NPR/PRI's Monitor Radio

by Norman Weinstein

INTRO:
    Think of jazz ensembles, the kind you can hear on many public radio stations, and what comes to mind?  A trumpet, a piano, a saxophone, probably a clarinet, maybe an electric guitar.  Well, Plunge may be the only jazz band on record consisting of a trombonist, a bassist, a drummer, and a tuba player.  This unusual instrumentation especially stands out in the group's new album "Falling With Grace".  Music critic Norman Weinstein listens to a lot of jazz and he thinks "Falling With Grace" is the freshest album of it's type that he's heard this year.

Norman Weinstein:
    Plunge opens their CD with the rowdy sounds of a New Orleans brass band playing after hours, having a blast playing outside of the boundaries of traditional Crescent City Jazz.  The shuffle, performed by veteran drummer Bob Moses, may bring to mind an image of an old time brass band marching along Bourbon Street but the interplay among Plunge's leader, trombonist, and composer Mark McGrain, tuba man Marcus Rojas, and bassist Avishai Cohen is anything but traditional.  Old fashion brass bands depend on trumpets or cornets to introduce a song's melody then the melody is embellished by clarinets and saxes and then eventually trombones.  Tubas are expected to keep a steady bass line going as the drums propel the band forward.  Now, imagine eliminating trumpets, saxes, and clarinets from this brass band formula, doubling the bass instrumentation but also allowing the low tones of an upright bass and tuba to come forward as front line melodic instruments.  And think of a song book light years beyond the usual marches and dirges found in brass ensembles, this is the essence of the Plunge sound.  If you're looking for jazz that'll make you smile brace yourself for "Dog", the band's tribute to a noisy mutt.  Or, are you hungry for a fresh sounding synthesis of lilting Caribbean styles and jazz, swinging revisions of reggaes and calypsos; laid back beats?  McGrain and Rojas are masters of versatility, making their horns sweetly croon or convulsively bark and bray, shifting gears easily between tonality and atonality, jazz and pop.  Moses and Cohen establish a rhythmic foundation full of surprising jolts egging the horn men to play with an exhilarating sense of freedom.  "It Don't Mean a Thing If it Ain't Got That Swing" was a favorite Duke Ellington song and article of faith and if you listen carefully to the opening tune on this Plunge CD, with it's playful variations on that Ellington song, you'll hear how this brassy band keeps the Duke's faith swingingly alive.

DownBeat   **** (Four Stars)

By Dan Ouellette

    What is it about bass instruments that makes them so appealing?  Part of the allure has to do with the fact that you not only experience auditory sensations, but your entire body feels the sonic vibrations.  Then there are those twilight hues of blue and indigo that evoke melancholic memories.  Whether embodied in the honks and blats of a bass clarinet or the bass stops of a Hammond B-3, the lower the pitch the more gutsy and arousing the music seems to get.
    So it's no surprise that Plunge, an unorthodox, bass-oriented quartet, should unveil such a remarkable debut.  Falling With Grace, at once soulful and vivacious, is a refreshing plummet into the deep end of the tonal spectrum.   Boston-based trombonist/composer Mark McGrain aptly demonstrates that he understands the potent power of the bass frequency as he leads his ensemble - tuba player Marcus Rojas (of Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus and Spanish Fly fame), drummer/percussionist Bob Moses and double-bassist Avishai Cohen - into this low-registered fling spiced by the merrymaking revelry and percussive buoyancy of New Orleans Mardi Gras and Brazilian Carnival.
    With all band members taking their share of rhythmic responsibilities, Plunge delivers grooves as wide as a house, fat drones that rumble window panes and pulsing bass beats that simultaneously undergird tunes and drive them.  While McGrain takes the bulk of the solos, floating lyrical 'bone lines above the earthy cadences on such melodic beauties as "The Mist" and "Trick Of The Light," Rojas also gets to stretch on several tunes and Cohen plucks catchy percolating rhythmic motifs.   But it's Moses, with his flirting drumming excursions and accelerating tempo-shifts, who propels many of the pieces, including the funky, swinging opener "Wagdanz" and the speedy closer "Running, Running."
    Other highlights include a ragged-edged, foaming-at-the-mouth romp through "Dog" and the vibrant, booty-shaking cooker "Beneath The Wheel," featuring McGrain's siren-like trombone wails.

