Liner notes from Mosaics debut release "Live at Sangha" on Snack Records:

If you could just go back If you could do it all over again, would you do it (Bama, "The Village Poet", 1972)

On "Live at Sangha", Mosaic takes artful advantage of such an opportunity, and answers Bama's open-ended question strongly in the affirmative. Drummer/percussionist Mark Merella, bassist Larry Melton, and pianist Ned Judy first played together over twenty-years ago while still in high school. Joined by Matt Belzer on reeds and Ekendra Das on percussion, this debut recording by Mosaic reflects a collection of standard and not-so-standard compositions that each musician likely covered while still burgeoning teenagers. On Live at Sangha, compositions by Bud Powell, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Hancock get approached and explored anew, and benefit from the maturity and experience that the passage of time often brings.

Recorded live at Sangha -- a fair-trade goods and performance space in Takoma Park, Maryland, that has been the home of the DC area's most adventurous avant jazz performance for the past few years -- Mosaic's "Live at Sangha" recording opens with bebop pianist Earl Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco". Mosiac's interpretation further builds on bassist Jaco Pastorious' 80s treatment of this jazz staple, with Merella and Das locked in a continuous percussive break-beat that both propels and extends the piece beyond its now familiar underpinnings.

Dashing familiar expectations is a recurring theme of this recording.

Monk's music gets three treatments here. "Criss Cross", "Epistrophy", and the standout -- "Crepuscule with Nellie". I've always felt that "Crepuscule with Nellie", Monk's tribute to his wife Nellie, was a most personal gift to his lady, and when others perform it as Monk did, it almost feels like a form of musical infidelity. Here, the only similarity between Mosaic's and Monk's version is that Mosaic's mostly explores the compositions rich melody and theme, refreshingly veering away from the more familiar head-solo(s)-head structure. After a brief piano introduction by Judy, drummer Morella propels the piece with soft, slowed bossa nova-like embellishments, his drum work beautifully accented with tasteful wood-block and chime accompaniment.

Ellington's "African Flower" gets a similar treatment, though more uptempo. It, again, begins with Judy's mostly piano opening, soon expanded to include the full ensembles shading, particularly Belzer's clarinet work, which is both languid and yearning.

The less heard "Riot" comes from Herbie Hancock, while "Speak No Evi"l, and the more familiar "Footprints" herald from the pen of ex-Weather Report reedist/composer Wayne Shorter. Both selections come from these artist's prior tenure with the Miles Davis Quintet. While the first two treatments showcase Mosaic's ability to deftly reinterpret Shorter and Hancock's intricately angular voicings and harmonies and include rich extemporizations by pianist Judy and Beltzer on both alto and soprano. It's the third and also final composition on this disk that provides the freshest treatment of Shorters work. "Footprints" begins abstractly with pianist Judy's alternately impressionistic and dirgeful tinges -- with subtle mallet, timbales, and reed shadowing -- and continues with bassist Melton providing occasional hints of the piece's loping character. A third way through this almost twelve-minute excursion, "Live at Sangha'"s longest selection, the ensemble applies its full range of Latin and Afro-Cuban enrichments, while constantly alternating the composition's tempo, concluding with a more in-the-pocket reading of Shorter's timeless melody.

Mosaic's "Live at Sangha" breaks richly, reverently, and with much wit and beauty. You'll be glad you accepted its offer.

Bobby Hill
Host of "The Other Side"
WPFW-FM, 89.3

Cadence Magazine / May 2003

An acidic quality runs through the performance of Mantra. The band make-up includes Ozment at the keyboards and synthesizer, Underwood on guitar plus looping electronics, and Merella as the percussionist. The music is about driving rhythms in the vein popularized by Miles in his later periods. It has an infectious, pulsating group attitude to go along with its ambitious group improvising. Underwood sets his guitar on fire with electrified phrasing around the droning, searching organ output from Ozment. Behind it all is Merella, meting out a pounding beat that coats the atmosphere with throbbing tension. The sound switches to acoustic piano, but this only sets the stage for more romping in the fantasyland of electronic stimulation.

