Critical Reviews
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FAIR PLAY, Glenn Horiuchi, Soul Note 121328-2 Pianist Horiuchi’s quartet eagerly dwells in the nooks and crannies of impromptu free jazz. On his new recording Fair Play (recorded in 1994), punchy piano clusters lead without warning to quotations of showtunes or circus melodies, only to melt back into the seething abyss of free improvisation. Tuba player WILLIAM ROPER adds a cheeky ironic sense of humor to the mix, while percussionist Jeanette Wrate constantly peppers it with brilliant colors found outside the traditional drum set. Saxophonist Francis Wong seems more content to explore the dimensions of lyrical melodicism, though he too breaks out into the open at times. All four players make liberal use of vocal snippets ranging from existential questions like “Why do the angels cry?” to facts-of-life reflections on working with the San Diego Water Utilities Department: “Ten feet under the ground, just me and my drill! So cool, so peaceful!” As you might imagine, it’s an odd mixture: at times bordering on random. But even in its heaviest moments of free interplay, Horiuchi’s unit never loses its sense of humor.
All About Jazz, May 1999 - Nils Jacobson
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FAIR PLAY is the most successful satiric take on America’s failing promise since Charles Mingus riffed Americana in “Fables of Faubus”. At century’s end, Horiuchi is one of several avant-garde pianists mining ragtime; his solos explode from ragged themes until one imagines keys flying from the piano like the out-of-control pipe organ in a Steamboat Willie cartoon. William Roper’s tuba is the fulcrum of the group, summoning jazz’s pasts with oom-pah blats or pushing into new music grounds; his solos are pure, pontillistic expressions of tone and time that recall trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, in whose group both Horiuchi and Roper are long-standing members. Bay Area winds player Francis Wong is known for his dexterous interpretations of Asian themes and the Coltrane-like intensity with which he burns on tenor; here he sets himself nicely against the space and pulse of the group. All the musicians sing:in a concept derived equally from Peking opera, Black Arts poetry, and Hollywood stereotypes, the players double their parts verbally, widen them with lines of increasing dissonance, and this dialogue, locked and rocking, becomes the tension that drives the song. Hailing the struggles of Japanese Americans, workers and people with AIDS, FAIR PLAY suggests America has not advanced nearly so far as some believe, but its past is a source of strength for the future. -
East Bay Express, 9/10/99, Aaron Schuman
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MY MOTHER'S MOTHER, California EAR Unit
Thoughtful tubaist-composer BILL ROPER, a too rarely heard local wonder, joined cellist Erica Duke-Kirkpatrick and Arthur Jarvinen on guitarron for Roper's improvisation-heavy, vaguely melancholic "My Mother's Mother."
L.A. Times, May 14, 1999 - Josef Woodard
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LOCKER RUMORS, Collage Dance Theater
...and a tuxedo-clad BILL ROPER blowing an amazing tuba.
L.A. Times, May 1, 1999 - Victoria Looseleaf
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LAMENT OF ABSALOM, ROPER, Wong, Kavee, Asian Improv. #0032
This liner quote brings to mind the image of a singularity, rare breed, time passing in reality. As WILLIAM ROPER sounds out the first notes from the depths of his tuba, and the singular clarity of Wong's tenor saxophone, the attitude is reflection. Elliot Humberto Kavee makes his entrance often in sparce highlighting, either with brushiness or simple taps on deep skins, articulations, the sound remmeniscent of the barren landscape of the plains, the winds like the foraging of great animals. The recording is real-time, clear and room sound resonant as the three slowly develop a meandering of musical interplays. At times, there is a hint of swing or rhythmic dancing amidst the tenor and tuba dialog, a true free jazz searching for its next turn, a purity of movement, moods, and improvisatory searches. Some very beautiful interweaving of space, conceptual voicings, solos, light string and percussive accompaniments, the soulful voices of ROPER's tuba, Kavee's lonesome cello, Wong's saxophone or solo flute. Colors, conversations, this creative free jazz trio's explorations resonate from the power within.
the improvisor, The International web site on free improvisation Feb. 1999 - LaDonna Smith
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... performed by master musicians who know how to manipulate their respective instruments in order to achieve the desired collective effect-call it moods, timbres, harmonic beauty, sound textures, what have you...a challenge for the listener because there is little to none in the way of familiar harmonic signposts to guide the listener through uncharted territory; but, after all, is not that part of the excitement in such a journey.