DownBeat - BLINDFOLD TEST

with Howard Johnson

by Dan Ouellette

    The "Blindfold Test" is a listening test that challenges the featured artist to discuss and identify the music and musicians who performed on selected recordings.  The artist is then asked to rate each tune using a 5-star system.  No information about the recordings is given to the artist prior to the test.

    * This Blindfold Test included selections from the following recordings:
1. Fletcher Henderson "Copenhagen" (from The Fletcher Henderson Story, Columbia/Legacy, rec.1924/1994);
2. Weird Nightmare: Meditations On Mingus "Meditations On Integration" (from Weird Nightmare: Meditations On Mingus, Columbia, 1992);
3. Henry Threadgill "Try Some Ammonia" (from Too Much Sugar For A Dime, Axiom, 1993);
4. Bob Stewart "Law Years" (from Then & Now, Postcards, 1996);
5. Plunge "394" (from Falling With Grace, Accurate, 1995).

    While Howard Johnson plays a number of different instruments, ranging from pennywhistle to baritone saxophone, he's best known as a tuba maestro.  He got his first big break in 1964 with Charles Mingus and later went on to enjoy a long musical association with Gil Evans.
    He also toured with Dizzy Gillespie, Abdullah Ibrahim and George Gruntz, recorded with McCoy Tyner's Big Band and Carla Bley; and founded and led the Saturday Night Live Band.  Even though he formed his jazz tuba choir Gravity in 1968, the band didn't make its recording debut until earlier this year when Verve released Gravity!!!.
    This Blindfold Test was not only Johnson's first but also the first to be given in front of an audience.  It took place at this year's Monterey Jazz Festival before a crowd of 150 people in the Dizzy's Den nightclub.  Even though he agreed in advance to give the selections a star rating, Johnson declined to do so at the onset of the Blindfold Test.

Plunge
"394" (from Falling With Grace, Accurate, 1995) Mark McGrain, trombone; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Avishai Cohen, bass; Bob Moses, drums.

HJ: "I'm totally mystified by who this is.   It reminds me of those guys from Chicago, 8 Bold Souls with Aaron Dodd on tuba.   But I can't zero in on who this might be.  I like the piece even though I don't care for the multiphonics the tuba player plays at the beginning.  But overall, I thought the piece hung together and was performed quite well.  The tuba player's groove was really something.  Tuba players today are learning that to play tuba bass they don't have to sound like a string bass.  This guy definitely works the groove as a tuba thing."

MODERN DRUMMER ****1/2 (Four 1/2 Stars)

by Robin Tolleson

    Plunge delivers a wild assortment of gutbucket street funk and atmospheric slants that put an emphasis on Bob Moses' traps, bells, rattles, and hand drums.  Mark McGrain is a daring trombonist, but to be commended even more is his vision of this tonally unique group - a deep, earthy sound with the combination of tuba, bass, and bone.  They're packed tight into the low end of the sound spectrum, but each instrument comes through distinctly.  This gives Moses more of the high end to stand out in, and he sparkles on each cut.
    The drummer contrasts the laid-back New Orleans street groove of "Wagdanz" with the funky "394," the title of which suggests the rhythmic pattern the tuba is playing.  Moses plays a straight 4/4 with a paradiddle pattern that he makes sound totally organic.  "Just Like Alice" is more of a mind-bender, a triplet-based tune with a missing beat providing an interesting turnaround.  "Beneath The Wheel" is second-line with an Afro-Cuban kick, "Dog" is a rough, growling, haphazard bit of noise, and "Running, Running" is snare and kick with a very sparse back drop.  Moses has deeply absorbed influences from New Orleans, Africa, the Caribbean, Birdland - even the hip-hop nation - along with an understanding of rudimentary drumming, and on Falling With Grace he spits out consistently fresh, free, and funky beats.

