Bazooka was an American musical band active in the early 1990s, led by

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Tony Atherton,

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

ist Bill Crawford and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Vince Meghrouni. Their music could be broadly classified as

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, but also touched on other styles. All their albums were released by

SST Records SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was first founded in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Transmitters, a small business through which he sold elec ...

. The first line-up was Meghrouni, Crawford and Atherton. This lineup of Bazooka record three albums: ''Perfectly Square'', ''Blowhole'', and ''Cigars, Oyster and Booze''. Before their recordings for the SST label, Bazooka made a cassette tape for sale at live gigs. Many of the songs appeared on their later albums, and were probably sketches at the time in development. It was recorded in Los Angeles with the musicians were listed as, Tony Atherton; Tactical Assault Commander, Bill Crawford; Chief of Strategic Operations, and Vince Meghrouni; Minister of Bombardment. Tenor sax player Tony Atherton was known to play two saxes at one time, the other being an alto sax. They were at this time appearing in small cafe-bars at Long Beach, California. Songwriting was split about evenly between the trio's members, with a healthy dose of

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

s written by the likes of

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...

and

Lee Morgan Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label, Morgan came to prominence in his la ...

. The music was generally in a

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

vein, although a few pieces were freely improvised, and there was a strong

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

quality, particularly in Crawford's playing. In his review of 1994's ''Blowhole'', Richard Foss wrote, "It is difficult to articulate just what makes Bazooka such an interesting band and Blowhole such a fine album. There are other bands that play jazz with

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

fervor and wild abandon, but few who do so with anything approaching this level of pure musicianship."

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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References

External links

Turn of the Skew: Orange County's eccentric Bazooka tampers with expectations, by Nicky Baxter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bazooka Jazz ensembles from California Punk rock groups from California Musical groups established in the 1990s