Colter Frazier/Rob Wallace Duo
"Banana Sandwich"
Musicians
Upcoming shows
None scheduled
Genre: Jazz / Avant-garde
Sound description: Here’s a common musical experience: you resent mainstream radio because a small grouping of bubblegum-pop hits get played ad infinitum in a loop, day after day. Meanwhile, new innovative music is nowhere to be found.
Well, you are not alone in your frustration. Artists like Colter Frazier and Rob Wallace not only understand your predicament, they offer a solution. They started the Experimental Music Night at the Biko Co-Op on Sueno Road in Isla Vista to encourage interest in a more unique wavelength of the musical spectrum.
Frazier and Wallace are both classically trained (saxophone and drums, respectively). But the duo’s sound might be described most accurately as a variation on the slightly technical term, “non-idiomatic improvisation.” Much like free-form jazz musicians, they play off one another’s sound and mood to create a musical environment of total freedom and spontaneity. Still, they are careful not to classify their music as “jazz fusion.”
“We might play, at times, in the jazz tradition,” said Frazier, “but the idea is to not limit the music we make by defining it.”
To overcome inhibition, they tap whatever medium necessary for the fullest range of sounds the experience might call for; their techniques range from stomping the floor and smacking walls to exchanging guttural growls.
Wallace deems it the most exciting music, for both artists and an audience, because “everyone is constantly on the edge … we don’t know what’s going to happen next, so it is like you get to watch these musicians think with their instruments.” —Tyler Vickers
Web site: http://www.colterfrazier.com
Related links
History
The Colter Frazier/Rob Wallace Duo has been improvising creative music since 2006. They released their self-titled debut album on pfMentum Records in November 2007. The duo has been on hiatus while Rob has been out of town for the last year, but he will be moving back to Santa Barbara this fall and the duo action will resume!
Formed
2007, Santa Barbara, CA
Influences
Peter Brotzmann, Han Bennink, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Milford Graves, Steve Coleman, Steve Reich
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