OHS Pieces Volume Three

At last, the third volume of Pieces by OHS, the free jazz trio featuring Jerry Soga and Doug Haning with myself. I also produced the recordings. Jerry provided the photos for the cover art.

I’m not great with design, so I keep it simple. I like how the H symbolically ties Ongley and Soga together. In a weird way, he is the independent voice that makes our wild anti-rhythm section come together.

You can hear Volume One and Volume Two right here, or just go to ongley.bandcamp.com.

This is the beginning and end for this project. We never had ambitions, really. It is a good example of just doing what is fun with the people you love. The outcome is unimportant, but you put in the honest effort so long as you’re there.

Any lover of free jazz can hear that we know what we’re doing even if we are not the best players. We are far from the best players. However, the love of the form is there. It is the formless form. Free music shall never be heard twice, unless it is recorded.

To reiterate the story, we came together over the course of 2017. It was my final year in Portland. I had a studio space for THRU Media in the basement of Fish Sauce restaurant. I produced it there.

The sessions sat in my hard drives for years as I adjusted to living in Philadelphia. Finally, in 2021, I got around to it.

With six sessions total, I combined two sessions per volume, giving a variety of feel to each album. There are twice as many pieces remaining on the editing room floor.

Please enjoy or learn to enjoy free jazz, and in particular OHS.