The Moscow Improvisations

Recorded live on September 24, 2009 at the Manege Hall in Moscow, this concert brings together three towering figures of contemporary improvised music: bassist Mark Dresser, saxophonist Larry Ochs, and percussionist Vladimir Tarasov. All three arrived with decades of experience shaping the language of avant‑garde jazz, and the performance captures them in a rare, leaderless trio setting defined by deep listening, sharp intuition, and fearless exploration.

Dresser, known since his years in Anthony Braxton’s legendary 1980s quartet, brings a vocabulary of extended techniques and a fiercely architectural sense of form. His playing here reflects the “precipitous soloing and substantial rhythmic reinforcement” that has long marked his work.

Ochs, co‑founder of ROVA and a central figure of the Bay Area creative music scene, contributes a palette of tenor and sopranino saxophone colors—altissimo cries, grainy multiphonics, and incisive thematic fragments—pushing the trio into volatile, high‑energy exchanges.

Tarasov, a foundational member of the Ganelin Trio and one of the most influential percussionists in Russian and European free music, anchors and destabilizes in equal measure. Critics have long noted his “creative” and highly responsive approach, and in this concert he drives the trio with a mix of propulsion, texture, and painterly detail.

Together, the three operate with the ease of long‑time collaborators—Jones Jones, as the trio is known—creating music that is at once meditative, volatile, and deeply attuned to the moment. Entirely improvised, the set draws on their collective histories and produces a sound world that could only emerge from this particular combination of personalities.

Released by Not Two Records, this album documents a singular meeting in Moscow: three master improvisers shaping a music of tension, space, and spontaneous form, captured in full detail and intensity.