CMJ

by Gene Kalbacher

    These four guys don't hail from New Orleans (to the best of my knowledge), but they've sho-nuff got the Crescent City spirit.   Second-line polyphonics, atmospheric dirges, go-for-the-gonads funk and a tinge of mysticism fairly explode from the grooves.  The group's instrumentation, though unusual, is a wholesome, self-sufficient distillation of the city's classic instrumentation: Producer/trombonist Mark McGrain (who penned 12 of the original tunes) squares off with tuba player Marcus Rojas on a low-brass, kick-ass front line; contrabassist Avishai Cohen provides a gritty, down-and-dirty pulse, sometimes offering high-harmonic relief with pizzicato guitaristics in the upper register, and Bob Moses is nothing short of magnificent as he slips, slides, glides ad grooves (check out cuts 10 and 11 in particular).  Using a drumkit augmented, it sounds, by African and Caribbean instruments.  Moses plays like a man possessed, whooping and hollering at times as the spirit moves him.  Dynamic, ever-changing and richly resonant, Falling With Grace is an apt title for this quartet recording featuring four interdependent, indispensable musicians playing live, loud, often fast and always together.  Numerous cuts from Falling With Grace are radio-friendly (not least the Nawlins-inspired "Wagdanz"), on their own or in tandem with the above CDs [Various Artists Collector's Choice: Featuring Professor Longhair, Rounder] (or with cuts from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or Henry Threadgill, with whom tubaist Rojas has worked).  Falling With Grace has already charted in CMJ, and even if, like me, you're behind the times, it's not too late to join the parade.

WIRED

by Peter L. Herb

    I've always loved the blatt! of low-end horns, and this trombone- and tuba-driven avant-jazz quartet can wail.  From funk to New Orleans jazz to pensive ballads, Plunge - Mark McGrain, Marcus Rojas, drummer/percussionist Bob Moses, and double-bassist Avishai Cohen - delivers a sonic feast with all the fixings.  Fast tunes are eminently danceable, tracks so hot their grooves stick in your head hours later; slower tunes are similarly tasty, just a little more ruminative.  Check out Plunge's honkin' horn harmonies and slappin' 'n' popin' tuba!

PULSE

by Martin Johnson

Cover caption: "PLUNGE  uproot(s) jazz - have trombone, will travel"

from September's picks:

Bass (end) is the place . . .

   It's hard to imagine, but Plunge, a quartet featuring such stellar players as Bob Moses, Marcus Rojas and Avisha Cohen and the absolutely unique lineup of, respectively, drums, tuba, bass and leader Mark McGrain's trombone, got started by accident.
    McGrain had a gig at the Plough and Stars, a Cambridge jazz joint, and planned to make do with bass and drums when the bassist canceled.  Needing a replacement, McGrain opted for a tuba player.  Then at the last minute the bassist said he could make the gig.  So the trio became a quartet.
    The book for such a group is, um, not very big, but that didn't daunt McGrain, who intended to have the rhythm section lay down some grooves and to improvise melodes atop the mix.
    The strategy and format yielded immediate results.   "Something was clicking more than usual," he says.  "We didn't complicate things with a lot of harmonic information."  He found that the solid yet shifting rhythms enabled the group to improvise freely.  "We didn't have to worry about solos.  Group improvisations just bubble up."
    For McGrain the group marks a return to the music scene.  He graduated from, then taught composition and arranging at, Berklee School of Music in Boston.  Then he spent a year in the corporate world before returning to music mostly as a composer for jingles and soundtracks.  "I didn't play for almost 12 years," he admits.
    After regaining his chops he assembled the band.  Following the familiar turnover period (during which some initial members left to join the similarly subsonic Morphine) he ended up with the present lineup, which recorded the recent Falling With Grace (on Accurate, Morphine's first label).  McGrain's next challenge: to find regular gigs for the band which don't interfere with the members' other commitments, Rojas with Henry Threadgill, Cohen with Danilo Perez and Moses with most everyone.  But he isn't sweating it.
    "I've written very complicated music over the years," says the trombonist.  "This group is testimony to the virtues of simplicity, and letting things grow."

