Rob Foster began playing with Art Lande and Khabu-Doug Young of The Russian Dragon Band in the early 1990s during his years in Colorado. The group, which has an evolving personnel roster, was founded by Art, Khabu, and bassist Dwight Kilian in 1988 with the idea of fostering creative composing, improvisational flexibility, and audience interaction. (Erik Hargrove, whoalso plays on this disk, among other accomplishments has been with James Brown’s band for the past several years.) The band has built a large, varied and colorful repertoire of original pieces, plus unique arrangements of jazz standards, all characterized by a flexibility of pulse (“rushin' - draggin”), the nuanced use of space and texture, and an unbridled drive. The present CD’s title, How’s That, echoes that of many classic post-bop recordings, and directly invites the listener to enter into the music with intimate care and discernment. The cover is graced by a reproduction of a recent Philip Morsberger painting, whose harmonious blend of abstraction and figuration, of sonorous color revealing fun-play figures, perfectly reflects the coherent diversity and serious fun of the music inside. One cannot help but think of those Columbia recordings of the 50s and early 60s, like Brubeck’s Time Out and Mingus’s Mingus Ah Um, that feature on their covers contemporary abstract paintings – modernist jazz paired with modernist art. How’s That is, to be sure, a late postmodern update of these lyrical and late bebop traditions in jazz – a postmodern art that knowingly draws upon a stunning range of music history and contemporary sounds, allusions that deepen the listener's experience, but are not necessary to the richness of that experience. This is not pastiche then, the wearing of dead stylistic masks, but the creative and playful reworking of tradition where the music transcends its sources and sets itself free in the here and now. Whether the disk is played from beginning to end or the focus is on a favorite cut or two, may you wholeheartedly enjoy this album’s masterful expression of creative spirit!

Michael Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor of History and Philosophy of Art
Augusta State University

". . . How's That is, to be sure, a late postmodern update of [the] lyrical and late bebop traditions in jazz -- a postmodern art that knowingly draws upon a stunning range of music history and contemporary sounds, allusions that deepen the listener's experience, . . ."
Dr. Michael Schwartz