fLuXkit Vancouver (i​̶​t​̶​s̶ suite but sacred)

Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of Black music.

“Jones makes his point by showing, not just telling. His compositions are so intensely honed and performed they seem to talk, moan, and cry about intimate experience in ways we might expect to find in novels, not instrumental records.” – Daniel Felsenthal, Pitchfork

Commissioned by Western Front, an artist-run centre in Vancouver, Canada, with a legacy of continuing support for multidisciplinary exchange, experimentation, and the avant-garde. This project was developed by Darius Jones across a succession of residencies at Western Front in 2019 and 2022.

Recorded in June 2022 at Western Front’s Grand Luxe Hall in Vancouver, Canada, fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred) is the first collaborative release with Brooklyn-based Northern Spy and Helsinki-based We Jazz Records.

As Harmony Holiday writes in her liner notes, included with this release: “The playing here is gorgeous, but what stands out most is the rigor of the compositions, which feel like tributes to Sun Ra’s call that ‘only the impossible happens.’ Their mood is expansive, gleeful, wistful, sometimes frantic, but so coherent and poised at every turn that all you can do while listening is marvel at this fluency in the language of will and won’t that lives here alone.”
credits
releases September 29, 2023

Ensemble Personnel:

Darius Jones (alto saxophone, composer)
Gerald Cleaver (drums)
Jesse Zubot (violin)
Josh Zubot (violin)
Peggy Lee (cello)
James Meger (bass)
Design by Matti Nives.

Liner Notes by Harmony Holiday.

Cover art: Occ6 (2016) by Stan Douglas

Produced by Darius Jones.

Recorded in the Grand Luxe Hall, Western Front on June 25, 2022.
Recording engineer: Sheldon Zaharko, Zed Productions.
Mixing engineers: Jesse Zubot and Sheldon Zaharko at The Deep Bay Bunker and Zed Productions.
Mastering engineer: Matt Mehlan at The Stuudio.
fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred) was commissioned by Western Front.

Additional development support was provided by Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, and Prof. Kevin McNeilly of the University of British Columbia and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.

Additional support from Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.

A special thank you to Aram Bajakian, Ben Wilson, and Susan Gibb for all your hard work and belief in my art. Your support on so many levels helped and inspired me greatly throughout this entire process. To the whole Vancouver community, my heart is full from the love and support you have shown me over so many years. This one is for all of you!