THE BOSTON PHOENIX *** (Three Stars)

by Richard C. Walls

    Plunge, FALLING WITH GRACE (Accurate).  The most striking thing about Plunge's debut is the way the music knocks down expectations set up by the group's instrumentation - leader and main composer Mark McGrain on trombone (and allegedly alphorn at some point), Marcus Rojas on tuba, Avishai Cohen on bass, and Bob Moses on drums, percussion, and voice.  The front-line implies a certain gravitas, but the one word to sum up Plunge would be nimble.  Or maybe frolicking.
    In any event, they favor a gravity-defying bounciness, polyrhythmic and Third Worldish (and New Orleansish) - which means Moses must be the disc's co-auteur.   When they're not being puckish the group offer a kind of exotica that sounds like a modern, hipper version of Ultra Lounge - the smoky "Just Like Alice" and the cryptically titled "11:11" (which runs 5:58) being the main examples.   "Dog" consists of punky sound distortions, with the 'bone sounding like guitar;  "The Mist" is a ballad with an appealing, far from gloomy melody.   But overall, this good clean fun is groove-ridden, upbeat, and brimming with off-the-cuff virtuosity.

ORLANDO SENTINEL ***** (Five Stars)

by Parry Gettelman

    Plunge, Falling With Grace ( Accurate) Plunge is as original as its configuration - trombone, tuba, double bass and drums.
    Trombonist Mark McGrain's 12 compositions deftly incorporate elements of New Orleans second-line jams, blues, funk, Caribbean and African music, free jazz, jazz-rock and hip-hop.  Songs range from the seductive, Egyptian-flavored "Just Like Alice" to the noisy, explosive "Dog," on which McGrain runs his trombone through some device that makes it sound like a guitar.  There's even a 40-second deconstruction of reveille.
    The presence of bass instruments sometimes intensifies the groove, sometimes allows for more derring-do by tubaist Marcus Rojas and bassist Avishai Cohen.   Both take full advantage of the possibilities presented by extraordinary drummer percussionist Bob Moses.  McGrain and Rojas offer constant melodic and harmonic surprises.
    Medeski, Martin & Wood also started out on the Accurate label.   Although Plunge's instrumentation is odder, fans of MMW's brand of groove-oriented but adventurous music are bound to dig this band as well.

OPTION

by D.H. Krasnow

    Finally, a marching band you can sit down to!  When Plunge hews too closely to the Dirty Dozen's update of New Orleans tradition, it shows itself merely a skillful imitator.  Tubist Marcus Rojas, a veteran of Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus, is deft and light on his lumbering instrument and leader Mark McGrain's bluesy trombone hits the right notes.  But the knockout punch of the true marching outfits lands only a glancing blow in "Wagdanz" or "394."  As Falling With Grace edges away from the Crescent City towards a more modern, contemplative jazz - similar in feel to Chicago's Eight Bold Souls, say - it finds its own theme.  Bob Moses's Cuban-inflected percussion offers a neat counterpoint with Avishai Cohen's staccato bass compensation on the backbeat.  As in Eight Bold Souls, most of the action occurs on the deep end.  The top strings of the bass are the highest notes.   Echoing horns call longingly from faraway mountains, on the final "Running, Running" McGrain blows the obscure Swiss alphorn.  By this point they've come a long way from the bayou.