Energy abounds on this session. Using material by Shorter, Zawinul, and Davis as a springboard into its own compositions, Mantra explores an underworld of swirling intertwined dynamics based on a recurrent rhythmic charge. The group name is very descriptive of its incantations to an unseen being. While the music is designed to flow unerringly over the senses, it dissects into individual galvanizing solos that flow into the common aura created by the combination. Ozment negotiates the organ into the outer regions while Underwood seeks out unknown elements scattered in the cosmos and Merella surrounds the galaxy with an overabundance of pulsation. Whether it is the familiar melody of "Mysterious Traveler" or the product of its own imaginative probing, Mantra is consistent in keeping the asteroids orbiting. It is trance music for space travelers.
~ Frank Rubolino

IntotheOut
Mantra | Red Door

As might be gathered from the setlist, Mantra draws rich inspiration from the early fusion movement of the 1970s. Not your average hippy-trippy apes, the trio remain perhaps closer to the true spirit of the Miles Revolution than projects like Leo Smith's Yo Miles! For all the sampling and wanna-be funk that has clogged the market lately, Mantra helps remind us of what the electric insurrection was all about.

Jimmy Smith proved decades ago that a band doesn't need a bass player as long as the organist has competent feet. Yet in Miles Davis' early electric groups, the bassist played the all-important role of unflagging anchor. (Ever count how many times Michael Henderson ran through the same dang ostinato on a quarter-hour jam?) The bass isn't even missed here; Jon Ozment is fully up to snuff, blasting through pedal-less, neo-retro organ grooves that would do Larry Young proud while Mark Merella's percussion fills in some low-end space. Ozment's acid-drenched electric piano melts into Chuck Underwood's guitar wah on the Davis-penned opener, "Fast Track," and Merella's layers firm up the foundation. Joe Zawinul is a key influence, and the keyboardist's own "Dr. Honoris Causa" gets a fuzzy, funky workout. The third classic, Wayne Shorter's "Mysterious Traveller," is of necessity pared down from the larger-than-life Weather Report sound, but Underwood makes a servicable substitute for the vehement saxman.

The remaining selections are originals by the band members. Ozment's "Pixels" begins as a breakneck outlet for his acoustic piano (presumably played on the synth since no real piano is credited), more in the spirit of Shorter's pre-electric compositions for Davis' quintet. Later on he moves to the organ to kick up the heat. "Blue" is a brooding, edge-of-seat wash of tension. The other tracks are free-form jams, faithful to the once-maligned, now-embraced Davis canon. "Zone Nomo" is the furthest out, with Underwood recalling some of Henry Kaiser's experiments. Merella makes excellent use of space at times, leaving wide gaps for the others to fill in with glowing textures. A most enjoyable experience for Ur-fusion aficionados and chops-hounds. Visit Mantra Jazz.
~ Todd S. Jenkins

Review originally appeared on the web site All About Jazz, May 2003 www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0503_106.htm

Mysticism abounds when the DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC) holds a musical séance. The performers delve into remote realms, conjuring up inventive music with sorcerous cunning. This searching association of experimental artists affords its members the opportunity for open-ended exploration in various-sized group scenarios.

On this recording, the DCIC features four free spirits. Mike Sebastian awakens the ghosts of music present and future through his fierce woodwind flights; Jon Ozment offers weighty acoustic and electric piano brews; Mark Merella executes jarring percussive resonance; and Jonathan Matis adds bracing stimuli through his guitar. Electronics play an important role as well, with Ozment, Merella, and Matis each negotiating the amplified terrain for special effects.

The program, as could be expected from the band's name, is fully improvised. These instant composers thrive on the spontaneity of the moment, allowing their innate sense of adventure to dictate the direction the music takes. It goes off in multiple streams of consciousness that slide into hallucinatory states, often through alternating pairings that fold into full quartet activity.

For example, Merella pumps incendiary fuel to drive Sebastian into forceful areas in two duets, and he supplies more subtle nuances in his matching of ambiance with Ozment. One trio selection without Sebastian is awash in eerie vibrations. The band rises to its creative best on the full ensemble tunes that comprise the majority of the recording. With all improvisers interacting as a unit, the music peaks in waves of otherworldliness.

Each title develops through the probing and suggestion of the players. Sebastian speaks in multiple tongues, allowing his bass clarinet to supply spirituality or his saxophones to emit eruptive energy. Merella floods the field with a plethora of exotic percussive tones, injecting rattling, clanking, and other stimuli into the concoction. Ozment sends a jarring message from his piano or keyboards, painting a voluminous soundscape in the process. Matis's guitar efforts offer contrasting reactions; he releases smoldering juices or calming melodiousness into the group context.

While sound in its purest form plays an important role, the pieces display continuity with little need for silence and space as support. The recording flows in suite-like fashion as one collective expression.

