Total Efficiency Now(!) is a new collective trio based in Boston, MA performing original compositions by all three members. With a fluid and shifting musical language, they explore both the strictures and freedoms inherent in the chordless trio lineage. Improvisation is not something that merely happens on top of their music, but something embedded into its very DNA. In a typical set they may allude to the influence of JS Bach, Mark Turner, Burt Bacharach, Anthony Braxton, Yo La Tengo and others, but never as a pastiche or overt fusion. Like most of the worthwile artists of their generation, TEN's musical touchstones are eclectic, occasionally baffling, and always well integrated into a coherent group sound. Likewise, a list of the trio members' mentors is similarly diverse including (among others) Joe Morris, Ethan Iverson, Jerry Bergonzi, and Tribe Records founder Wendell Harrison.
Hailing from Columbus, OH; Tenor saxophonist Jett Gonzalez plays with a youthful fire, a beautifully earnest sense of phrasing and most importantly, his own sound. He is supported and challenged by a rhythm section that includes Sydney-born Bassist Oscar Peterson (Yes, that's what it says on his birth certificate.) and Detroiter Sean Perlmutter on drums. Peterson has a conservatory-trained mastery of his instrument and profound knowledge of harmony that is balanced out by Perlmutter's community college educated recalcitrance. Together the two have the openness and bend-without-breaking malleabilty needed to form the backbone of any modern, dynamic ensemble.
While individual members of TEN are well documented on record and have toured extensively in the US and Australia, the group is in its formative stage - rapidly evolving from night to night and delivering something honest, exciting, and unpredictable to all those who choose to listen.