Five Times Surprise Henry Kaiser, Anthony Pirog, Jeff Sipe, Tracy Silverman, Andy West

• 1Haboob09:13
• 2Slicer07:00
• 3You Know You Know07:02
• 4Earthshine09:12
• 5My Brothers How's01:55
• 6Twenty-Four Liars08:44
• 7A Realm of Paradise04:11
• 8Why Starfish, Why?03:23
• 9Torch Shadows08:08
• 10Maneki Neko12:52
• 11Twilight of the Space Gods (Bonus Track)40:21
• Total Runtime01:52:01

Info for Five Times Surprise

Five Times Surprise comprises a wealth of six-stringers: Henry Kaiser on guitars and effects; his friend unorthodox guitarist Anthony Pirog; six-string bassist Andy West who was a founding member of the Dixie Dregs (formed in the ‘70s and steeped in hard, southern rock with a heavy-meets-classical sound); and renowned fusion six-string electric violinist Tracy Silverman who worked with Turtle String Quartet and Bach to the Future and progressively beyond.

Add volcanic drummer Jeff Sipe to the mix and you get the full background to the formation of the band that managed to record three hours of intense and complex music that owes something to the influence to John McLaughlin’s pioneering jazz-fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. “It’s not a tribute to John and the group,” Kaiser says. “It’s our personal experiences of that music that resulted in the processes that brought us all together. We all loved that music.”

Over the course of his 300+ albums as leader/co-leader, the prolific West Coast-based guitarist Henry Kaiser never ceases to jolt with his epiphanies of improvisation as a solo act or in the context of a collective where the group itself takes top billing. In the case of Five Times Surprise, Kaiser doesn’t serve as leader but an integral element in a striking electric cooperative endeavor.

Even though the shared outing got its name from a random band name generator, Five Times Surprise couldn’t be a better appellation for the high-spirited quintet that features five masters of the free that revel in their ability to marvel into the unknown on their eponymous Cuneiform Records release. From found acoustic folk tunes in Madagascar and Norway to his multiple Yo Miles! electric recordings with avant trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, Kaiser has said, his goal in all his multifarious projects has been to experiment and discover. “It’s always an experimental science project,” he said, then listed the salient qualities of his fellow “space gods” in flight with him: the ability to listen, kindness, generosity, and—rare in this electric realm—a sense of humor. All those factors were at work on this new recording.

Five Times Surprise comprises a wealth of six-stringers: Kaiser on guitars and effects; his friend unorthodox guitarist Anthony Pirog; six-string bassist Andy West who was a founding member of the Dixie Dregs (formed in the ‘70s and steeped in hard, southern rock with a heavy-meets-classical sound); and renowned fusion six-string electric violinist Tracy Silverman who worked with Turtle String Quartet and Bach to the Future and progressively beyond. (Hence the groove-to-drive tune in the collection “24 Liars” intensified by the 24 strings of the band.)

Add volcanic drummer Jeff Sipe to the mix and you get the full background to the formation of the band that managed to record three hours of intense and complex music that owes something to the influence to John McLaughlin’s pioneering jazz-fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. “It’s not a tribute to John and the group,” Kaiser says. “It’s our personal experiences of that music that resulted in the processes that brought us all together. We all loved that music. All the 5XS tunes are originals that we collectively wrote, except for one Mahavishnu cover, ‘You Know You Know’ [from 1971’s Inner Mounting Flame].”

Kaiser explains how the Five Times Surprise project came together. He attended McLaughlin’s 4th Dimension band concert in its final American tour in September 2017 at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco. He had been invited to the soundcheck and then a hang backstage during the show. That’s where he met Sipe for the first time. They had never come into contact before, even though they knew of each other and shared the special pleasure of having worked together with the late fusion guitarist Shawn Lane. Sipe was playing drums with the opener Jimmy Herring that evening. He also played drums in the special set of Mahavishnu Orchestra material with both McLaughlin and Herring. It was the unusual feature of that final USA tour. “Jeff walked in and we had a spontaneous big hug, and we both said at the same time: we should make an album together,” Kaiser reminisces. “The next night in L.A., Andy came and the two of us said let’s make a record with Jeff. As it turns out, Andy and the Dixie Dregs used to play Mahavishnu covers.”

