Even before Zhongyu Is Chinese for Finally had been released, while the five of us were involved in rehearsing the music, the topic of playing live in public came up. We were all feeling good about how things were going, so we played a few shows, though I didn’t put a lot of effort into getting gigs — I saw them more as a chance to hone the arrangements than as a focus for the project.
At some point, it became evident that continuing as a five-piece would not be practical, so I honed it down to a trio of Randy Doak on drums, Jim DeJoie on woodwinds, and me playing Stick and providing live electronics. In the spirit of Robert Fripp’s “highly mobile unit” I saw this as a practical response to continuing the project. Dennis Rea has been a very busy guy for a long time, with multiple projects, and I was intrigued by the idea of having a band with no guitar in it.
I started developing a repertoire of pieces that fit with the trio format, some of which were rearranged versions of tracks from the first album, and some of which were tunes that had been kicking around in my demo folder for a while. We also incorporated a lot of improvisation into our sets. Over the course of 2015-2020 we worked up a sizeable volume of music, easily encompassing two full sets without repetition, especially with the improvs.
Financially, I knew it wasn’t going to work out to go into a professional studio, so I went about putting together my own semi-portable recording setup, and began the task of documenting the pieces we’d been playing live. I began recording my own parts at home, then visiting Jim and Randy at their homes to record their parts. After the very “live” way the first album was recorded, with very few overdubs, I was keen to take advantage of the piecemeal recording process to imagine the music with a fuller sound, and gradually added keyboard and other parts to fill out the sound.
Some of the tracks for the album Super Z Attack Team were recorded as early as 2017, and I put the final touches on it in 2024.
- Jon Davis: Chapman Stick, hardware and software synthesizers, guzheng, samples, field recordings, Otamatone, percussion, theremin, didgeridoo, toy piano, programming
- Jim DeJoie: Baritone and alto saxes, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, wooden flute, percussion, voice
- Randy Doak: Drums, percussion
Engineered, mixed, and produced by Jon Davis. Cover art by Jon Davis based on Super Z shield by Rob Morgan. Live photo by Danette Davis.
Track listing
- Plan of Attack
- Gang of Three
- Insta Graham Poser
- Name of the Sun
- Odyssey of Penguin 337 / Sneak Attack
- Worm Jets vs Murphy’s Claw
- Here Come the Worm Jets
- Downtime on Z-World
- Murphy’s Claw
- There Go the Worm Jets
- Beautiful Smoke
- 11.9% ABV
- Whatever Happened to the Worm Jets
All compositions by Jon Davis (BMI) except Beautiful Smoke words and music by Jim DeJoie (BMI).
Dedication
This album is dedicated to Gladys Oletia (Johnson) Simpson (1938-2021), my mother, who was always supportive and encouraging, even when she didn’t really understand what I was doing. Whether it was finding me a piano teacher, buying instruments for me, coming to shows, or just offering kind words, she was always there for me.
I’d also like to offer special thanks to the musicians who made this possible: Jim DeJoie and Randy Doak. And the ones who participated indirectly and made me think it was possible: Dennis Rea, Alicia DeJoie, Amy Denio, Wally Shoup, Johnny Unicorn, and Charley Rowan. And to Danette Davis for providing encouragement and the spark to seek my joy. To Leonardo Pavkovic, whose support for the first album made it possible to continue. And to Scott Schaffer of Right Brain Records, who provided the final kick to get this thing out the door.