No Difference Gordon Grdina & Mark Helias

• 1Hope in Being07:03
• 2Limbo05:50
• 3The Throes08:34
• 4Leisure Park04:49
• 5Fast Times05:55
• 6Nayeli Joon07:07
• 7Cluster05:19
• 8Fierce Point06:37
• 9Visceral Voices07:34
• Total Runtime58:48

Info for No Difference

Vancouver string virtuoso Grdina's new project includes searching, delicate duets on oud or guitar with famed NY bassist Helias, expanding to a quartet with Kenton Loewen and Tony Malaby to create denser, more energetic spaces. Grdina’s compositions range from tender ballads to angular, searing avant-jazz. Arab-flavored duos with oud provide a subtle world music dimension similar to Grdina’s Think Like the Waves release with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian. Dynamic, textured audiophile recording.

Vancouver-based guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina has been involved in many collaborations with creative improvisers, including Mats Gustafsson, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Samuel Blaser, Jerry Granelli, Han Bennink, Gerry Hemingway, Andy Milne, Eyvind Kang, and Gary Peacock, his early mentor and member of Grdina's Think Like the Waves trio along with Paul Motian (Songlines, 2006). His association with Mark Helias goes back to that time, and since then they've performed every time Grdina has come to New York, mostly as a trio with Kenton Loewen, Grdina's longtime drummer in his regular trio and in Grdina's Arabic-avant-garde 10-piece Haram (Songlines, 2012). Gord takes up the story: 'On one of our last shows as a trio Mark and I played a little duo oud and bass before the show and we both thought it would be a great idea to record some duo music... So I started to conceptualize the recording. I felt like I wanted to add Kenton on part of it because he and Mark have a great connection through Ed Blackwell - Kenton through Ed being his biggest influence and Mark through having played with Ed for something like 15 years! When they first played together they hit it off right away. I also could hear horn on some of this music and I immediately thought of Mark and Tony's connection in Open Loose. Their thing is real deep, and Kenton and I have been working on everything together for about 10 years, and I thought that these two things might work really well together.' In June 2012 they went into the studio for a day and played a gig at ShapeShifter Lab (the recording includes two live duo tracks).

The pieces, all Grdina's, range from searching, delicate duos on oud or guitar to denser, more energetic guitar quartet tracks, where a striving towards collective abandon is held within fairly tight structures, at least compared to the explosive, noise-drenched Gord Grdina Trio: 'I wrote specifically for these musicians and what I could hear the entire group sounding like. In the Trio we have worked out a way to take the littlest structure and constantly reinvent it and go in any direction at the drop of a dime. It's the situation of less music and fewer musicians playing over many years. The quartet is the opposite situation.' So 'Visceral Voices' is both free and swinging. 'The Throes' has a dark melodic/harmonic language and 5/4 lope reminiscent of certain tunes from Think Like the Waves, but the treatment is somehow more rooted, a melancholy introspection tempered by the group's buoyant togetherness. Also notable are the tender ballad 'Nayeli Joon' (named after Grdina's daughter) and the experimental 'Cluster', where the duo quietly plays the melody and improvises off it against an overdubbed backdrop chaos of effected bowed guitar.

Grdina's oud provides an Arabic flavor to some of the duos, giving the record a subtle world-music dimension. His guitar sound has evolved over time: 'Originally I was getting most of the high end from my guitar recorded acoustically directly and then the amp sound was very dark. This was from a love of Jim Hall and Bill Frisell and hearing my own sound through theirs. I've since become more interested in a brighter amp tone and distortion to create that larger sound. This came quite naturally out of trying at first to hear Wayne Shorter's music through the guitar and then later Albert Ayler. Trying to get something like their size, energy and intensity of expression.'

“One of the most fascinating and seemingly magical attempts at bringing the music of the Middle East and vanguard modern jazz together.” (ALL MUSIC GUIDE)

Gordon Grdina, oud, guitar, bowed guitar
Mark Helias, double bass
Kenton Loewen, drums
Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone

Gordon Grdina
A protégé of jazz great Gary Peacock, he is a well respected contributor to the jazz and world music scenes constantly being sought out for projects that need a fresh sound Songlines has just released “Think Like the Waves” a special SACD that is the culmination of all of Gordon ‘s artistic endeavors. The band is Gary Peacock - Bass, Paul Motian -Drums and Gordon Grdina -Guitar & Oud.

His main touring ensemble Box Cutter is a genre bending modern Jazz quartet featuring François Houle. They Have just signed a two CD deal with Spool and will be releasing their debut CD “Unlearn” in October 2006

East Van Strings is a guitar/oud, violin, viola and cello quartet that is inspired by Bartok, Berg and Arabic Taqasim. The other members of the ensemble are Jesse Zubot, Peggy Lee, and Eyvind Kang. They are touring and recording in December for an early 2007 CD debut.

He plays the Oud in the Arabic/Persian/Indian ensemble Sangha. They are touring in support of their debut CD “Omid” and preparing to record with Virtuoso Persian Classical and Balouchi singer Fatieth Honari.

As a freelance musician Gordon has performed or recorded with Eyvind Kang, Paul Motian, Gary Peacock, John Stowell, Francois Houle, Jesse Zubot, Chuck Isreals, Reza Honari, Amir Haghighi, Andy Milne, Mariam Matossian, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Chris Gestrin, Karin Plato, Quinsin Nachofff, Peggy Lee, and Dylan Van der Schyff.

Mark Helias
is a renowned bassist and composer who has performed throughout the world for more than three decades. After his studies at Rutgers University (B.A. 1974) and The Yale School of Music (M.M. 1976), he began his international career in the Anthony Braxton Quartet. Up to the present time he has performed with a panoply of world class artists including: Edward Blackwell, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Marcel Khalife, Abbey Lincoln, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Marilyn Crispell, Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, Bobby Bradford, Barry Altshul, Ray Anderson, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, and Gerry Hemingway.

A prolific composer, Helias has written music for two feature films as well as chamber pieces and works for large ensemble and big band. His orchestra piece “Stochasm” was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in June of 2011. He has produced many recordings for other artists including Ray Anderson, Tony Malaby, Bobby Previte, Jerome Harris, and Mark Dresser.

Twelve albums of his music have been released since 1984, including “Split Image”, “The Current Set” (1987), “Desert Blue” (1989) “Attack The Future”, (1992) “Loopin’ the Cool” (1995), “Fictionary” (1998), “Come Ahead Back” (1998) “New School” (2001). “Verbs of Will” (2004), “Atomic Clock” (2006), “Strange Unison” (2008). His latest CD, “Explicit”, will be released September, 2011 on the French label Futura Marge.

His trio, Open Loose with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, has become an archetypal improvising ensemble on the New York scene. He continues performing and recording with BassDrumBone, a three decade long collaboration with Gerry Hemingway and Ray Anderson. Mr. Helias performs solo bass concerts and can also be heard in the innovative bass duo, “The Marks Brothers”, with fellow bassist Mark Dresser. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School University and SIM (School for Improvisational Music).

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