2005 · Album
The Stone: Issue One
Recorded 2005 at The Stone, New York · Tzadik · Produced by John Zorn
Pure Improvisation Captured Live at The Stone
A clear window into the improvisatory act, witnessing pure, unpremeditated creation as it happens.
The Stone: Issue One documents a live session at The Stone, the Greenwich Village venue John Zorn founded as a platform for experimental music. John Zorn assembled a core group — Dave Douglas on trumpet, Bill Laswell on bass, Rob Burger on electric piano and organ, and Ben Perowsky on percussion — and let them improvise without a net. There are no compositions here, no predetermined heads or changes. What you hear is the band thinking in real time, reacting to each other across the room.
The appeal is exactly what that setup promises: immediacy. These are musicians at ease with silence and abstraction, unafraid to let an idea breathe or collapse. Burger's organ and Laswell's bass create a harmonic floor that shifts constantly, while Douglas and Zorn circle each other, sometimes locked in conversation, sometimes orbiting alone. Perowsky keeps time but also pushes outside it, treating the drums as a voice that can interrupt or echo. It's tense and collaborative at once — no egos blocking the view.
The first thousand copies were autographed by Zorn himself, and all proceeds supported The Stone's operation. That detail matters because it explains why this exists at all: not as a commercial product but as a document of a specific place and a specific commitment to letting improvisation happen in front of an audience. Reviewer Brian P. Lonergan noted in All About Jazz the remarkable transparency of the playing — you can hear exactly what each player is doing and why they're doing it.
Who's playing
Bill Laswellbass
Rob Burgerelectric piano, organ
John Zornalto saxophone
Dave Douglastrumpet
Ben Perowskypercussion
Where next?
More by Dave Douglas
All 38 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
