaker (Opie)
2. Storks (Opie)
3. Beef Extender #9 (Opie)
4. Sirius A (Matula/Opie)
5. Composition 23i (+40c) (Braxton)
6. Beef Extender #11
7. Unbeknownst to Jeff… (Opie/Stringer)
8. Passage Home/Jimbo (Opie)
9. Where Man At? (WS5)
10. Beef Extender #10 (Opie)
11. Umbra (Opie)
12. Coil Spring (Opie)
13. Firth (Fleming/Snyder/Stringer)
14. Mongoose (Opie)
15. Sirius B (Matula/Opie/Snyder)
16. Why Are You Such a Jerk? (Opie)
17. Blue Rider (Opie)
(+ 18. Mongoose outtakes)

Recorded at Mr. Small’s Funhouse, Millvale PA. Produced by Myles Boisen. Cover layout by Steve Norton/RedNotebook.

A few thoughts:

While I like particular compositions on the previous releases, this one is clearly better performed. Myles Boisen was a positive influence, able to give good advice in few, calm words. He suggested the improvisational collaborations at the end of the sessions. I was losing my lip at that point and it turned out to be an especially good idea.

“Jimbo” was named for Gary Panter’s comic character.

The pair of Anthony Braxton works were previously unrecorded; they were culled and edited from his “Composition Notes” books.

“Storks” was a transcription and distillation of some phrases from a free improvisation concert. The original performance was at the Stork Club, with myself, Dave Barrett, Curt Newton, Steve Norton, and Gino Robair.

“Blue Rider” is a particular favorite, an atmospheric blues dedicated to Vassily Kandinsky. It was written after I had spent a great deal of time studying the Charles Mingus “More Than a Fake Book.” David Stock of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble told me at a performance that he really liked it, that it sounded like Duke Ellington to him. I said I was actually thinking more of Mingus when I wrote it, but he insisted “No, no, it sounds like Ellington.” I didn’t argue.

“Sirius A & B” are so named because I thought they sounded like old Saturn Records outtakes. I told Myles not to mix them too clean. He gave a typical response: “It’s easy to make things sound bad.”