01 May 2008

Thee Maximalists are coming...


I've been honored to do the design work for much of The Muffins' latest releases, as well as promo stuff for Paul Sears' beloved side-project of improv mayhem, THEE MAXIMALISTS.

Thee what,
you say?

Apply the technique of free jazz (i.e. Ornette Coleman's more extreme stuff, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders) to heavy progressive rock, and you might have an idea of what Thee Maximalists can do.

It's a blast of 100% improvised, unpretentious, self-indulgent, wailing madness. And extremely fun. Paul Sears (drums) and Dave Newhouse (keyboard, saxes) share a telepathic sense of improv, the result of many years of playing together (Sears joined the Muffins in 1976). Bassist Keith Macksoud comes from Belgian heavy prog band Present, whose epic album Certitudes is a total classic; an explosion of precarious and dangerous sounding music... Keith's bass technique is the growling heart of it, and his contribution to Thee Maximalists is no less intense.

Guests for this gig at Baltimore's Orion Sound Studios are the effin' legendary Marshall Allen and Elliott Levin.

Allen is known for his blistering tenor sax work with the Sun Ra Arkestra; he also appeared on the Muffins' last studio release (Double Negative) along with fellow Arkestra saxman Knoel Scott.

Elliott Levin is no slouch either: his work with sax, flute and poetry are remarkable. He's been a prolific contributor to the Philadelphia free-jazz scene for over 30 years, collaborated with the great Cecil Taylor, and numerous others. He's also played with Thee Maximalists at Orion before, and the energy was ridiculous.

So anyway: I just wanted to upload the flyer design, and somehow ended up with another long-winded post. But if you're interested, do attend. Check the Orion site for details.

Otherwise, stay tuned for photos and an equally long-winded post-mortem...

(poster for Maxis at Orion 11Nov06 here.)

2 comments:

Reya Mellicker said...

OK. Now I can see that it is you in your profile pic. Hippie day at work? Oh yeah!

IntangibleArts said...

the difference in my case vs. co-workers was; no costume! WYSIWYG!