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

by Will Smith

    Plunge, a quartet led by Boston-area trombonist Mark McGrain, blends jazz, funk, Caribbean and New Orleans gutbucket elements in a most rewarding and enjoyable musical stew on "Falling With Grace" (Accurate AC-5016).   With McGrain are Marcus Rojas, tuba; Avishai Cohen, bass' and Bob Moses, drums.

SMUG

by Marni Davis

    Plunge, I've been told, started their work together playing Zep tunes.  Little chance of mistaking them for a tribute band, though, as it's difficult to do a Jimmy Page impersonation when you've got a tuba in your lap.   I shit you not: "Communication Breakdown" on trombone, tuba, double bass and drums.  Trombone, having the highest register of the four instruments, would take the melody and all else would be bass and percussion groove.  Imagine hard rock music played by a low-end Dixieland jazz quartet.  Pretty brilliant.
    Mark McGrain, Plunge's trombonist and primary writer, has maintained the band's youthful rock feel, but his compositions on their debut record are mostly jazzy grooves, repetitive, trancey basslines and afro-funk drumming.  There's also a fair share of seemingly Sonic Youth inspired improvisational jams.  The two styles work surprisingly well together, probably because the general pitch is so low that funky bass can seamlessly morph into blatty drone.
    The interplay of light and heavy - Marcus Rojas' gracefully pachydermesque tuba playing alongside drummer Bob Moses' worldbeat meets avant jazz kit message is a total knock out.  "394" is particularly funky and "Dog" is noise rock pandemonium with Rojas' fat brass [actually McGrain's trombone] sound crammed through a rackful of effects.  McGrain wrote himself some catchy hooks and melodies which, on trombone, sound simultaneously earnest and hilarious.
    Warning: there are no Led Zeppelin covers here.  But reinterpretation of another band's work can only take you so far.  Plunge is playing their own version of heavy metal now, and it's a hoot.

MAXIMUM INK

by John Noyd

    Kicking off their new album Falling With Grace with voodoo grooves from deep within the bayou, the four-member crew known as Plunge takes the unlikely combination of tuba, bass, drums and trombone and creates microscopic worlds that go from funky Dixieland struts to subtle introspections.  Musicians Mark McGrain, Bob Moses, Marcus Rojas and Avishai Cohen bob and weave polyrhythmic delights that revel in restless poetry, digging deep and riding high on a river of riffs that flows over the listener.  With credentials that range from Henry Threadgill to Gary Burton, each player expands the limits of his instrument.  Beyond Cohen's deftness in the bass' upper register, it is Rojas' tuba that not only does the expected bellows and belches but also swishes, creating a sound much like hip-hop scratches.  While main composer and trombonist McGrain carries off most of the melodies, it is the inspired creations of percussionist Moses that propels this ensemble beyond novelty into a jazz super-nova.

JAZZTIMES

by James Marcus

    This debut from the Boston-based quartet starts off with "Wagdanz," which establishes a blueprint for the remaining tracks.   That is, drummer Bob Moses and tuba player Marcus Rojas lay down a funky backbeat, Avishai Cohen adds textural noodling on upright bass, and trombonist Mark McGrain takes a lion's share of the solos.  At first the combo is an effective one, bottom-heavy but with plenty of open space between the instruments.  After a while, though, it begins to lose its charm.  The tunes, most of them written by McGrain, tend to sound like variations on each other, and Rojas must have gotten restless pounding out the same tuba riffs for almost an hour.  In addition, the trombonist himself is a solid but uninspiring soloist.  Exceptions to the rule: "The Mist," a mood piece on which the two horns share the theme; and "Trick of the Light," which features some of McGrain's sunniest, most relaxed playing.

JAZZ NEWS

by Marge Hofacre

    Boston is home to perhaps the most fertile jazz scene in present-day America, and Accurate Records is the current ruler of the roost. Accurate consistently provides their listeners with the cream of Beantown's fiery jazz and experimental music scene, and this is one of their best recent releases.

