Ponga

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Of all the members of John Zorn's truly ground breaking Naked City - Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Joey Baron and Zorn himself - keyboardist Horvitz has probably had the lowest subsequent profile. Given some of the projects in which he's been involved, this is far from fair; one can only hope that his latest project, Ponga, is going to change all that. Like Bill Frisell, Horvitz recently relocated from New York to Seattle. Once there, he ran into two extraordinary musicians: saxophonist Skerik (who, we're told, has performed with Critters Buggin, Tuatara and Motel 6 - new names to the motion team, so more info and/or sounds would be welcome from anyone out there better informed) and keyboardist Dave Palmer, an associate of, among others, MC 900 foot Jesus and Chris Isaak. Horvitz introduced these young upstarts to long-term NYC downtown colleague, drummer and composer Bobby Previte. The inevitable happened: the two fortysomething experimental improv stalwarts were totally fired up by the energy of two twentysomething avant-funksters, while the younger men thrilled at the idea of performing with such astonishing improvisers. Ponga - a totally improvising free rock-jazz-funk group - was born. Most seasoned motion visitors are by now no doubt familiar with our enthusiasm for neo-jazz rock, particularly my own and Dan Hill's. Well, suffice to say that this eponymously-titled collection of live tracks and studio jams has barely been off the office stereo. If there's been a worrying tendency over the last few months for the whole fusion rediscovery to exactly recreate the sound of the music from its first time round - rarefied, more "musicianly", less risk-taking - then Ponga are doing their best to buck the trend. Put simply: they fucking rock. Check it out: two keyboardists abusing classic analogue Nord and Moog synths and Rhodes pianos (as well as taking care of the bass end of developments); a young sax player coming on like a a Rahsaan Roland Kirk who's discovered punk, and, well, one of the three or four greatest improvising drummers on the planet (yeah, but one can actually groove like a mutha). They don't discuss this music, apparently. Not even the instrumentation. They just turn up at a gig or in a studio and PLAY. Apparently this album was culled from over 15 hours of recorded music. We need to hear more. Now! If Ponga - or any of their friends - are out there and reading this, hear our plea!