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The first President album was released on LP and CD on the Dossier label in Germany.
Part of the album was reisued in the Nonesuch title, This New Generation. The band
performed around NYC and made its' European debut at the Zurich Jazz Festival.
A European tour followed with slide-guitarist Dave Tronzo taking the place of Bill Frisell.
The President recorded 2 records for Nonesuch, Bring Yr Camera and Miracle
Mile which featured Stew Cutler on guitar, J.A. Deane on electronics and trombone, and
Kermit Driscoll on bass. This band toured the U.S. in 1990. The final European tour
featured a quintet again, minus Deane and with Seattle bassist Fred Chalenor.
The President's music was a blend of gospel and roots music filtered through repetitive and
asymettrical patterns. "I was working with sequencers for the first time, and enjoying
putting my harmonic ideas up against interesting little repetitive grooves. I was accused
of being influenced by Minimalism, but I never heard that. I was often quoted as being
influenced by Indonesian music, but often for the wrong reason. The rhythmic cycles were
not what I took from Indonesian music, but rather the role of the improvisor. I was
knocked out by the way the Suling and the Rebab solos throughout a piece, but not featured.
In the music of India, or Charlie Parker, the soloist is supported by the ensemble and is the
principal focus. I liked the idea of the soloist informing and shading the
composition. I would often ask Stew or Doug to say inside the blues, or a gospel sound,
or whatever, and let the composition change the perspective on that sound. Sort of like
taking a Muddy Waters solo and changing everything else around it."
What the critics said about The President:
"Sonny Boy Williamson in a Zen Temple."
Richard Williams, London Times
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