An astonishing, spontaneous and occasionaly harrowing electric pan-musical blend balancing the cerebral with a chaotic stream-of-consciousness. Think of an improvisational intersection between extremely varied sources: Eno, Zappa’s instrumental works, Jon Hassell, Morton Subotnick, Keith Jarrett’s solo piano improvisations, Conlon Nancarrow, progressive rock bands of the 1970s, excursions into the wilderness, Edgar Varese, animal sounds, his kitchen sink, Martin Denny, various world music (India, Bali, West Africa, Japan, Middle East), Chaos theory, and urban noise such as burglar alarms, noisy neighbors, cars blaring rap beats, etc. All the music on THE PLURAL OF HEAR is composed, performed and recorded by Tim Song Jones between 1987 and 1994. (68 minutes)

“Bujo” Kevin Jones is a percussionist who has performed all over the world. He has backed up well known entertainers an artists such as Whitney Houston, The Isley Brothers, Jermaine Jackson, Archie Shepp, Charles McPherson, Winard Harper and Ray Copeland. He has worked along side of many of the greats in the Latin Jazz and World Music genres such as Hilton Ruiz, Mario Rivera, John Benitez and Francis Mbappe.

More recently, Kevin has continued to stick close to his roots of Jazz and Traditional African and Neo-African music by playing with many artists such as Talib Kibwe, Winard Harper, Babatunde Lea, James Weidman and Clifford Adams. Kevin still can be found playing traditional African music with Malaki Ma Congo Drum and Dance Ensemble.

Besides performing, Kevin is fast becoming an excellent teacher and clinician. He now works for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Bronx Ensemble, Arts Horizons, Dance Giant Steps and Harlem School of the Arts.

Kevin has recently recorded his own project, “Land of Eternal Tranquil Light”, featuring drummer Marvin “Bugalu” Smith, saxophonist Talib Kibwe, pianist Kelvin Sholar and percussionist Djobi Irie Simon, a recording expressing his commitment to peace and an expression of his untiring faith.

“Bujo” Kevin Jones: ” I can start by saying that Tenth World is a group which is dedicated to producing music that will inspire, heal and unify society. Our music can best be described as music that is inspired by the rhythms of the African diaspora.

My biggest influences are Mongo Santamaria, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Dizzy Gillespie, drummers Tito Puente, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Chief Bey, Big Black, Guinean master drummer Mamady Keita, Babatunde Olatunji, Babatunde Lea, The Isley Brothers and congolese drummer,Titos Sompa.”

In our first life as “Killer Miller”, we relied heavily on unstructured formats and loose ideas to create and project our voice It was idealism at its finest. Style disregard, sarcasm, and little responsibility. Our songs carried a heavy balance of jam philosophy with a natural feel and little standard composition.

The creative process of Corporate Gun is an updated version of the “Killer Miller” philosophy. We still find most creative inspiration with an altered mind and perspective;however, within the new philosophy we are more focused on the end goal of a producing material we believe is well written and presented.

Creative Session

On a typical day or weekend of which the focus is writing new material, we may stay straight or use some additives. In our studio we have a mix of band members and “Spiritual Directors,” as we call them. Someone will present an idea to start the jam or we might just dive into a blind jam, following leads and listening to everyone speak. Often times, someone in the room outside of the band or a random will present some great ideas. The entire session is recorded using a room mic.

Filtering Session

During a filtering session, several members if not the entire band will sit and reflect on recordings from the creative sessions. From these open ended jams we’ll take key ideas and directions to begin the process of forming structure and coherency. Quite often the smallest segment or run of notes can spawn an entire song structure. The biggest challenge can be remembering how we played what we hear on the recording. Once we settle on something solid we begin to compose.

Tracking Session

With a good idea of how we want the new song to stand, we will track it piece by piece, beginning with the drums. Many bands utilize “Click-Tracks” to keep the drummer in time. Occasionally well use one on a song requiring precise timing, but we tend to prefer using a scratch piano or guitar track with the drums and record by natural feel and time.

Eric has excellent time and feel as a result of his training. Moving down the line we’ll add in bass, guitar, piano, and vocals. Sometimes we play each others instrument and track it for a fresh perspective.

Mixing Session

Once the new song has been tracked we go ahead and begin the fine tuning. Each part is adjusted to how we see it to fitting effectively in the overall mix. During the mixing we may also add some secondary harmony parts, sound fx, or re-track, something that could be played better. The mixing has a tendency to take up the most time and effort, with the freedoms of modern recording equipment, however we like to rely on our musicianship and natural tone as much as possible without the use of heavy processing, as many popular bands will overuse. Once we have settled on a mix, it’s off to the mastering session.

Mastering Session

Mastering adds the finishing touches on the mix, such as an EQ or overall level adjustment and once completed the song is considered studio material.

From a creative session to the mastering, the few paragraphs above describe our basic approach.

With any creative art or music, we believe there are no absolutes. If we must use another technique or record live, we may. And even with structure and composition, some of the greatest and most powerful creations arise from total unconventional chaos and the cosmic mindfuck.

The Influence

Here are a few the key albums in our listening bank…

Pink Floyd – Animals

Radiohead – The bends, OK Computer

Grateful Dead- Europe 72, Cornell 77

Phish- Slip Stich and Pass

John Scofield – Uberjam

Allman Brothers – Live at Filmore East

Jimi Hendrix- Blues

Jazz is Dead- Blue Light Rain

Miles Davis- We Want Miles, Sorcerer

Frank Zappa- Hot Rats, Overnite Sensation

Stevie Wonder- Innervisions

Dire Straits- Live at Alchemy

Green Day-Dookie

Weezer- Blue Album

Primus- Brown Album, People Should Not Try To Act Like Animals

The Doors- Greatest Hits

Frank Sinatra – Live at the Sands