Midweek pick, March 6th, 2024: The return of The Fully Celebrated Orchestra
The Fully Celebrated Orchestra: Sob Story (Relative Pitch)
Jim Hobbs: alto saxophone, compositions
Timo Shanko: double bass
Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet
Luther Gray: drums
Ian Ayers: guitar
Saxophonist Jim Hobbs and bassist Timo Shanko started The Fully Celebrated Orchestra in Boston in the late 80s, playing “free jazz at punk rock clubs and street corners”. Over the years, they have has also released music under the names Jim Hobbs Fully Celebrated Orchestra, Jim Hobbs & The Fully Celebrated Orchestra, and simply The Fully Celebrated, appearing both as a trio with drummer Django Carranza and as a quartet with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, but maintaining an irreverent “street corner punk jazz” feel throughout, best of all on the terrific trio album Drunk On the Blood of the Holy Ones (AUM Fidelity) from 2009.
Sob Story is their first release since that album, appearing now as a quintet with Hobbs, Shanko plus Ho Bynum, with the addition of guitarist Ian Ayers, while Luther Gray is on the drums. Their irreverent and playful inclinations are still intact. Intoxication, too. Or at least, that’s sort of the vibe one gets from the deliberately sour notes the strike on the opening “A Pale Horse”, where they kind of sound like that trio in the film A Nightmare Before Christmas. On the bouncy “Total Clown Show”, the main theme sounds almost like a bebop riff turned inside out, while the short “Tough Guy” swings with swagger. Enjoyable as their mischievousness can be, the best thing here is the joyous “Certificate of Bagua”, which builds from a lonely bass motif, followed by a short saxophone introduction, after which Ho Bynum, Ayer and Hobbs play contrapuntal lines and spin off into solos, over an incessantly catchy, dancing rhythm.