Land (styled LAND) was a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

based music group founded and led by

Jeff Greinke Jeff Greinke (b. 1959) is an American ambient rock and jazz rock artist and composer currently based in Tucson, Arizona. He is known as one of the pioneers of dark ambient music, with his earlier solo albums often compared to works by Robert Ric ...

. Their music is described by guitarist

Dennis Rea Dennis Rea (born July 7, 1957) is an American guitarist, author, and music event organizer. He was a member of the electronic music group Earthstar in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He leads the progressive rock quintet Moraine and worked with ...

as "an odd blend of

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 ...

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 ...

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

, and

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

." Land was active from 1993 until 2001 and released three albums. In 1996 they toured China,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, including a performance at the prestigious Beijing International Jazz Festival.

Overview

Members

(1993–2001) *

(1993–2001) *Lesli Dalaba (1993–2001) *Ed Pias (1993–1996) *George Soler (1996–1997) *Bill Moyer (1996–1997) *

Greg Gilmore Greg Gilmore (born January 3, 1962) is a French born-American drummer in Seattle, Washington, and co-founder of the recording label First World Music. Biography Although born in France, Gilmore grew up in the Seattle area. After playing in ...

(1996–1997) *

Fred Chalenor Fred Chalenor (December 29, 1955 – June 23, 2018) was an American bassist, most recognized for his work in the bands Caveman Shoestore, Tone Dogs, and Face Ditch. He also collaborated on numerous occasions with composer and keyboardist Wayne ...

(1998–2001) *

Bill Rieflin William Frederick Rieflin (September 30, 1960 – March 24, 2020) was an American musician. Rieflin came to prominence in the 1990s mainly for his work as a drummer with groups (particularly in the industrial rock and industrial metal scen ...

(1998–2001)

Collaborators

*Tori Nelson-Zagar - acoustic bass (1994) *Scott Granlund - tenor saxophone (1994) *Wang Yong -

guzheng The zheng (), or guzheng (), is a Chinese List of Chinese musical instruments#Plucked, plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a Major scale, major pentatonic scale. It has a large, reson ...

(1996) *Doug Haire - mixing (1994), engineer (1996–2001), producer (1997)

Style

Land played a mixture of jazz, rock, ethnic/world music, and electronic music. Their first album and early performances tended to reflect Jeff Greinke's ambient music background. By 1997 their music had a much harder edge, best exemplified on their album ''

Road Movies A road movie is a film genre, genre of film in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the the ...

''.

History

Land was formed by Jeff Greinke in 1993. Guitarist Dennis Rea and trumpeter Lesli Dalaba were the other original members of Land and they were soon joined by drummer Ed Pias. Greinke and Rea had met in 1982 when Rea was a member of Savant and had performed together that year. Land's first self-titled album was recorded in 1994 and released by the Australian label Extreme in 1995. The label describes the album ''Land'' on its website: "Elements of jazz, ethnic, dance and ambient music are all evident, as well as the Fourth World sound of Jon Hassell." All of Land's albums started out as live radio broadcasts with, according to Dennis Rea, "...very little re-recording or cosmetic surgery after the fact, so they are accurate representations of the band's live sound." A May, 1996 concert broadcast formed the basis for most of the second album, ''

Archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

''. The group had expanded to a septet by that time, adding George Soler (

Stick Stick, sticks or the stick may refer to: Thin elongated objects * Twig or branch * Walking stick, a device to facilitate balancing while walking * Shepherd's crook * Shillelagh * Swagger stick * Digging stick * Swizzle stick, used to stir drinks ...

), and two additional percussionists:

and Bill Moyer. It was this lineup, minus Ed Pias, who had left the group, that toured China in November–December, 1996, performing in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

, and

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

, as well as Hong Kong, and

. The tour included a performance at the Beijing International Jazz Festival. In addition, during the festival on November 12 Rea and Dalaba performed with

virtuoso Wang Yong, Austrian violinist Andreas Schreiber, Dutch drummer Han Bennink, and Claudio Puntin and Steffen Schorn on horns at Keep in Touch, reportedly China's first internet cafe. The jam session produced a mixture of American style

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

and European influenced improvisation blended at times with traditional Chinese music. The results were captured on the album '' Free Touching: Live in Beijing at Keep in Touch'', which was released as a double CD in March 2004. Wang Yong also joined Land on stage for their concert in Hong Kong. "Deep", the final track for ''Archipelago'', by the same lineup that had toured China, was recorded in February 1997, with finishing touches completed in July. The album was released on the Periplum label later that year. By 1998, Land had gone through a number of personnel changes and had developed a much harder-edged sound. Andrew Bartlett, writing in a 1999 article in ''

Seattle Weekly The ''Seattle Weekly'' is an alternative biweekly distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as ''The Weekly.'' Its first issue was published on March 31, 1976, and it becam ...

'', described the music at that time, in part: "LAND's sound is a swirl—a clicking, cascading, jolting mix of sonorities and styles." Dennis Rea is quoted in the article: ""The current lineup is more of a 'rock' band than earlier editions, and is much more explosive and in-your-face. Our connection with ambient music is pretty tenuous at this point." The final incarnation of the band, which recorded the album ''

'' between June, 1998 and February, 1999, included Greinke, Rea, Dalaba, drummer

, and bassist Fred Chalenor. ''Road Movies'' was not released until 2001 on the First World Music label. It was named one of the Top Ten releases of 2001 by ''Pulse''! (Instrumental/Ambient) and the ''Seattle Weekly'' (Jazz). Lesli Dalaba also left the band in 2001 and the remaining members decided to amicably part ways.

Discography

*1995 : ''

Land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

'' *1997 : ''

'' *2001 : ''

Notes

References

*Album liner notes {{DEFAULTSORT:LAND Jazz ensembles from Washington (state) Jazz fusion ensembles Musical groups from Seattle Musical groups established in 1993 American world music groups 1993 establishments in Washington (state)