Roosevelt Sykes Vol. 10 (1951-1957)

Savoy Boogie

Michael McNeill is a pianist, improviser, and composer based in Buffalo, NY. While living in eastern Virginia, he started the quartet Allegories, with Baltimore-based musicians Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), Dave Ballou (trumpet), and Shelly Purdy (vibraphone & percussion).

Barcode Poetry is the culmination of this quartet's first tour in June 2022. The band spent a week on the road, going from rural eastern Virginia to Detroit, developing McNeill’s tunes and deepening the band’s chemistry. In the studio, the band distilled its sprawling improvisations into concise, focused performances.

McNeill describes the project, "As with many bands I organize, I went into it assuming it would be a fun, one-off project that would probably never play again. Somehow, though, this seemingly unwieldy combination of instruments proved to be an ideal vehicle for our individual and collective explorations, and, perhaps most importantly, our personalities meshed well, too. Our 2022 tour was further proof that we were a band. For those of you who didn’t get to hear us on the road then, I hope the focused, distilled performances on the present recording (made just after the end of our tour) will give you a window into the collective energy we cultivated that week."

"Barcode Poetry is an album that provides a different aural experience on each hearing.  The musicians usher the listener through this journey document, a collection of unique moments that occurred one time, never to be duplicated. By entering their artistic sphere without expectations, we can be rewarded with fresh sounds and a cleansing of our listening ears. Maybe this is the 'Double Memory' that the last track refers to, or as the alternative Negative Memory." — Jon Nelson, Founder - Meridian Arts Ensemble; Professor - University at Buffalo

Timeigrant

Infrasonic Press is an independent record label and publishing company based in Erie, PA. Our mission is to release music and art by adventurous composers, performers, bands, poets, and sound artists from the American Rust Belt.

Timeigrant

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