A free jazz ensemble that shouts obscenities at you while playing. Because you can’t just expect jazz musicians to be high on heroin and super nice all the time.
Hollywood Squaretet’s drummer, Larry Copcar, is quite an impressive beast. His performance on this live improvised set instantly reminds me of some of Tony Williams’ work with Miles Davis’ second great quintet—nervous and frenetic, but controlled—but it’s also a lot heavier in general, something brutally punk about it. Independence (being able to use your limbs for separate rhythms) is off the charts, especially when you consider his voice is almost like one of those limbs. Copcar is also the “singer” of this band, and really this “singing” is just off-rhythmic maniacal ranting about just about everything from Barack Obama to hippies to being a reptile. Because this was recorded live in a club in Los Angeles, some of these diatribes sound a little personal, Copcar calling out members of his audience maybe, taunting and challenging them to improv-argue back at him. Meanwhile, guitar, trumpet and upright bass pretty much play whatever they feel like playing. Notes are fast, blunt, wild, random, discordant and most importantly, furious. Because there’s not much accessibility to grab tight to, the attitude is paramount, and this group makes being pissed off a musical career.
There’s really not a ton more to describe here, other than some feedback noise the guitarist dives into on “The Loser.” It’s basically Ornette Coleman crossed with the crassness and aggressiveness punk. Which, of course, is pretty awesome, and really fucking funny. It makes for a tough listen in one sitting, though. I’ll be honest. It’s really tough to get through not even an hour of this, but something tells me this makes a lot more sense seen live in the club anyway. “Tetosterone!” plays like a flier for what’s sure to be a really weird and great jazz show.
