...straight-ahead jazz, a fastball right over the heart of the plate, and it's terrific...What's especially gratifying about this project is that it provides her the space to reveal the extent of her lyricism and to bring it to full bloom.
Saxophonist Kate Olson's So It Goes captures the wide-open imagination and understated cool of her chord-less Seattle quartet, thriving on the interplay and invention built through steady collaboration on Northwest stages. With Tim Carey on electric bass, Evan Woodle on drums, and Conner Eisenmenger on trombone, the band presents a set of originals, with their chemistry shining on angular, bebop-inflected tunes like "All Pear Shaped" and "Bumbling Thumbs Blues," and on their wistful explorations of "Afterthoughts" and "Pink Mountain." Guests Wayne Horvitz and Geoff Harper lend warmth to the title cut, a gospel-tinged reflection on the Kurt Vonnegut character Billy Pilgrim, and join again on the one cover tune, a radiant take of Alice Coltrane's "Translinear Light." From joyful to contemplative, Olson's Quartet values conversation over perfection, shaping a sound that's at once exploratory, organic, and deeply Northwest.
Track Listing:
1 Bumbling Thumbs Blues 2:30
2 ShouldaCoulda 4:18
3 All Pear-Shaped 5:31
4 Nominally Challenged 3:43
5 So It Goes 3:53
6 Translinear Light 7:29
7 Pink Mountain 4:28
8 Afterthoughts 4:51
9 Weigh Out 2:51
All music by Kate Olson (Knockout Noise), except:
(6) Alice Coltrane (Universal Music Publishing Group/Hipgnosis)
Performers:
Kate Olson - soprano saxophone
Conner Eisenmenger - trombone (except 6)
Tim Carey - electric bass (except 6), electric guitar (4)
Evan Woodle - drums & percussion
Wayne Horvitz - piano (5,6,8)
Geoff Harper - double bass (5,6,8)
Production Info:
Produced by Kate Olson
Recorded & mixed by Floyd Reitsma
at Studio Litho, Seattle, WA
Recorded on Jan 17-19, 2025
Mastered by Ed Brooks
at Resonant Mastering, Seattle, WA
Cover artwork by Haren Vakil
Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Cover design & layout by John Bishop