This led to an invite to a Nashville studio, courtesy of Kaiser’s pal, producer Ed Pettersen. Kaiser enlisted his D.C./Maryland guitar pal Pirog to join in and then there was the suggestion by Pettersen to bring Silverman aboard given his electric violin prowess and improvisational imagination. “Tracy has such an unbelievable monster sound that it surprised all of us,” Kaiser said. “His solo on ‘You Know I Know’ was amazing. Andy said that he had always wanted to record a Mahavishnu Orchestra tune, and that is something that requires a band to do an impeccably difficult job. Jeff got the drums right because it has a tricky rhythm. We had to all do it right.”

The song has a lyrical quality with short stops and starts, a rhythmic riff throughout and a power-packed drum/guitar duet at the close. It’s one of the highlights of Five Times Surprise. Another noteworthy piece is the uptempo, dramatic, aggressive opener, “Haboob,” named for the violent and oppressive sandstorms that originated in Sudan but have also been more frequent in recent times to Arizona where West lives. The tune is best played at high volume. The original improvisation went on for 20 minutes but for the album has been shaved down to 10.

There are long assaults, including the grinding and fierce “Slicer,” the mysterious and at times jazz rocking “Torch Shadows,” and the finale, “Maneki Neko,” the 13-minute excursion named after the Japanese feline good luck charm. It’s spirited and high-energy with shifting tempo interludes and the lyrical beauty of the coda.

The band also delivers shorter pieces, including the high-energy “Why Starfish Why” with its terrific bass/drum grooves and great guitar conversations and crossfires. (Despite Kaiser’s passion as a deep-sea scientific diver in the U.S. Antarctica Program, he says the title has nothing to do with that.) Another tasty shorty is ”A Realm of Paradise” that starts off as a calm meditation and flies with Silverman’s violin taking the lead with support from an effects tapestry of sound. The shortest piece, “My Brothers How’s,” clocks in at 1:45. The groove is sweet and the guitar-bass interplay is special. “This is a Jeff song with the bass line and rhythm,” Kaiser says. “But then we changed it, keeping the bass line and using our own melodies on top. Jeff really wanted to play that groove.”

Distinctively, most of the tunes shift gears mid-song, most prominently on “Earthshine.” It opens in a calm of the light colors of the aurora, then hurries into a forceful, even ominous stretch before another stretch of beauty, with acoustic guitar and harmonics and eBow acoustic guitar sonics. As for those shifts, Kaiser and co. made no plans. The flow just made themselves at home within the playing of a piece.

Working with two guitarists sharing space, Kaiser says, “It’s a piece of cake. A delicious piece of cake. I like playing with another guitar player. Partially because I can lay back into a support role and listen to Anthony, and we enjoy tossing the musical ball back and forth. Add the incredible electric six-string fiddle playing of Tracy to that, and it becomes a mirrored and time-warped fun house that is full of surprises.” As for the entire group playing, he says that it’s something like science-fiction, where there are newly imagined musical rules and strategies of fresh musical experimentation. “And this is what provides the surprise,” he says.

As a special surprise, Five Times Surprise has also released a 40-minute bonus CD that’s available to people who purchase the album from Cuneiform Records directly and is also a part of the digital release of the album. “Twilight of the Space Gods” is a full rock opera instrumental long-form sonic adventure, a novcella of sorts with pockets of rock band kick and abrupt shifts and plenty of frenzied and distorted guitar playing.

Henry Kaiser, six-string guitar
Anthony Pirog, six-string guitar
Tracy Silverman, six-string electric violin
Jeff Sipe, drums
Andy West, six-string bass

Henry Kaiser
s an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers.

