Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core

Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core was formed in June 2000 as the trio of saxophone (Larry Ochs) and 2 drummers (Scott Amendola & Donald Robinson) for a special “concept album” that Ochs wanted to record. The Core's music then (and now):  a meditation on and a 21st-century distillation of the songs and sounds of American and eastern European blues-shouters, and of traditional chant-singers from Asia and Africa. Many of these vocalists can be heard working in a similar context: backed by one string player, or one hand drummer, or two background singers, This is the space that this band originally went after. But then, it must be said, the end result is modern, as in “urban.” After 2 CDs and four tours as a trio, the Core has now expanded its color palette by adding two great Tokyo-based musicians: Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura.