About Edible Flowers (liner notes)

In early March of 2020, our group started its first short West Coast tour – filled with school and community workshops as well as performances in the Bay Area and beyond. By the time we had played one performance in San Francisco and a day of workshops in Menlo Park, the rest of our tour came to an abrupt end as the Covid lockdown began across the US.

Wanting to document the music and not wanting to let go of the rapport that had evolved, we decided to record. We contacted our favorite local music engineer, Jeff Cressman, who was able to come record us on site in the house we rented for the duration of our stay.

 We ran through our repertoire and then bassist Stomu Takeishi cooked us an amazing meal, including a salad decorated with edible flowers. Jeff, Tony, Stomu, Deszon and I had a lovely shared meal and moment, and the next day the New Yorkers among us rushed to the airport to fly back and face whatever the world was doing next.

The decoration of the edible flowers, in the face of the unknown, was touching to me.

I hope you enjoy the music. –Jessica

More info about the album:

 These old friends gathered to play a short California tour sponsored in part by a South Arts Jazz Road grant in early March of 2020. A west coast version of the Jessica Jones Quartet, the group welcomed drummer Deszon Claiborne, a colleague and friend of Tony and Jessica since their time together in high school at the Summer Music Program at UC Berkeley and later in Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics Ensemble. Jessica, Tony and Stomu had played together regularly over the previous decades, and Deszon fit right in, bonding with Stomu over subjects trivial and profound.

Covid awareness bloomed right alongside the tour: the group played workshops in the south Bay Area, had a concert there cancelled, and then squeezed out a memorable performance at the Bird and Beckett venue in San Francisco before the rest of the tour – and the US in general –  was also shut down. They responded by creating a recording session in the house the New Yorkers were renting, documenting the band and this unique moment of time together on the brink of the unknown.

The music echoes the bond the band created, stretching jazz interpretations into a signature looser arena that is their forte.

 Focus Song:

 No Relation/Just Us (Jessica Jones/Tony Jones)

 This mashup starts with a line that Jessica composed and played with Tony in 1976. The band journeys from that point via group improvisation that runs a full arc of textures on its way towards the closing of Tony’s composition “Just Us.” Sensitive and powerful support from Deszon and Stomu anchor the foray, indicative of their affinity throughout the album.

Bios:

Ensemble Bio

 The Jessica Jones Quartet is an improvising jazz ensemble which performs original experimental music. Their music derives from the jazz tradition using structured original compositions as a framework for freer improvisation. Combining two tenor saxophones with bass and drums, the group creates an exciting, robust new soundscape. Working with drummers and bassists on the forefront of the experimental jazz scene has allowed the group a level of exploration that gives birth to a unique sound. The compositions of Jessica Jones and husband and fellow tenor saxist, Tony Jones, are given life by the innovative and energetic rhythm section. The eclectic musical backgrounds of the band members infuse the music with the energy and creativity of new textures while remaining firmly rooted in the jazz tradition. The Jessica Jones Quartet has played numerous festivals around the country, including the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, California, where the group headlined with special guest Don Cherry and the 2020 Winter JazzFest in NYC. The group has been featured in venues on the East and West Coasts of the U.S. and released several CDs to critical acclaim that included guest artists  ranging from innovative instrumentalists Joseph Jarman, Connie Crothers, Mark Taylor, Dayna Stephens and Ambrose Akinmusire to poet Abe Maneri and vocalist Ed Reed. Poets, storytellers, and guest musicians have been augmenting the core quartet as the band continues to explore creative alliances. The band received a Jazz Road touring grant from South Arts in 2020, which culminated in the Edible Flowers recording.

Musicians Bios

Jessica Jones is also active as a sideman and has worked with Joseph Jarman,Cecil Taylor, and Don Cherry as well as a variety of Haitian, Caribbean, and African bands, and currently plays with the Creative Music Studio Improvisers Orchestra. She has composed a diverse body of work, from saxophone quartets to operatic arias. Jessica is a recipient of the inaugural Jerome Artist Fellowship Grant, and awards from the NEA and SF Focus magazine. She is an innovative jazz educator and consultant, working with young people on improvisation, composition, and oral traditions for Bard College, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Vision Festival, Brooklyn Friends School, and others. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the arts non-profit REVA Inc.