Anthony Pirog
Born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, but raised in the D.C. suburb of Vienna, Virginia, guitarist Anthony Pirog first came to national prominence as one half of the instrumental duo Janel & Anthony, with virtuoso cellist Janel Leppin. The pair’s 2012 Cuneiform release Where Is Home garnered critical acclaim for their seamless electro-acoustic fusion of myriad styles, ranging from classical and folk to rock and jazz. Pirog’s own multi-faceted approach to the guitar has its roots in the music of regional favorites like Danny Gatton, whose virtuosic fretwork similarly combined numerous styles of popular music.

Pirog has performed with a wide variety of musicians, ranging from avant-garde icons like Henry Kaiser, Elliott Sharp and William Hooker to roots and rockabilly legends such as Billy Hancock, Bill Kitchen and Tab Benoit. He has even played with ex-Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chambelain in the power trio Skysaw. He currently leads a number of ensembles, from trio to septet.

Palo Colorado Dream is Pirog’s debut album fronting a group. Ably supported by esteemed bassist Michael Formanek and ubiquitous drummer Ches Smith, Pirog expands the trio’s sonic palette with a rack of efx, using delay pedals and loops to masterful effect. Recalling the seminal work of Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, Pirog puts his own personalized stamp on innovations proffered by artists he admires. The following interview took place during the autumn of 2014.

Tracy Silverman
Lauded by BBC Radio as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman is the world’s foremost electric violin soloist, bringing concert hall legitimacy to this next-generation instrument.

Pulitzer and Grammy award winning composer John Adams raves: “No one makes that instrument sing and soar like Tracy, floating on the cusp between Jasha Heifetz and Jimi Hendrix.

As part of Silverman’s vision for the “future of strings”, he has premiered and recorded several major new electric violin concertos written specifically for him by composers John Adams (The Dharma at Big Sur), Terry Riley (The Palmian Chord Ryddle), Nico Muhly (Seeing is Believing), Roberto Sierra (Ficciones), Kenji Bunch (Embrace), and 3 concertos of his own; appearing with the LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and many others at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and stages all over the world.

Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School and is notable not only for his development and use of the electric 6-string violin, but also for what he terms “progressive string playing”, an evolution of classical string playing that embraces contemporary popular idioms such as rock, jazz and hip hop.

TV/internet and radio includes a solo Tiny Desk Concert on NPR, A Prairie Home Companion, Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday, and a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning.

A longtime proponent of string education, Silverman is a leader in the progressive string community and the host of The Greater Groove: The Future of Strings podcast. His Strum Bowing method has been adopted by players and teachers all over the world. Silverman is the author of The Strum Bowing Method: How to Groove on Strings, and The Rhythm String Player: Strum Bowing in Action, as well as several etude books and online courses on his Strum Bowing Groove Academy. Silverman is on the faculty of Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Jeff Sipe
is one of the best drummers in the industry and has played with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz Is Dead, Leftover Salmon, and Susan Tedeschi among others.

Sipe is a remarkably flexible drummer who has exhibited great flash and bombast with the Aquarium Rescue Unit and in an expansive power trio with bassist Jonas Hellborg and the late guitarist Shawn Lane, Jeff Sipe is also capable of tastefully swinging support and coloristic textures on the kit, as he demonstrates on his auspicious debut as a leader of his own band Jeff Sipe and The Apartment Projects.

About the trio with Jonas Hellborg and Shawn Lane, Sipe reveils: "I had been laying the roots with Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and then after that was over, jumping in with Jonas and Shawn made me blossom, and my individual voice came out in the music." Sipe is also known as a member of the Zambi Corps of Engineers, Susan Tedeschi’s working blues band and appears on the debut recording by Bela Fleck & The Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin.

In April 2005 Jeff Sipe joined The Black Crowes, replacing previous drummer Bill Dobrow.

This album contains no booklet.