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Reasons For Moving on Tour

Many will remember the music Reasons for Moving made for the Polish Label Not Two Records. A decade later, this early November, the core players of trumpeter Darren Johnston, guitarist Fred Frith, and saxophonist Larry Ochs, together with Frith's regular trio companions French bassist Sebastien Jeser and Swiss drummer Samuel Duehsler, are launching a week-long European tour at the Music Unlimited Festival in Austria.

The tour, featuring fabulous, exploratory music from the debut release — never presented before to European audiences — continues with shows in Strasbourg – France, Frankfurt/Hofheim – Germany, Vienna and St. Johann in Tirol in Austria and concluding with Marghera, Venice and Forli in Italy. As you are all in for a pleasant surprise, we hope you can join them along the way!



The entire debut album can be listened to also via Youtube, Spotify or Apple Music.

➡ November 11 | Music Unlimited Festival | Wels, Austria
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2fVfEhA

➡ November 13 | Jazzdor Festival | Strasbourg, France
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2Di7niu

➡ November 14 | Jazzkeller Hofheim | Hofheim (Taunus), Germany
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/1OiI1hN

➡ November 15 | Porgy & Bess | Vienna, Austria
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2Di46zF

➡ November 16 | Alte Gerberei | St. Johann in Tirol, Austria
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2qka5eS

➡ November 17 | Argo 16 | Marghera, Italy
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2ANBVWS

➡ November 18 | Area Sismica | Forlì, Italy
Event Link & Tickets: https://bit.ly/2Rrv6jd

Reasons For Moving originated in 2005 as a group formed primarily to create a recording led by Darren Johnston, and also performed a couple of times in that period. The core of the band consists of Johnston, Frith, and Ochs, who were originally joined by bassist Devon Hoff and drummer Ches Smith.

The all-improvised recording was released on Not Two Records to wide praise, but the band then went dormant, with only occasional performances, although the core in particular has played and recorded together in many other settings over the years.

With an invitation from curator Phillippe Ochem of Jazzdor Festival in Strasbourg, France to play the festival in November 2018, the core group reformed, and with help from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, are looking forward to finally taking it to Europe, where they will be joined by French bassist Sebastien Jeser and Swiss drummer Samuel Duehsler.

This Festival Jazzdor appearance is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through US Artists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

"There are (bands) which you start listening to and you think “this is great, this is it!” and sometimes that’s a disappointing thought when the rest of the (music) does not meet the initial expectation, but that is definitely not the case with Reasons For Moving. …The great thing about it all is that the focus is never lost, all tracks speak the same musical language, with lots of variations, but with raw emotions always on the surface, varying between sad melancholic moments to agonizing angst. ...these contrasting emotional fields are well brought up by this stimulating, creative, entertaining, and boundary-shifting music." — Stef Gjissels, The Free Jazz Collective

"One of the great things about this (band) is that Darren's trumpet and Larry's saxes work so well together, in similar tonal areas. Fred Frith is the perfect middle man, balancing between the horns and rhythm team perfectly, whether dealing in dark colors and shades or occasionally soloing underneath or with the spinning horns. On a few of these pieces, Frith gets a chance to lead and stretch out and turn the quintet inside-out into a strange twisted (prog?) rock unit. These pieces fall somewhere between Massacre and Material, yet they are still unique in their own way." — Bruce Gallanter, DMG Monthly

"(Reasons for Moving) stamp their class as improvisation and free jazz explode in aural splendor and imaginative propulsion in this collaboration. Each has established an undiluted reputation as a forward thinker in taking improvised music into new realms. Change for them is a constant challenge, one they meet on-the-go as they play with their own bands and with other musicians who answer to a similar calling. …Composition has a certain place in their vocabulary, but the larger attributes come when they work outside of the framework. Notation can be the bridge between improvised passages as much as it can herald the beginning or the end. Surprise is welcome, and adds to the impact, but the bigger bang comes from the interplay between the members." — All About Jazz

Tags: Darren Johnston, Fred Frith, Larry Ochs, Reasons For Moving, Samuel Duehsler, Sébastien Jeser
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