Photo by Rossetti©Phocus

On Wednesday, March 31st, Boston-based guitarist/composer Garrison Fewell and his Variable Density Sound Orchestra will perform at Johnny D’s Uptown Restaurant & Jazz Club in Somerville, Massachusetts. The group, which brings together a flexible cast of well-known improvisers from Boston, New York and beyond, will be performing selections from its self-titled 2009 debut, as well as previewing music from its forthcoming release, Sound Particle 47 (Creative Nation Music), due this fall. Joining Fewell for this event will be Roy Campbell (trumpet), Steve Swell (trombone), Kelly Roberge (tenor saxophone), Eric Hofbauer (guitar), John Voigt (bass), Sean Farias (bass) and Miki Matsuki (drums).

Critics called Variable Density Sound Orchestra (CNM 014) “solid, approachable and at the same time richly complex” (Phillip McNally, Cadence) and “as intriguing a project as has been available on the contemporary jazz scene…chock full of inventive musicianship, truly new concepts, and fresh approaches that pay big dividends” (Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic.com). JazzTimes reviewer Michael J. West adds, “Variable Density Sound Orchestra should be on jazz education syllabi worldwide: It demonstrates how even free improvisation depends on musicians listening closely to each other. Guitarist Garrison Fewell’s septet uses some compositional structures, but the real backbone comes from developing and responding to each other’s spontaneous ideas. The products of that chemistry are gorgeous.”

“The guitarist formerly known as one of Boston’s most eloquent inside players has become one of its leading experimenters,” explains the Boston Phoenix‘s Jon Garelick, who included Variable Density Sound Orchestra on his best of 2009 list. Fewell, a professor at the Berklee College of Music since 1977, has toured the globe for more than 30 years as one of the jazz world’s premier performer/educators. For much of the past decade, he has left his mainstream jazz roots behind to collaborate with such renowned avant-garde musicians as Khan Jamal, Charlie Kohlhase and John Tchicai, and more fully explore longstanding influences including Albert Ayler, Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra in his own music. The Variable Density Sound Orchestra, founded in 2008, balances both aspects of Fewell’s musical personality by showcasing the melodic accessibility and sturdy framework of his compositions as well as the unbridled freedom of free improvisation. Learn more at http://garrisonfewell.wordpress.com