    In Plunge, a seasoned jazz veteran is joined by three of the hottest young stars of the music; between them they produce music that crosses the spectrum of jazz history and flies on to new territory.  Former Gary Burton/Pat Metheny sideman and occasional leader Bob Moses provides a tight but flexible drum base for trombonist Mark McGrain, tuba prodigy Marcus Rojas and upright bass
stylist Avishai Cohen, and the results are gripping.

    Wagdanz is a New Orleans-style romp that recalls the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Rojas oompahs with cheerful abandon, sandwiched between McGrain's 'bone wailing and Moses' martial rhythms, while Cohen adds in some percussive high-range pizzicato work. 394 begins with near-gospel strains from the two horns, then Rojas weaves a complicated web of funky tuba underneath the proceedings. On Beneath the Wheel the tubaist squeals in the highest range of the big horn, then plummets down to a bass crash before Moses fires up the groove. Cohen achieves an almost oud-like sound on the Middle Eastern-flavored Just Like Alice, and on Dog Rojas blasts through a distortion pedal to build a rough wall of sound that would make Hendrix proud. Moses gets to take the spotlight on a couple of occasions, most notably the percussion feature Rafael's Drum/H.S.L.E., and McGrain simply excels throughout.

    Overall, the musicianship in Plunge is top of the line, and the compositions and arrangements are kept interesting without becoming too abstract to be listenable. Rojas in particular has the potential to become a major force in future jazz, and is already headed well down that path; it occurs to me that this is the third review I've done this month that Rojas was involved with. But all of these gentlemen are second to none in their talent and adventurous spirits. Plunge won't quite be everyone's bag, but it's well worth a listen in order to expand your musical horizons.

JAZZIZ

by Sam Prestianni

    Though far from the norm, it's not uncommon these days to find an occasional trombone or tuba beefing up the bottom-end of a creative jazz combo.   But Plunge may be the first tuba/'bone/bouble bass/drum unit to drop such monster rhythms via a behemoth configuration.  As the instrumentation and group name imply, Plunge dives headlong into the rare groove vortex.  Led by trombonist/composer Mark McGrain, and featuring former Henry Threadgill tubist Marcus Rojas, the quartet investigates a number of groove possibilities from the hip-shaking lead track "Wagdanz" to the mood-thick "Running, Running."  The kicked-back syncopation of "Trick of the Light" suggests undulating island breezes a la Ritual Trio's "Another Kind of Groove."  The most adventurous tune, "Dog," comes full-on as McGrain douses his otherwise straight horn with flanger and wah-wah effects, invoking near-metal guitar histrionics.  Melodically eloquent and evenly balanced, Plunge imbues fresh dimensions into low-end articulation.

Dirty Linen

by Dan Willging

    Plunge is an explosive quartet that's a cross between a downsized New Orleans brass band and an avant-garde jazz ensemble you'd find in Greenwich Village.   The New Orleans aspect enters in as Marcus Rojas' pumping tuba playing could easily fit in any Crescent City brass band while Bob Moses' drumming provides a funky, behind-the-beat delivery. But the kicker is that the highest frequency instrument is, oddly enough, a trombone. Plunge drives ahead with catchy, hip-hop sounds wrapped in a deep, heavy groove. The feel is often airy, then slowly softens for a dazzling, almost tribal, drum solo. Occasionally, abstract, cacophonic voice-overs seize control which are delightfully bizarre.

BLUESWIRE ***1/2 (Three 1/2 Stars)

by Frank-John Hadley

    "These four Bostonians on trombone, tuba, string bass, and drums are kin to a funk-loving New Orleans brass band.  But a carful listen reveals their thirst for creativity is greater than anyone who paraded on the [New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival] Fairgrounds this year.  Drummer Bob Moses, in fact, can go one-on-one with any of the Big Easy groove masters."