THE LAMENT OF ABSALOM, is spontaneously created music, which throughout fabricates tapestries of sound that, as in viewing an abstract work of art, will conjure in the mind’s eye different perceptions, depending on one’s focus at any given moment... all of the elements in the ensemble-WILLIAM ROPER (tuba, percussion, voice), Francis Wong (tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute), and Elliot Humberto Kavee (cello and drums simultaneously)- come together in the end to create a series of aural montages that suggest, with Absalom, their (after-the-fact) poetic descriptors.
Horfacre’s JAZZ NEWS, Holidays ‘98-Section II-24 - Russell Arthur Roberts
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These collectively composed trio works are fairly fascinating studies in group dynamics, recalling distantly Don Cherry's work with Bob Stewart as his bass instrument in the 1980s. But Wong, Roper, and Kavee don't play much melody, instead exploring the development of particular ideas that sound mostly improvised. The nuggets come from small, focused studies in grain and grow into fuller, louder illustrations, held to a more eased energy quotient by Roper's low, bear-crawl tuba and added to in a strange twist of instrumentation by wispy harmonies concocted by Kavee on percussion (and cello). Wong's blowing is full-toned and expressive, keeping what amounts to pretty abstract work fairly concrete.
CODA, August/Sept 1999, Andrew Bartlett
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See the link: "A Recent Review", below
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HILLTOP VIEW, Glenn Horiuchi, Music & Arts 935.
The final selection,"lnner Slrength (Part II)," presents his Unit(a) ensemble, with the focus on the extraordinary tubaist WILLIAM ROPER, who also performs with Wadada Leo Smith and Horace Tapscott. ROPER has an impressive enough straight-ahead sound, forceful and rich, but his multiphonics, which he slips into his opening solo, are wondrous. The piece itself is a spaced-out affair in the Art Ensemble vein, with Horiuchi on shamisen and Wrate contributing very spare percussive color. Mostly it makes me want to hear more of ROPER.
Cadence Vol. 23, no. 1 January 1997 - Stuart Kremsky
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KENZO'S VISION, Glenn Horiuchi, Asian Improv Records, AIR 0022
WILLIAM ROPER has excellent tuba chops and a finely attuned sense of ensemble support.
Jazz Now Interactive, 1995 - Chris Kelsey
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KENZO'S VISION
Special nods to ROPER for his incredible tuba.
Option, Nov - Dec 1995, No. 65 - John Baxter
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DANCES & ORATIONS, Anthony Braxton/John Rapson, Music & Arts 923
Another outstanding improviser is BILL ROPER. His work on tuba is featured on Shaking the Dreams From the Bedspread. And listen to him on Better Than Truth, Bigger Than Life, where he performs some prancing, skipping, un-tuba-like phrases. John Rapson says it best: "ROPER is one of a kind, traversing different planets in single bounds with both mischief and grace."
Jazz Player Magazine Aug./Sept 1997; vol.4 #5 - Kim Richmond
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BING, John Rapson, Sound Aspects CD 036
The real surprise is tubaist BILL ROPER. His solo on "Three Things..." is a dextrous display that makes it difficull a discern whether it's a tuba or trombone. And his bass line work on the "Rhythm A Ning" section of "...Monkisms" has to be heard be believed.
Cadence, October 1991 - Robert Iannapolio
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MINOTAUR
Her co-worker is musician WILLIAM ROPER who makes his tuba into a voice, a mood and even a fountain of emotional colors.
Drama-Logue , Sept. 5-11, 1985 - Martin A. David
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MINOTAUR
Backing her up on tuba, BILL ROPER is amazing.
L.A. Weekly , Aug. 30, 1985 - Helen Knode
