Minnemann

McStine & Minnemann is a new band consisting of Randy McStine and Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats). The duo initially met in 2018 while working with other artists, but as they discovered their shared passion for an assortment of Rock, Pop, and Punk artists, they began to talk about embarking on a collaborative project together. Although McStine and Minnemann initially set out to record an EP, they quickly shifted to making an album as their musical ideas and chemistry flourished.

Fusion and electric avant-garde jazz are two different things. Fusion–as envisioned by Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and others back in the '70s – combined jazz with rock and funk in a way that didn't emphasize outside playing, whereas electric avant-garde jazz (as in Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and James Blood Ulmer) savors the dissonant pleasures of the outside. But there are times when the two merge, and that is what happens on guitarist Trey Gunn and drummer Marco Minnemann's Modulator.

It's not the first time guitarist Alex Machacek has composed around drum improvisation—he did that with three tracks on [sic], his 2006 breakout record and first for Abstract Logix—but he's taken the concept even farther on 24 Tales. It's also not the only release to use, as its basis, a 51-minute drum improvisation by Marco Minneman—Machacek's band mate in keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson's Ukz, which debuted in 2009 with the Radiation (Globe Music) EP. Guitarist Mike Keneally, touch guitarist Trey Gunn, and Mars Hollow bassist/guitarist Kerry Chicoine were all given Minneman's metrically and polyrhythmically challenging solo as part of the drummer's Normalizer 2 project as well, but 24 Tales sets the bar incredibly high for everyone else; a true fusion masterpiece that actually surpasses [sic]'s remarkably deep composition and stunning performance.

For a first crack at a fresh idea for Lazy Bones Records—three well-known musicians brought together to create improv-based music with a minimum of planning—Levin Torn White (2011) was a set that, beyond finding common ground amongst bassist/stick master Tony Levin, guitar sound sculptor David Torn and drummer Alan White. Levin Minnemann Rudess is an even better outing, if for no other reason than the two musicians associated with Levin this time around are even more impressive, both from sheer instrumental mastery and in their ability to shape a far more focused 65-minute set of thrilling material that leans even more heavily into progressive rock territory with complete aplomb and no shortage of reckless abandon.

BORREGO is an epic, double CD and concept record that contains 24 tracks (+ 4 bonus cuts exclusive to the CD) and a 24 page booklet. The album is inspired by the beautiful and mysterious desert town in Southern California, Borrego Springs. BORREGO features legendary guitarists, ALEX LIFESON of RUSH (on 3 songs) and JOE SATRIANI (on 4 songs.) One of the bonus tracks also includes TONY LEVIN on bass.