82% Chance of Rain

For those who wonder about the future of jazz, the Oliver Sextet gives a brilliant display of what younger jazz musicians in Portland have to offer. Their experience, diversity and musicianship are clearly evident in their ability to meld instruments and genres into fine jazz albums and performances.
John Pomietlasz, KMHD Jazz Notes

Andrew Oliver's Portland, Oregon-based band digs deep into a genre-bending bag of original compositions for their first recording on OA2. The group has built a strong following for their diverse instrumentation, an exciting live performance aesthetic, and their carefully crafted originals that are inspired by equally eclectic sets of circumstance - an ode to a gas station; "Inattentive Attendant," musings on Hawaiian wildlife; "800 Turtles," and commentary on the bassist's taste in citrus;"Only a Quality Lime for Eric Gruber." The band lets their creative imaginations run free in developing often complex structures for their free-wheeling improvisations.

Production Info:

Produced by Andrew Oliver
Recorded & mixed by Jason Powers at
Type Foundry Studio, Portland, OR
on August 15-16, 2009
Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at
Stereophonic Mastering, Portland, OR
Front cover photography by George Mayer
Band photography by Maureen Oliver
Cover design by John Bishop

Reviews of 82% Chance of Rain

Willamette Week (Brett Campbell)
With his Kora Band and Portland Jazz Composers Orchestra, hard-working young keyboardist Andrew Oliver has become a mainstay of this city's jazz scene. His high-energy second sextet release gets the precipitation percentage wrong, but just about everything else right. 82% Chance of Rain is an eclectic collection, but a year of honing these 10 tr ...

All Music Guide (Adam Greenberg)
For a sophomore release, Andrew Oliver's merry band of Portland-area musicians gathered an incredibly wide mix of stylistic ideas. The album opens with simple post-bop wanderings that touch just slightly into the mainstream ideas of '70s jazz in the opening bars of "Inattentive Attendant" before building into a showcase of solos across the instrume ...

Oregon Jazz Scene (Kyle O'Brien)
Rain is an Oregon theme that was started on Oliver's 2007 release, ?Otis Stomp? which was named for the tiny, rainy town near Lincoln City, and continues here in his latest sextet recording's title. The Portland pianist/composer and his group have recorded a lengthy disc of original compositions that are at times dense and intricate. The opener, ?I ...

Cadence Magazine (Larry Hollis)
Portland pianist/composer Andrew Oliver heads up a two sax-sextet (for wand of a better descriptive term) that is all over the map on 82% Chance of Rain. After their debut disc on a small indie label, their sophomore effort should receive more attention since it appears on Origin's sister label, OA2. Although relatively young, Oliver is well-seas ...