Dan Loomis ‘REVOLUTIONS’ Album Release!

REVOLUTIONS is programmatic suite of electrifying and thought-provoking songs and spoken-word pieces meant to serve as a call to the barricades. In a society that is ever more polarized and ossified, revolutionary thoughts and ideas move us forward to a more open future. But revolutionary action is hard… deciding to make a change is difficult and taking the steps to make that change can be even more arduous. Of course, as in anything in life, what we need are the right mentors and the right spark. In the Americas, our mentors for revolution are the Haitian Revolution (the only revolution in the history of the world in which enslaved people liberated themselves and formed a nation) and the South American liberation from Spain (the only revolution in our hemisphere which envisioned a society inclusive of ALL the peoples of the ‘new world’ — Indigenous, African and European). And our spark is music! What else can stir the spirit and the emotion deeply enough to rouse us to revolutionary action? We are awash in words and information — what we need is something that can stir us on a deeper level. Music is that spark.

The music of REVOLUTIONS draws on music from the pan-American experience. Influences across the countries and history of the Americas comes out in the course of this album. Rooted in jazz, the music of the Black American experience, it draws on windy samba-tinged romps, post-punky electric textures and even reaches into the classical world with chamber music textures. Throughout, cinematic and haunting melodies wind through the songs, alternating with fiery episodes of improvisations over adventurous forms and rhythms. The tight ensemble of clarinet, bass, guitar and drum set conjures a world of different textures and colors.

This ambitious, large-scale works makes use of a bold new artistic form. The piece alternates between spoken word episodes (accompanied by a smaller musical ensemble of guitar, tanbou and bass) that poetically evoke the subject matter and instrumental tracks that develop those ideas through music This new form allows the composer, Dan Loomis, to tackle the themes of revolution head-on. The spoken-word sets up the heroes and ideals featured in the work, and the instrumental pieces take the listener to a place beyond facts and rational thought – touching the emotions and rousing the spirit.