backwardsupwardsky by Chris Jonas

This music was written by Chris Jonas over the course of three years of winter solo camping during the pandemic. The location was the 2 million acre Barry Goldwater Missile Range in the far southwest corner of Arizona along the USA-Mexico border.

Accessible by permit only, the scorched white playas or the Missile Range are bombed regularly, but the “sky islands” of its many mountain ranges are wilderness preserves that contain unique species of animals and plants that were stranded here after the ice age.

Sleeping outside under the stars, cooking on a campfire, and working on this music under a tarp, Jonas lived at the base of the white granite Tinajas Altas mountains for 15-22 days at a time every January. Over the three years he only saw a couple of people - two rangers and a few ATVers flying Trump flags.

The landscape is filled with saguaro cactus, ironwood trees, elephant trees and forests of ocotillo. A few miles to the South, Trump’s incomplete wall cuts directly into the white granite of the mountains.

In this solitude this music was written. Some days consisted of starkly bright sun, others were dominated by the dullness of overcast days and never ending wind. For most days, Jonas watched the shadows grow across Davis Plain each afternoon as the sun slowly crossed over the ridge of granite.

This double record of desert music was recorded with three ensembles of musicians over two years, including a long standing trio in the Bay Area, a trio of friends in Santa Fe, and a quartet in Italy, based in Bologna.

Santa Fe-based Jonas has been a long time and very active artistic figure in the creative music world as a composer, video artist, conductor and saxophone player. He has worked as a 30 year collaborator with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor (1996-98), William Parker (as a member of Little Huey 1992-2001), and as a leader with his own Deserts ensembles and with projects worldwide.

chrisjonascreative.com