Billboard

    Debut set for this unusual Boston-area quartet - comprising trombone, tuba, bass, and drums - is notable for its propulsive, progressive approach and relentless rhythmic base.  Led by trombonist/producer/principal composer Mark McGrain, the combo is rooted in the sharp beats of genre-bending percussionist Bob Moses and often resembles the chugging progressivism of Henry Threadgill (for whom tubist Marcus Rojas has played).  Standout cuts include the sweet, naive melody of "Trick Of The Light," the throbbing jazz funk of "Wagdanz," the syncopated work-song muscularity of "Beneath The Wheel," the wistful brass interplay of "The Mist," and the restless, rolling soundscape of "11:11."

RAPPORT **** (Four Stars)

by L.M.

    Plunge into the realm of the unforeseen when you drop this jazz number down.  Right off, the back cover photo gives you some indication of what is to come: four youngish kids in rapper attire, against the backdrop of a graffiti-smeared wall.  The jacket, too, will give you a clue: among the instruments is . . . an alphorn?
    Rough, pure, clean; these are all descriptions that come to mind about the CD as a whole.  Plunge has a garage band edge to it; a kind of disciplined bebop, humorous, chancy, yet all held together like super glue by the steady, unrelenting rhythm section.
    "Let the good times roll, man.  I got ants in my pants and I got to dance.: and off we go with this to guide us.  The first cut, Wagdanz, is energetic, with a film noir mood to accompany it.  Were Mad magazine's "Spy Vs. Spy" set to music, this might be a top pick for a backdrop.
    Suddenly the ride lurches and rounds into a dark tunnel, and we find ourselves gliding through 394, a whimsical, dreamy number, interspersed with what sounds like a rapper's record "scratching," providing points of reference, and jolting us out of our reverie.
    The mood changes again with Beneath the Wheel, faster-paced still, trombone and tuba immersed in a feverish, high-brow conversation that ends suddenly and amicably.  And picks up again with - the alphorn! - for all of 38 seconds, in Reveille.  Smooth, meditative; it feels like a refreshing daydream, stolen while the boss went to get coffee.
    But don't get too comfortable, 'cause there's a triple loop roller-coaster ride just around the corner.  Dog reminds us not to get too comfortable, as we're thrown into sounds of the electric guitar [actually elec. trombone] a la Jimmy Hendrix.  Oddly, though, it seems fitting and appropriate.
    All in all, this one's without a doubt worth the price of admission.   It's good to find artists like Plunge who are not afraid to take chances, and who invite us to do the same.

Fan Review (Recieved via Internet)

Donn Schaefer (Iowa City)

    "About a month ago I heard a review of your album on NPR.  They played a few cuts and talked about the group.  MAN O' MAN was the music GOOD!!!  It made me tap the gas and brake pedals.  Romping!  After a nearly fatal trip, I sat out in the parking lot of WalMart until the review was done.   Things always come up (computer/trombone/girlfriend) which take my money before I spend it on CD's.  This one would be an exception."

Record Label Memo

Michael Dunford, Rounder Records Group

Subject: sometimes good things happen...

Every once in awhile a record will lay quietly in the shadows,building up momentum, preparing to pounce forward on an unsuspecting public. We've got a humble little record in just that situation...

Accurate release ACRE 5016, Plunge, "Falling With Grace" has been steadily building quite a little name for itself in press and radio. Here are some of the highlights:

* Currently #15 on the CMJ Jazz Chart, marking 10 weeks of continuous presence on the chart -- the lowest it's reached has been #18.

* Receiving strong airplay on both College and NPR stations, "Falling With Grace" has maintained Top Ten and heavy rotation in 1/3rd of the U.S. jazz radio market for 9 continuous weeks.

* Currently being featured on an NPR/PRI Monitor Radio review as "the freshest album of its type this year" by critic Norman Weinstein.

* Some cross-over to acid-jazz and funk audiences, sharing a wider market with the likes of Medeski, Martin and Wood, Charlie Hunter, and dare I say it....Phish...

The band is talking with several booking agencies and expect to be touring this fall. In the meantime, let's take advantage of the incredible buzz that is flowing in around Plunge!

Radio Play

CMJ Chart