"IN for the OUT" from Mark McGrain and PLUNGE highlights drum and bass driven grooves

The heart of these 15 new compositions beats deep within New Orleans' tradition of polyphony and improvisation.  As has always been the aim with PLUNGE, according to McGrain, "each song must contain enough familiarity for the greater audience to find memorable while also providing enough musical challenge to propel the players into daring and expansive improvisations."

Alongside McGrain, PLUNGE features organist Robert Walter (Grey Boy All-stars), electronic percussionist and drummer Simon Lott (Charlie Hunter, Wil Blades), Kirk Joseph on sousaphone (Dirty Dozen Brass Band), Tom Fitzpatrick (Walter "Wolfman" Washington) on flute and tenor sax, the late Tim Green (Peter Gabriel, Cyril Neville) on baritone sax and saxello, and James Singleton (Astral Project, John Scofield) on double bass.

New Orleans based composer and trombonist Mark McGrain will release his fourth album, IN for the OUT, with his band PLUNGE. Released as a digital album and CD on Immersion Records & Media on April 20, 2015, the album marks not only a return to the drum and bass driven "grooves as wide as a house" (DownBeat Magazine) concept of PLUNGE's first album Falling With Grace (1996, Accurate/Rounder) but also includes the intimate trio and improvisational elements of Dancing on Thin Ice (2009, Immersion Records & Media-IRM) and Tin Fish Tango (2011, IRM).

Instrumentation for IN for the OUT ranges from McGrain's solo trombone and alphorn tracks to the full throttle septet of McGrain, organist Robert Walter (Greyboy Allstars), electronic percussionist and drummer Simon Lott (Charlie Hunter, Wil Blades), Kirk Joseph (Dirty Dozen Brass Band), on sousaphone, Tom Fitzpatrick (Walter "Wolfman" Washington) on flute and tenor sax, the late Tim Green (Peter Gabriel, Cyril Neville) on baritone sax and saxello, and James Singleton (Astral Project, John Scofield) on double bass.

In McGrain's words, "IN for the OUT is a 15 track song cycle based on various stages of human entropy--the steps we take and experience as we journey toward this life's conclusion . . . and beyond."

The heart of these 15 new compositions beats deep within New Orleans' tradition of polyphony and improvisation.  As has always been the aim with PLUNGE, according to McGrain, "Each song must contain enough familiarity for the greater audience to find memorable while also providing enough musical challenge to propel the players into daring and expansive improvisations."

From the funky, startlingly odd-measured opener "The Jilt" to the reflective surrender of "With Love Alone," and the second-line, set-the-spirit-free buoyancy of "Birmingham Songo," the listener is transported along a path littered with joy and jubilation, introspection and loss, and, in the end, celebration.  As the inscription by McGrain on the back of the album jacket reads: "Beauty dusts these tracks we share, carrying us onward, in for the out."

Plunge is the brainchild of trombonist and composer Mark McGrain.  Over a span of 20 years, from the 1995 production of Falling with Grace to the 2015 release of IN for the OUT, McGrain has produced four critically acclaimed albums of his compositions performed in unique ensemble settings.  Some of jazz and creative music's most lauded practitioners have contributed to these sessions.  Over the years, PLUNGE recording personnel has included drummer Rakalam Bob Moses, bassist Avishai Cohen, tubist Marcus Rojas, sousaphonist Kirk Joseph, bassist James Singleton, saxophonists Tim Green and Tom Fitzpatrick, drummer Simon Lott, and organist Robert Walker.