Pluto Juice – with Dayna Stephens & Anthony Fung

Seating times: 7:00pm, 8:30pm, & 10:15pm. Doors open 30 minutes early.

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Black Cat JAZZ@theEDGE Summer Festival!! Presents: Pluto Juice – with Dayna Stephens & Anthony Fung

Dayna Stephens – EWI & Keys
Andrew Renfroe – Guitar
Billy Mohler – Bass
Anthony Fung – Drums

For nearly 15 years, having achieved international renown as a saxophonist (#1 Rising Star  Tenor, 2019 Downbeat Critics Poll), Dayna Stephens has worked assiduously to create a  musical voice on the Akai Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI). Following in the footsteps of Bob  Mintzer and the late Michael Brecker, and like his EWI-exploring peers Morgan Guerin, Mark  Shim and Seamus Blake, Stephens has featured the EWI in select contexts with his own bands,  on Gilad Hekselman’s 2019 release Further Chaos and other projects. With Pluto Juice, co-led  and co-produced by drummer and composer Anthony Fung, Stephens turns the spotlight fully  on EWI for the first time, in an adventurous electric quartet setting with the stellar Canadian  musicians Andrew Marzotto (guitar) and Rich Brown (bass). 

One of the band’s first pieces, “Approaching Pluto,” was composed by Stephens when NASA’s  New Horizons craft completed its long-awaited flyby of the dwarf planet in the summer of 2015.  The music that followed was conceived specifically for the group, and the theme of space travel  stuck. Stephens’ “Welcome to Our Snow Globe” leads off with a focus on Earth, while “Outskirts of Neptune” strives to capture the journey through the outermost solar system as Pluto grows  momentously near. Fung’s “Pluto and Beyond” follows New Horizons past its final destination  and further into the void, while two more Fung compositions, “Trial on Mars” and “Green  Gargantua,” deal respectively with imagined conflict on other worlds and the unfathomably  massive emptiness of a black hole. The writing, full of complexity, rhythmic urgency and sonic  adventure, represents a thrilling new departure for the two co-leaders. 

Fung, a Toronto native now based in Los Angeles, has two fine albums to his credit, Chronicles (2014) and Flashpoint (2018, awarded four stars in Downbeat). He first played with Stephens  when called to sub on a trio gig at the LA club Sam First. Sparks flew right away, and Fung  invited Stephens up to Toronto to pursue the EWI-driven collaboration that became Pluto Juice.  “The first Pluto Juice gig in January 2019 was immediately awesome,” recalls Stephens, “and by  the time we played the Toronto Jazz Festival we knew we had to record, because this was some  serious s**t.” 

The group takes full advantage of the EWI’s capabilities in creating what Stephens calls “a sea  of infinity in terms of sound production.” Stephens employs synth interfaces, copious guitar  pedals and other wares, imbuing Pluto Juice with a wealth of sonic color and mystery. The EWI  has the unique advantage of being terra incognita, far more so than the tenor saxophone,  Stephens notes: “There’s a lot less pressure, and you can really develop your own approach to  it. It’s got eight octaves like a piano as opposed to two and a half on sax, so it’s a completely  different universe.” The EWI can also function harmonically: you will often hear Stephens  comping two-note dyads under Marzotto’s solos. “There’s an expression I’ve heard regarding  tenor players, ‘You’ve got to fight for your sound,’ and that’s what I feel like I’m still doing on EWI,” he muses. “I’m still just getting started on this axe. The possibilities are so endless.” In  fact, constant innovation in synth technology (physical modeling, wavetables, harmonizers, all  too involved to attempt to explain here) assures that the possibilities are growing more endless  still. 

At times Stephens will tap into a lyrical woodwind tone, or conjure a broad open soundscape, or  dig in with something reminiscent of a Hammond B3 with Leslie speaker. Or he’ll launch into  gnarled, overdriven lines and phrases, equal parts John Scofield and some unknown instrument  from the beyond. 

The blend of EWI with Marzotto’s fluid guitar lines and celestial harmonies, and the supple rock solid feel of Brown and Fung, makes Pluto Juice all the more striking. “I’ve known Andrew since  we were kids,” says Fung. “We went to Berklee together, he’s one of my closest buddies from  Toronto. He had his own thing from the start and that’s why I love calling him for projects.” Rich  Brown made waves as the original bassist of Andy Milne’s Dapp Theory and has done  groundbreaking work as a leader with rinsethealgorithm, Abeng and the solo bass album  Between Heaviness & Here. His effortless facility and deep tone help make Pluto Juice the  captivating listen that it is.