Brooklyn-based Josh Sinton has established - through his
bands Ideal Bread, Musicianer and holus-Bolus, among other ventures - a
distinct identity as a baritone saxophonist, one whose influences range widely
from the dancing lyricism of Duke Ellington's bari-star Harry Carney and the
lowdown poetry of avant-icon Julius Hemphill to the rocking roadhouse sound of
Morphine's Dana Colley. Cadence magazine has said: "Sinton is a daring
instrumentalist, pushing his horn to its limits. At the top of his range, he
possesses an alto-like purity; in the middle, the bite of a tenor; and low
down, he can growl ferociously." Moreover, Sinton has carved out bonafides
as a conceptualist, having re-imagined with Ideal Bread three albums' worth of
music by soprano-saxophone innovator Steve Lacy. All About Jazz hailed Sinton's
work: "With his muscular tone and dexterous phrasing, Sinton proves to be
as dynamic an interpreter as he is arranger." For his latest project,
Sinton leads the loose-limbed, free-flowing Predicate Trio, featuring cellist
Chris Hoffman (Henry Threadgill, Tony Malaby) and drummer Tom Rainey (Tim
Berne, Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock). The band sings and dances, howls and
shimmies across the mix of Sinton compositions and free improvisations that
constitute the Predicate Trio's first album, the saxophonist's 10th album as a
leader. Reflecting Sinton's love of language and literature - and the example
of discursive titles by artists from John Cage to Fiona Apple - the album is
titled making bones, taking draughts, bearing unstable millstones pridefully,
idiotically, prosaically.
About the album's title, Sinton says: "I have a deep
love - and, sometimes, a deep mistrust - of language, and the title came from
me playing a game with words, making an acrostic from the nine track titles. I
hope it's evocative in some way, meaning different things to different people.
That's usually how listeners respond to instrumental music, anyway - and I like
that." Sinton - who switches from baritone sax to bass clarinet for
several tracks - composed six of the pieces on making bones, with another three
being free improvisations. The music ranges from the shadowy, scene-setting
solo bass clarinet intro of "Mersible" to the headlong skronk of
"BlockBlockBlock" and "Propulse," with Hoffman's cello an
arco/pizzicato swirl. Other highlights include the grooving, Hemphill/Dogon
A.D. allusions of "Dance," the ruminative, exploratory
"Unreliable Mirrors" and, with its hints of Morphine riffery from
Sinton, "Bell-ell-ell-ells," which also includes an expansive Rainey
solo.
Sinton, Hoffman and Rainey recorded making bones live in the
studio of engineer/co-producer Nathaniel Morgan, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
"We made it old-school, the three of us facing each other, playing live
with no separation," Sinton explains. "It was all first or second
takes, with no splices." About his trio mates, Sinton says: "I first
met Chris before he started working with Henry Threadgill, and I loved his
playing right away, its clarity, musicality and avoidance of cleverness for its
own sake. Later, I would go see him play with Threadgill at the Village Vanguard,
and I loved what he brought to that mysterious, astounding music, too. With
Tom, I used to see him play in Open Loose with Tony Malaby and Mark Helias, as
well as in Tim Berne's Science Friction band and, later, with all the projects
he does with Ingrid Laubrock. He always floors me - all that mind-bending
attention to detail in his sound, even as his playing seems so free and easy.
He's like the Fred Astaire of the drums. One thing I love about playing with
these guys is that I can achieve a kind of rhythmic fluidity that I'm always
striving for. They play with such beautiful momentum that it allows me to be
rhythmically free. Another thing I love with this trio is how I can explore a
full range of what I can do dynamically, and they're right there with me."
Throughout the album, Sinton on his low horns whispers and
keens, squalls and yowls. "I've been influenced as much by singers as by
sax players, whether it's James Carr and Nina Simone or Adrian Belew and Ian
MacKaye of Fugazi - that varied sort of expressiveness," he says.
"The baritone saxophone is so vocal in its range, with a range similar to
Frank Sinatra's, really. Of course, I also love the way the baritone sax has
this rhythmic punch that can cut through and declare an idea, something I would
hear in the playing of a Pepper Adams. Then there's the buzzsaw quality you can
get from a baritone, something that Dana Colley cultivated, almost like an
electric guitar. I like the way the instrument can have a gut impact."
As for the impact Sinton would like to see making bones,
taking draughts, bearing unstable millstones pridefully, idiotically,
prosaically have on listeners, he concludes: "I hope people give this
record a bit of their time - that's all a performing artist can really ask for,
even if that may seem like a lot in this day and age. But I'm betting that
there's enough mystery in this document to intrigue, to entice folks into
coming back to it again and again. That would make me extraordinarily
satisfied."
Josh Sinton, a New Jersey native born in 1971, studied
composition at the University of Chicago and improvisation at the AACM. He
carved a formative niche for himself in the Windy City, writing and performing
music for dance and theater; he also studied with such local icons as Fred
Anderson, Ken Vandermark and Ari Brown. After some world travel, he moved to
Boston in 1999 to study at New England Conservatory, learning from and playing
with the likes of Steve Lacy, Ran Blake, Dominique Eade, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob
Moses and the Either/Orchestra. Sinton moved to New York City in 2004. A former
founding member of composer Darcy James Argue's Grammy-nominated Secret Society
large ensemble, Sinton has also played in the Nate Wooley Quintet, Andrew
D'Angelo's DNA Orchestra, Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra and Adam
Hopkins' Crickets.
As a leader, Sinton has recorded three albums of Steve
Lacy's music with his quartet Ideal Bread, with the most recent release -
featuring the saxophonist alongside cornetist Kirk Knuffke, bassist Adam
Hopkins and drummer Tomas Fujiwara - being the double-CD Beating the Teens, on
Cuneiform in 2014. With his trio Musicianer (featuring bassist Jason Ajemian
and drummer Chad Taylor), Sinton released the album Slow Learner via Iluso in
2017. He followed this with krasa, an album of solo improvisations performed on
amplified contrabass clarinet; it was released in early 2018 via Irabbagast
Records. An enthusiastic organizer in New York City's creative-music community,
Sinton was a founding member of the Douglass Street Music Collective in
Brooklyn, booking a twice-monthly concert series. He also started a concert
series at Threes Brewing, along with curating events at several other Brooklyn
venues.
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