Track Listing
Track Listing
Devil’s Staircase Jones 8:32
Run by Time Wagnon 6:03
Soliton Wagnon 7:24
The Hidden Dimension Wagnon 6:02
Enigma Jones 6:28
Light Gathering Wagnon 6:08
The 11th Hour Jones 7:33
Green Eyes Wagnon 5:20
Io’s Dream Wagnon 6:47
Info
recorded in july 2005 at buckyball music studio, nyc
marc wagnon engineer
mixed in december 2005 atbuckyball music studio, nyc marc wagnon and percy jonesengineers
mastering atturtle tone studio, nyc michael fossenkemperengineer
cover art aline wagnon
design messischmidt
produced by tunnels
executive producer sarah pillow
for bookings buckyball music, inc.
special thanks rob nishida and tak hosonoat ibanez; clodagh simonds for the use of her voice in "devil's staircase"; mia messi; andy leff and jim sfarnasfor their concerted commitment; piatto d'oroin east harlem
for letting us run up a tab; last but not least, to everyone who supports this music
Tunnels goes back to a trio format, creating a more sonically advanced sound that features nine tunes composed by Percy and Marc. This recording stands out for its reinvention of the group's musical vision, and features the strong, fluid style of Tunnels drummer John O'Reilly Jr.
B u c k y b a l l Tunnels proves again their world-class status in the jazz/rock/fusion genre with this sonic driven odyssey through time and space. Formed in 1992 the core members are vibraphonist Marc Wagnon; drummer John O’Reilly Jr.; and bassist Percy Jones, who is a '70’s fusion pioneer himself and co-founder of the British group Brand X. All three musicians are virtuosos on their respective instruments and boundless in their musical adventures. Tunnels conveys a mix of raw energy and jazz sophistication, driven by their kindred interplay and improvisational prowess. Natural Selection, their fifth release, is another landmark by which many other recordings will be measured
Reviews quotes
“...while strong themes abound, the trio feels more openly exploratory than most fusion bands.” John Kelman allaboutjazz.com
“...teeming with a kind of gung-ho fierceness and risk taking that hasn't been heard too much since fusion’s heyday.” Bill Milkowski JazzTimes
“...these are ferocious performers.” Ken Micallef Modern Drummer
“...maddeningly creative, wild, and sometimes experimental ” Jonathan Widran All Music Guide
“...tasty hot stuff that true believers will know it is the real deal” Chris Spector Midwest Record Recap
“...The interplay of Jones and Wagon with drummer John o'Reilly himmers here. Jones' bass is pure fire on "Soliton."Diana Green Progression Magazine
“...Wagnons' style is refreshingly new, innovative to the point of pure brilliance. He has a technique and a dead-on feeling that can be described best in the words of Chuck Berry, "just like ringing a bell."...All I can say is thank you Tunnels.” Savon Edwards jazzreview.com
Behind the adventure is a sense of order allowing the listener to engage.. D. Oscar Groomes O's Place Jazz Newsletter
"Tunnels digs in with locked, organic grooves that underpin galactic explorations rich in melodic content." -Chris Jisi Bass Player Magazine
"Natural Selection is a collection of six to eight minute instrumentals that wander far afield, but seldom seem lost or aimless" -Scott Hall Nuvo Indianapolis
"If there’s a better bassist on the planet than Percy Jones, the fact has yet to announce itself in the general consciousness...Marc Wagnon wields the mallets here on a set of midi’ed vibes, allowing him a keyboard’s palette of tones and modes, taking the trad instrument’s abilities well beyond norms...the sight of this group going at it must be inspiring." Mark S. Tucker opednews.com
"O'Reilly has a playful, bouncy style, and flows together with Jone's active motion bass playing perfectly. Together, these two lay down a serious jazz/rock vibe that rivals the best around, with such a dynamic rhythm section, Wagnon is able to create full soundscapes of pure fusion delight. " D.B. Silver prognosis.com
Full Reviews:
After a slightly meandering start, Tunnels' newest quickly takes hold and moves with deliberate fluidity into new but familiar and welcome territory. I was going nuts trying to place the sound until I remembered the classic album Marscape. A glance at the credits confirms my suspicions. Bassist Percy Jones, of Brand X and Marscape fame, is all over this. Jones shares compositional credit with MIDI vibes player Marc Wagon, ex of Dr. Nerve and Shadowline. The result is great music. This is Tunnels' fifth album. In an effort to redefine itself musically, the band has pared down to the instrumental trio format. And it works. Track two, "Run By Time," has a hook that would be at home on Brand X's best album. The interplay of Jones and Wagon with drummer John o'Reilly shimmers here. Jones' bass is pure fire on "Soliton." All three have standout moments. But the melding of styles is an aural delight. This is not the classic Marscape is, but it's very close.—Diana Green Progression Magazine "Tunnels digs in with locked, organic grooves that underpin galactic explorations rich in melodic content." -Chris Jisi Bass Player Magazine