From jarring abruptness to passive serenity, the DCIC responds to the moment at hand to create music of unique character and demanding quality. Aided by electronic supplements, it becomes especially vibrant. Each musician stays in touch with his psyche and responds to the circulating spirits of the others on this compelling example of unrestrained group meditation.
~ Frank Rubolino, All About Jazz

Garage Concréte & Dialogues
Merella/Melton/Judy/Goodrich | Snack

The quartet of percussionist Mark Merella, bassist Larry Melton, pianist Ned Judy, and guitarist David Goodrich communicates on a spiritualized level on these two releases from the Snack label. Their music ranges from ethereal to earthy, and it finds sonic haven on both ends of that wide otic spectrum. The two discs crystallize through the amalgamation of diverse cycles beginning with the Bitches Brew transfusion, broadening into the world music arena, and expanding in scope to encompass the noise jazz phenomenon. Visual images of radiant heat rising from a desert floor flood one's mind through their transcendental form of communication, regardless of which time zone or time warp they choose to habitat.

Judy concocts the mystic flavoring of tomorrow on synthesizer and the rumblings of yesterday on digital piano. He bridges the gap convincingly, allowing the music to breathe and breed new forms of alien life. Merella blends exotic percussive tones to promote a trance-like ambiance, using Indian/African rhythms to suggest a cosmic state of being. He also contributes to the spatial metaphors through use of short-wave radio signals on "Blackout in Berlin," where he seemingly is seeking help from a distant galaxy.

Melton is an atypical bassist who abandons the concepts of time when the spaceship is in orbit on Garage Concréte, but he touches down to earth on Dialogues to guide the desert ship through the maze of dunes the band crosses in seeking nirvana. Goodrich appears on only two cuts of Garage Concréte but is onboard for all of Dialogues to stimulate the supernatural spirits dancing mystically to the traditions of exotic cultures.

Merella, Melton, and Judy have been interacting in the creative music arena since 1979, and Goodrich has a long association with them as well. This explains their ability to convey complex musical expressions in such a communicative way. The droning beat and intertwined movements of "Qawwal" are as together as the otherworldly callings melding so seamlessly on "Dante's Dilemma." The band glides unerringly from orbiting Saturn to trekking over barren Himalayan peaks. All of the music is instantly composed, although themes of John Coltrane's work form a foundation for experimentation on "Spontraneous." Goodrich's playing is particularly compelling on this cut

These guys expand the concept of world music to take in aural concepts from the other side of the sun, and they do it in a way that seduces the senses. Whereas Garage Concréte seeks light after traveling through a dark hole in the universe, Dialogues elaborates on an ordered, harmonious cosmos identifiable to grounded explorers. In either scenario, the group builds an aesthetically convincing bridge over the varied terrain or firmament they travel. Visit www.snackrecords.com on the web.
~ Frank Rubolino

The Latin Jazz All Stars simple moniker, and their who's who roster of New York City based instrumentalists listed in the Blues Alley ad, suggested that their Friday night gig would incorporate roughly equal parts hypnotic clave-rooted rhythms, improvisational melodic variations and dissonant tones.

Instead, perhaps owing to the unexplained absence of legendary percussionist Carlos "Patato" Valdes, this part time seven-member unit led by trombonist Steve Turre and trumpeter Ray Vega, offered a still satisfying evening in which they emphasized the American jazz history book more than the head-nodding, hip-shaking party skills that some of the members had served up with the likes of the late Tito Puente.

Opening with the leisurely Wayne Shorter composition "Footprints", this group of veteran professionals quickly established the general format for the evening. Vega began with a stately series of lush notes, and then he and the others-- Turre, saxophonist Mario Rivera, pianist Arturo O'Farrill, bassist Andy Gonzalez, drummer Steve Berrios and percussionist Mark Merella--alternated solos before they all meandered back to the musical theme. The evenings highlights however, did not derive from the individual players show of chops but from their work in unison. On Horace Silver's "Peace", the combination of O'Farrill's bent fingered lyrical key pinging, Berrios's tinkling brushwork; Gonzalez¹s steady and focused low-note rumble, and the band's powerful horn attack proved sublime. With the gig closer "Blue Train" by John Coltrane, the ensemble finally lived up to its name with joyous polyrhythms from cowbells, maracas and sax, and a steady bass, piano and drums pulsing bottom.
~ Steve Kiviat, Washington Post

Home     Bio     Projects     Schedule     Sounds     Photos     Reviews     Schedule     Writing     Contact