Jen Baker: Press

"...performed with brilliant mastery and virtuosity by trombonist Jen Baker."

Baker (who traveled from San Francisco to perform) demonstrated an astonishing range of noise and technique with her instrument between this song and her solo performance in the next, ‘testify’ by Andrea La Rose. Both were testimonies to her incredible talent, regardless of how you may feel about the dissonant and irregular musical style. In ‘testify’, Baker vocalized moans, yelps and other guttural exclamations in between extremely adept tromboning, producing what might be compared to spoken word instrumentation, or a severe twist on scat (jazz singing with nonsense syllables). It could also be described as a trombone having an orgasm. -The Phoenix, Bronxville, NY

More dramatic physical movement developed, for example, when Baker began stomping her foot in time with the music, and especially when she took the trombone away from her mouth and sang in scat syllables while she strolled across the stage to pick up her plunger mute, which had traveled a fair distance after being thrown to the floor. Working with this undetermined line between musical performance and performance art made for a piece that one can only experience live.

Trombonist Jen Baker was also a revelation, always ready to lend support in lower registers with terrifying swells and rumbles while also an absolutely lyrical soloist.

awesome performance!

”White Cloud” has a miniature perfectly conceived air about it. There's an awful lot going on in the less than two minutes of its duration, with vocalist Aurora Josephson and trombonist Jen Baker seemingly engaged in some kind of private, highly measured dialogue even in the midst of the other voices. In that respect their contribution might almost be a continuation of “White Band (Number 27)” where as a duo they engage in some form of reverence for near-silence.

Braying slurs from Baker are the initial defining factor of the title track, soon joined by the saxophonist’s rolling tongue slaps. Double and triple tonguing to a multiphonic display, the trombonist eventually lets loosen with elongated and accumulated trills and tones, almost undifferentiated from Shibolet’s reed bites.