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  The search engine-stymying name of this trio obscures, among other things, the formidable proliferation of instrumental skill and improvisational understanding gathered under its banner. Bassist Mark Dresser (Anthony Braxton Quartet, Trio M,), sopranino / tenor saxophonist Larry Ochs (ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Maybe Monday, Spectral), and drummer Vladimir Tarasov (Ganelin Trio, Moscow Composers Orchestra) each pull together the full package: an individual sound, an encyclopedic grasp of past musical advances, and a capacity to tune into the moment’s action. They also possess a decade and a half of collaboration, which assures that what you hear on their fourth album isn’t just the sum of their sounds, but an integrated ensemble concept in which microscopic details enhance evolving sonic narratives. This is music that wears its heaviness lightly.
  -- Bill Meyer (in Dusted - August 26, 2022)
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  Just Justice
  Jones Jones (ESP-Disk’)
  by Robert Bush
  
  Jones Jones seems like such a pedestrian name for a trio of decidedly revolutionary dimensions but these players manage to transcend. Saxophone trios are nothing new in the music, dating back to the ‘50s, but when one combines Larry Ochs (tenor and sopranino saxophones), Mark Dresser (bass) and Vladimir Tarasov (drums, turning 75 this month) sparks will fly. This collectively improvised album was recorded on Jan. 12th, 2020 at Studio B on the campus of UC-San Diego, where Dresser is a professor, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  The pedigrees of each member of Jones Jones is quite impressive: Ochs is the O in the ROVA Saxophone Quartet; Dresser came to fame as a 10-year member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet; and Tarasov is best known as a member of the Ganelin Trio.
  
  The album begins with an almost orchestral vibration, courtesy of deep drum tones. Dresser attacks his instrument from every direction other than what is expected and Ochs stokes the fire with a garrulous bellicosity. Dresser sets up “Bali Hai Jones” with a rough-sawn arco that could leave splinters, as Ochs pitches and yaws over the defiantly non-metronomic pulse of the drums. Many of these tracks are seamlessly performed with great variety without running out of steam. On “Call Of The Jones”, the bassist heralds a hair-raising dissonant drone with the bow, virtually daring Tarasov into a hailstorm of activity, reminiscent of Rashied Ali’s explosive contributions to John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space, especially when Ochs launches into a series of screaming, squealing multiphonics. The bassist and drummer conjure up a sensational groove with pizzicato pluck and feathery brushes on “Jones Free Jones”, enabling Ochs to warble in a joyously gruff exploration bringing to mind prime Archie Shepp (think On This Night, for reference.) Tarasov opens “RBG Jones” by tattooing an infectious beat on snare as Dresser injects bi-tonal tapping and Ochs swings for the fences with a blistering caterwaul. The penultimate selection, “Further Adventures of Ms. Microtonal Jones”, highlights the almost impossibly rich sound of arco bass in contrast to shimmering cymbals and soaring sopranino commentary.
  
  Anyone who loves the work of a truly exploratory saxophone trio that extrapolates the revolutionary templates of the ‘60s would be wise to seek this out.
  
  (in NYC Jazz Record / June 2022) ... more
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• A first in-studio recording by this dynamic band of improvisers

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  Recorded in January 2020, just 60 days or so before the first Covid Lockdowns took place, the outrages being dealt out almost daily by our so-called El Presidente and his henchmen in Congress and elsewhere were certainly in the air and on our minds as we improvised some passionate music during this all-day session in San Diego. What followed from March 2020 thru to January 6, 2021 will never be forgotten. It went unspoken at the time, but listening back to this recording now, I can feel the music's relevance to that period. And of course, as we release this now in June 2022, we're still swimming in much the same waters.
  
  June 2022 Online REVIEW:
  "Jones Jones is a sort of free improvisation supergroup, featuring three masters of their instruments, each one with legendary, decades-long careers – American sax player Larry Ochs (playing here the tenor and sopranino saxes) of ROVA Saxophone Quartet since its inception in 1977, Lithuanian drummer-percussionist Vladimir Tarasov, once a member of the revolutionary Ganelin Trio, and Fellow double bass player Mark Dresser (with an arsenal of three double basses and electronic pickups) once a member of the seminal and classic Anthony Braxton Quartet (with pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Gerry Hemingway). The leaderless trio first performed as a unit in 2006 for one concert in the San Francisco Bay Area; that special performance led to more sound explorations among these three masters whose ability to listen and respond shines forth during every trio concert.
  
  «Just Justice» is the fourth album by Jones Jones and it was recorded at Studio B in UC San Diego in January 2020, when all were still outraged by the American so-called El Presidente and his henchmen in Congress The whimsical spirit that led to the anonymous name of this trio continues with the titles of the eight pieces. Each piece offers distinct, daring and deep listening dynamics that stress the strong individual voices of Jones Jones, their profound affinity and idiosyncratic and sometimes eccentric vocabularies, often spiced with humor and irony but with no attempt to attach themselves to familiar or conventional improvisation strategies. Just serving the music by keeping exploring possible modes of conversational dynamics and then letting go. The beautiful cover art of Roberto Harrison cements the unique sonic vision of Jones Jones
  
  Ochs sketches instant, lyrical melodies. Dresser’s bowing technique is impeccable, always challenging and dives deep into magical microtonal universes (check his masterful playing on «The Further Adventures of Ms. Microtonal Jones»), while Tarasov keeps his comrades on their toes with his fast, shape-shifting percussive patterns. Together they form a poetic and powerful collective that explores imaginative texture like «Bali Hai Jones», burns with urgent energy and rage on «Call of the Jones», investigates the timbral qualities of their instruments in a series of delicate and tense collisions in «Jones in the Sonar System», or simply surfs with post-bop rhythmic joy on «Jones Free Jones» and the bluesy «RBG Jones». The last piece «And His Sisters Called Him Jones» captures best the always inventive, unpredictable dynamics of this great trio and this inspiring album."
  
  Eyal Hareuveni in SALT PEANUTS (Norway + Online)
  
  salt-peanuts.eu/record/jones-jones-2/?fbclid=IwAR17ZytSrfQGkiTAcsy1tjI5cyFYygLm8Vwmk96vTTH7qIKZtpq7S7lb-rM
  
  Includes unlimited streaming of JUST JUSTICE (June 2022) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more
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