Akosh S Unit Eleter CD

By the spring of 1971 John, Pete, and Billy, along with Lynn Rowe, Larry Galt, Patrick Aicholtz and Sandy Leigh were signed to Atlantic Records' Clean Records label as the band STARBUCK.

With Don Everly producing the album, and the band playing Los Angeles venues like the Hollywood Bowl, things were looking good. As things sometimes go, the scene turned sour and the album was never finished.

The group was forced to disband and they scattered about the country wondering "what if...?".

John and Peter made there way back to their original stomping grounds of Dayton, Ohio and played in the esoteric outfit DYS (Dayton-Yellow Springs Band) for several years.

Patrick moved out of the area but continued songwriting on his own. Billy, however, became a much sought-after studio musician and contributor to music greats like Dr. John, Garth Hudson, Roger McGuinn, Rick Roberts, Randy Meisner, Nicky Hopkins and Gene Clark. Billy also did stints as guitarist for the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield Again, and Hoyt Axton.

Fast forward to 1995. With prodding and encouragement from long time fan Jim Foreman, the band reunited for a performance in Dayton and things clicked big time.

Though Lynn was not available, the rest of the original Starbuck got together and revived the early material and presented new songs to each other that revealed they were still on the same page musically. Smokehouse Records was just gearing up and looking for their first client when Foreman brought them to the labels attention.

These theories were developed initially through my study of Jazz history, primarily the influences of Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet through Kilimanjaro, the spiritual approach to sound of John Coltrane to the freedom of the 1960's "New Thing" musicians and the electrified sounds of Miles Davis' 1970's "Lost Quintet" are all represented as the foundation of this music. Others who have shaped my approach on this CD include Ornette Coleman, early Weather Report, Mark Isham, Woody Shaw and the last recordings of Lee Morgan. This study of the past has allowed me to explore musical concepts that I feel have opened up the compositions to allow the musicians to break through to a new, freer conception of Jazz improvisation and performance. My desire is for each player to construct what he feels in the music at any given moment. I want them to play what they hear in the music for themselves. These concepts have included the following:* I have explored, in some of the compositions, the idea of not grouping the rhythm in patterns of repetitive 3's or 4's. I have sought to remove the feeling of the continual one coming, now here in the present and then going.

* Instead of melody being the jumping off point for the improvisations, in all but two of the compositions, I have attempted to interweave the improvisations within the context of the melody.