I first experienced Tunnels during a live performance of their Natural Selection CD at the Jazz Factory in Louisville, Kentucky. The New York based avant-garde fusion trio is driven by renowned bassist Percy Jones and vibraphone/percussionist Marc Wagnon. Combining their equally impressive artistic backgrounds, Jones and Wagnon transport the fusion of jazz and rock to another dimension-- creating imaginative soundscapes that awaken the senses. Tunnels has their own musical vision, suggesting no comparisons, I offer two groups that demonstrate the artistry and force that drives this trio's music -- the days of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizold Man, and also, the heyday of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. For music that moves the listener beyond conventional boundaries... check out Natural Selection. Mark's Online Music Source
Natural Selections is the 5th release for Tunnels and we find them returning to the classic trio format with the "new guy" John O'Reilly Jr. on a very heavy rockin' drums. O'Reilly must have been a "natural selection" for this trio, as he fits in perfectly with bassist Percy Jones and his slappin' and poppin' and down right funkin'-it-up style. Jones could work within any funk, hard rock group and be a welcomed asset. Percy's wide range and immense talent has already taken the artist through different bands, such as Brand X, Phil Collins, Brian Eno and Suzanne Vega to name just a few. Together, Jones and O'Reilly make a rock-solid rhythm section that maybe more comparable to John Paul Jones and Bohnam than Ron Carter and Tony Williams, but I am sure Tunnels is not concerned with being a "standard" jazz group. Marc Wagnon is somewhat of an enigma of sorts. I would personally consider him the "Jimi Hendrix of the midi vibes." I was a bit skeptical at first about a jazz trio without a piano or even a saxophone, but Wagnon somehow takes care of it all. Wagnons' style is refreshingly new, innovative to the point of pure brilliance. He has a technique and a dead-on feeling that can be described best in the words of Chuck Berry, "just like ringing a bell."...All I can say is thank you Tunnels. Savon Edwards jazzreview.com
They open with "Devil's Staircase" written by and featuring Jones. Their music has a mysterious air with lots of syncopated beats and improvisation. Behind the adventure is a sense of order allowing the listener to engage. Jones and Wagon are the composers on the nine selections and we frequently find Percy out front as on "Soliton". But John steps up on "Enigma" and " Io's Dream" with funky prominent beats. Tunnels is focused on bringing us fresh sounds and Natural Selection continues on that path. D. Oscar Groomes O's Place Jazz Newsletter
...So if it is indeed "tricky to rock a rhyme," perhaps it's even more awkward, nigh impossible even, to rock some jazz. you're left with some kind of unique, but nonetheless irreconcilable, aesthetic mulatto. And yet despite more than half a century of recorded evidence to support this fact, progressive rockers and forward-looking jazzers still persevere at this futile alchemy... But let's be honest some are just better at it than others. And along with the artists like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Frank Zappa, and the inimitable Miles Davis, you can count Tunnels among the more successful practitioners of the endeavor. Logan K. Young Free Time Columbia SC
If there’s a better bassist on the planet than Percy Jones, the fact has yet to announce itself in the general consciousness. From the moment he splashed onto the scene in Brand X. After playing for Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, and a passel of prog luminaries and second-stringers, he went on to press solo CDs, all to critical acclaim, then returned to making gigs with Brand X and formed this unusual trio. Marc Wagnon wields the mallets here on a set of midi’ed vibes, allowing him a keyboard’s palette of tones and modes, taking the trad instrument’s abilities well beyond norms. However, he’s superior to many a pro ivory tickler (beats, f’rinstance, Tom Coster black and blue in short order), so the singularity is neither gimmickry nor novelty. Wagnon’s, in fact, establishing a new inroad. Normally, such triggered hybrids are dubious propositions, as in most guitar outboards, but the vibes player has crafted a curious new dynamism and wrings it for all its worth, such that one is reminded alternatingly of Joe Zawinul, Alan Holdsworth’s experimentations, the aforementioned Lumley (who must be lured back into the music scene firmly, dammit!!!), and a panoply of zenith synth players. John O’Reilly rounds out the threesome on a set of skins that never overwhelms, finding the perfect slot, acting as a one-man rhythm unit, sometimes companioned by Jones, who’s just too fiery to relax into a passive mode for more than half a minute. By Mark S. Tucker opednews.com