Tony Jones grew up in a hotbed of jazz education in Berkeley California where he was steeped in music at home and trained in some of the earliest jazz education programs in the nation. While still in high school, Jones was part of an innovative cooperative quartet that performed bold, experimental music around the Bay Area and on an East Coast tour where they were exposed to the still thriving loft jazz scene. Jones co-founded the Jessica Jones Quartet and, with violinist Charlie Burnham, the Pitch, Rhythm and Consciousness Trio and subsequent configurations; both groups record and perform extensively. He has appeared as a sideman with Don Cherry, Muhal Richard Abrams, Peter Apfelbaum, and Joseph Jarman, among others, including in national and international jazz festivals. Tony is a recipient of the inaugural Jerome Artist Fellowship Grant and currently plays with the Creative Music Studio Improvisers Orchestra.

Deszon Claiborne, drums

A native of the Bay Area, Deszon Claiborne began his musical career at the early age of ten.

Virtually self taught in the beginning, he went on to study with world-renowned drummers such as Richard Peterson, Rick Quintinal (Chuck Brown school of Drumming), James Levi, Ralph

Humphrey and Kenneth Nash, an experience which provided him with a strong foundation in jazz, rhythm’n’ blues and world music.

He has had the pleasure to perform or record with the following artists: Peter Apfelbaum, Don Cherry, Charles Brown, Angela Bofill, Les McCann, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Robben Ford, Boz Scaggs, Greg Howe, Oz Noy, Henry Butler, Giovanni Hidalgo, Kai Eckhardt, John Handy, Taj Mahal, Donald Harrison, Jovan Jackson,Ernie Watts, Bill Bell, Jeff Chambers, Frank Martin, Carl Wheeler, Rodney Franklin Clairdee,Fred Ross, Tony Lindsay, Tony Monaco, Doug Carn,Charlie Musselwhite, Nathan East, Bob Weir, Nguyen Le, Rock Hendrix, Carl Lockett, Guthrie Govan, Azar Lawrence and many others.

In addition to his performing and recording credits, Deszon is also an educator. He has taught both private and group lessons to students of all ages and levels, youth to adult, and beginning to advanced. Deszon has also participated in music education programs in the Bay Area over the last 20 years, including Berkeley Jazz School, Jazz Camp West, Stanford Jazz Camp, Lafayette Summer Music camp, Moody’s Jazz Camp, Just Say Jazz, and Adventures in Music.

Stomu Takeishi, bass

Takeishi began as a koto player. He moved to the United States in 1983 to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After completing his degree in 1986, he moved to Manhattan to continue his studies at The New School.

In the 1990s, he began to achieve prominence as an innovative New York jazz bass player, and critics have noted both his adventurous playing and sensitivity to sound and timbre. He has played in many international jazz festivals and often performs at major venues in New York, the United States, and Europe.

He has performed and/or recorded with Don Cherry, Henry Threadgill, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Butch Morris, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, Wynton Marsalis, Paul Motian, Myra Melford, Cuong Vu, Badal Roy, David Tronzo, Erik Friedlander, Satoko Fujii, Laszlo Gardony, Ahmad Mansour, Andy Laster, Ned Rothenberg  and with Molé, a trio with Hernan Hecht and Mark Aanderud.  Takeishi also plays in groups with his brother, percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, though the two did not collaborate until Satoshi moved to New York in the 1990s.

Takeishi began duo collaborations with Brandon Ross in the year 2000, having gotten to know him while playing together in Henry Threadgill’s Make A Move band in the mid-1990s. The two perform as For Living Lovers, and released their first album, Revealing Essence, in 2014.

In 2009, the DownBeat Critics Poll named Takeishi Rising Star, Electric Bass.

Press Quotes:

 “…laced with dollops of profundity.”
–Herb Boyd, Downbeat Magazine

“… predictably unpredictable, grounded yet far-reaching, and irresistibly

intriguing in its unfolding. The tenors move along with a combination of

patience and attitude, enhancing the underlying feel with their cool-headed, hot-

blooded moves…a program that’s both unrestrained and structurally sound.”

-All About Jazz

“Both Joneses play tenor saxophone, and they shift fluidly between unison

statements and passages, one player shadowing the other so sympathetically that

one forgets its two musicians. This unity is one of the most attractive things

about this album, the fourth CD by their quartet, and it is enhanced by the

rhythm section’s empathy. The ensemble’s affinity enhances the moments

where the music pulls taut or picks up steam.”

-Bill Meyer, Downbeat Magazine