Chamber jazz that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A frontline of clarinetist Michael Moore (heard on NativeDSD’s 2021 album of the year “Amulet”) and virtuoso bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, interacting with the deep bass of Mark Dresser and the animated drums of composer-leader Harris Eisenstadt, blend equal parts of angular improvisation, solid rhythmic grooves, and tight arrangements.
– Mark Werlin, NativeDSD & AllAboutJazz

Golden State II is Harris Eisenstadt’s second release with his Golden State Quartet, featuring his wife and longest active musical partner Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon. It was recorded in concert at the 2014 Vancouver jazz festival, with Michael Moore’s clarinet replacing Nicole Mitchell’s flute.

As before, the basic concept of the band is putting orchestral instruments in chamber and improvising contexts; influences include Eric Dolphy, Yusef Lateef, and the AACM, particularly Wadada Leo Smith, whom Harris studied with at CalArts, and Henry Threadgill.

But there are also differences, as Harris points out: “There’s something more straightforward about these songs. They mostly follow fairly conventional forms, even head-solos-head in some cases, though with quite open approaches to solo sections and written materials. As for my own playing, I think there’s a simplicity or an economy of style meant to fit the compositions.” Somehow the feel is earthier, the music is a bit more grounded in jazz, and some of that has to do with Michael Moore. “Michael has a beautiful, playful, lyrical style, a harmonically fluid style; a supremely natural way of playing melodically and harmonically and rhythmically all at the same time, all in such deep ways. He brings a wonderful sense of spontaneous ensemble interplay that I’ve always loved in his work with two long-standing groups, ICP Orchestra and Available Jelly. He really introduced his own sense of spontaneous orchestration to Golden State, which worked great.”

As usual with Harris, the titles of the pieces have specific references. “The Arrangement of Unequal Things” is a quote from Richard Ford’s Canada referring to John Ruskin’s idea that composition is the arrangement of unequal things – in this case, “moving between duple and triple feels both in the written materials and as contrasting environments for clarinet and bassoon solos.” “Seven in Six” is a line in 7 on top of a longer line in 6, while “A Particularity with a Universal Resonance” is “three elegiac, meditative sections, and ultimately, a more uplifting strolling section that Michael solos on”; the title is taken from the obit for James Gandolfini in the NY Times. “A Kind of Resigned Indignation” is from the Times’ obit for Nora Ephron: “the solos and overall spirit are definitely indignant.” “Agency” is about “the ways in which each musician negotiates the composition in improvisatory ways.” “Gleaning” refers to “collecting leftover crops after a harvest, an apt reference to my compositional process. To glean also means to extract information. I supplied only so much information to the musicians; they extracted the information they needed and constantly re-cast the materials.”

Michael Moore, clarinet
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon
Mark Dresser, contrabass
Harris Eisenstadt, drums