What instantly moved me about this album was its highly fresh sound, which can hardly be subjected to direct comparisons even with "Progressivity", let alone the band's first two studio outings. Well, it's still somewhat extraordinary to hear Tunnels without electric guitar ("Progressivity" features guitarist John Goodsall, but he only plays on three tracks there), but this their new effort clearly indicates that the veterans not only have well adopted to the change, but also seem to be better prepared for the searching out of undiscovered musical realms than ever before. Unlike many outfits working in the trio format, Tunnels aren't short of extra sounds - whether they work in the studio or do a live performance - which is in many ways thanks to Marc Wagnon's ability to use his virtual ensemble, MIDI-Vibes, in a really effective way, providing the group's overall sound with plenty of additional musical voices related to different instruments. Apart from drums, fretless bass and vibraphone itself, this album's sonic palette includes sounds of synthesizer, piano, harp, electric guitar and some woodwinds, let alone those uniquely unrecognizable and, hence, indescribable. Tunnels always were a tightly rehearsed unit playing mainly composed music with some essential impromptus (at least they were never keen on lengthy joint jams demanding spur-of-the-moment improvisations from everybody), but on this album their principal credo is reflected especially vividly. The structured Space Fusion they applied for the first time on "Progressivity" in receiving further development here has actually been carried to perfection, having found a somewhat restrained, yet still expressive and perceptible Gothic-like feeling. This way, Tunnels have invented a new musical language within the Jazz-Fusion genre. Lacking a better definition, I would call it Gothic Space-Fusion. Vitaly Menshikov Acid Dragon/Progressor.net
'The cornerstone of modern biology, natural selection holds that evolution is the result of favorable traits being more likely to survive and reproduce. In the case of Tunnels' fifth release, it's evident that this talented trio's exploratory powers continue to produce exciting, new, "genetic variations." Evolving from a latter generation of Brand X, Tunnels plays a peculiar mutation of jazz-rock. This latest CD is no exception with its progressive synthesis of the fusion genre. As always, the Tunnels sound finds strength in the superhuman stylings of the unmatched Percy Jones, fretless bassist extraordinaire, and the hyperkinetic harmonics of mallet-wielding Marc Wagnon, expert Midi vibes practitioner. Natural Selection introduces new drummer John o'Reilly Jr., who has performed with Tunnels since the fall of 20O4 and whose deft touch fits nicely within the band's improvisational context. Every elaborately constructed composition on Natural Selection merits classification as a tour de force. In a world wher survival of the fittest dictates eventual disappearance of the weak, Tunnels stands reinforced. Mark Newman Progression Magazine
'It seems I will always have a place in my heart for Tunnels, simply because of Percy Jone's bass playing, what legacy he left on the prog/fusion scene with Brand X is legendary. As a member of Tunnels, he, and his cohorts are one of few bands that are seriously moving the demanding music of the progressive/fusion forward. I have been impressed by some of the bands' recordings thus far, but this one seems to have even taken them furthur along in the process of originality. Largely in part because of Marc Wagnon's development of synth voices that he employs on his unique Midi-Vibes instrument. He is a rare musician, in the league of Corea, Fleck, Ponty, etc, in that he has taken a traditional instrument, and modernized it's voicings, and has a constant inventive genious to his compositional and improvisational sense. He is able to provide depth, color, imageing, personality, structure, melody, and just about everything else for this trio. It's hard to believe I am listening to a three piece with all he contributes to the overall sound. MJ Brady Prognosis With only three members, Tunnels create a huge sound, that doesn’t dominate, but does a good job of filling the ear. There is not any fill or substandard tracks here. This is a band that knows when to extend a theme and when to stop. Natural Selection is a fully enjoyable listen that challenges the listener. If you are into fusion and jazz tinged rock, this CD will fit right into your collection. Steve Ambrosius Sea of Tranquility