Take a trio in the best beat-poetry tradition - a storyteller, a jazz trombonist and a drummer - with all of its promise of interaction, communication and "in the moment" interplay...
Now expand it - more players, more voices: broader drama, wider expressions; all while losing none of its spirit and spontaneity and you have Transvalue.
Transvalue, an ongoing exploration of the inner depths of human interaction and the outer reaches of jazz... and where both come together as one.
For Transvalue III, trombonist/composer Michael Vlatkovich, with his unique brand of improvisationally-friendly, genre-bending compositions, has created musical settings to support, surround and interact with the writings and vocal performances of spoken word artist, Chuck Britt. Over the years, Transvalue has grown into a sort of repertory company of West Coast experimental jazz artists with the instrumentation and personnel varying with the needs of the material. One mainstay of this repertory company has been drummer/percussionist, David Crigger, whose role as recording engineer/mixer has grown on Transvalue III beyond mere capturing of performances, to editing, shaping and extending those performances to match Transvalue’s current vision of itself.
Transvalue III’s eight horn players, besides Vlatkovich on trombone include multi-woodwind virtuoso, Vinny Golia and tuba artist, Bill Roper. The rhythm section consists of pianist Glenn Horiuchi, bassist Domenic Genova along with Crigger on drums, percussion, loops and additional keyboards. Also featured are Melanie Cracchiolo and Chuck Sabatino on vocals, Warren Hartman on keyboards, and many others.
Observation then...
The rhythm, illusion and meaning in spoken words
The energy, drama and conflict of the composition
The spontaneous conversation of the musicians in the moment
All to bring you along with us
A fun but risky process for…
TRANSVALUE
Conjuring reality is not for the humorless…
or the faint of heart...
TRANSVALUE
Taking “Words & Music” to a whole new place…
Tom Waites meets Captain Beefheart…
Allen Ginsberg meets Ornette Coleman
Bukowski meets Zappa
Michael Vlatkovich – Trombone/Compositions... called by JAZZIZ magazine, “…one of the most extraordinary improvising trombonists in this country as well as overseas... a daring and emotionally charged performer... takes delight in blending a broad variety of jazz and world music styles into his own brand of engaging and unpredictable music and manages to express a raw power and beauty within a minimally structured format that allows extensive group improvisations to lead the way.”
Chuck Britt – Vocals/Poems/Verbal Expressions... observes and invites us into his American life. From his loving but disturbed and too intense fifties family, through the polluted, war and riot torn, deteriorating sixties, the inflated, over watered desert of Los Angeles and the world of performance art and jazz in the seventies and eighties, through his visions of redemption in death and unlikely family healing over the last twenty years in the Northwest, Chuck growls, hisses, warbles and dances his vision. We can come or not… but it is clear that he will go on relentlessly.
David Crigger – Drums/Percussion/Additional Keyboards/Programming and Sound Manipulation... since joining the Don Ellis Orchestra at age 18, has recorded and performed with Elvis Costello, Klaus Doldinger's Passport, Burt Bacharach, Brian Auger, and many others; has engineered/produced CD's for Jeanette Wrate, Bruce Lofgren Jazz Orchestra, and Bill Plake.