Music

Zach Barocas New Freedom Sound

This is my current project. Freedoms, as the pieces are called, are assembled, arranged, and composed from both specific parts and improvisations. The music is intentionally spiritual music, in the sense of deriving from our individual spirts, our spiritedness, our personal energies. Core members of the group are multi-instrumentalist Mark Cisneros, J. Robbins on keyboards, cellist Gordon Withers, and oboist Lenny Young. Our musical interests and influences include Sephardic songs, contemporary classical, Latinx music, free jazz, chamber music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and popular songs. Our understanding is that these elements combine for and emerge equally from our audience and our desired audience: varied heritage, passion, and openmindedness; a belief that art matters and is capable of creating ecstatic and positive shifts in consciousness. These are the qualities we seek in ourselves and find in each other.

Jawbox 1992-1997 + 2019-present

Progenitors of a certain kind of drum- and harmony-forward post-hardcore or post-punk music, Jawbox was originally active from 1989-1997. I joined the group in 1992 and the music here reflects the two albums the band made with me on drums. We reunited in 2019, and although the frequency of performances has diminished, we’re still playing occasionally. The Revisionist EP was released to coincide with a 2022 career-spanning residency at Le Poisson Rouge here in New York.

BELLS≥ 2009-2017

BELLS≥ was a group that came together when I was moving into a rehearsal space to prepare for Jawbox’s performance on Jimmy Fallon in 2009. I contacted Stephen Shodin and Chris Ernst and asked each of them if they wanted to start an instrumental band with me. They said yes. It fell upon Stephen to find a bass player and he did, in Adam Rizer. Following Adam’s exit from the group J. Robbins played most of the bass on Solutions, Silence, or Affirmations and “The First Ray.” Live performances following Adam’s tenure were handled by Tom Broucksou, Karen Gache, and Sean Doyle, variously, with uniformly high standards and gusto. This band was as much a personal project as a musical one, and saw each of its members go through major shifts in their lives in the course of our time together. Is there a period in life that isn’t transitional? BELLS≥ thought not, and tried to make music that embodied and stood as a beacon for those changes. Enjoy.

The Up On In 1998-2000

The Up On In was as much an end-of-the-century band as one might now imagine. We lived in New York City relatively cheaply, caught the tail end of Williamsburg’s fugitive bacchanalian music and art scenes, had cheap rehearsal space, had the moxie to think a non-improvisational instrumental band could be as popular as one with a singer,¹ and found support mostly at home but did okay on the road as well. As the age demanded, we relied on the kindness of strangers and friends alike, and in our way returned the favor. We made the one album out of two sessions recorded a year apart. We took it all very seriously but didn’t expect anyone else to, and yet they did.