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Mark Lotz: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out!

By Mike Jurkovic
December 18, 2023
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There's a curious sense of humor rampant throughout flautist Mark Lotz's 2023 trio outing Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out!. And why shouldn't there be? Given the nature of Lotz's inspiration—acid folk-hero Timothy Leary's era defining treatise by the same title—the music should be that and a whole lot more.

And it is!

Lotz, a three decade veteran of the hotbed Dutch jazz scene who has recorded/gigged with

Chris Potter

saxophone, tenor
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Chris Potter,

Don Byron

clarinet
b.1958

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Byron and a host of cross-continental confederates, has such a ballerina's grace and instinct to his playing that synapses snap, pop, and burble just like the burnished old days of orange sunshine and sugar cubes. In other words, these ten tracks make a real good soundtrack for a really sweet trip.

Coasting along the psychic waves, "Push" enters the listening zone and instant connections to something always present are made: something ancient but not old; something new yet not yet existential. Drummer

Jamie Peet

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jamie Peet drops the beat and propels the action and antics of "Beat the Drum."

Zack Lober

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Zack Lober's animatedly athletic bass never stops instigating and insinuating itself into ever nook and cranny of post-terrestrial altered states. (Of Leary's eight connections of consciousness, the last four concerned themselves with the evolution of the humanity above and beyond this earth bound realm)

So the music rides high and cascades like the seconds, the minutes, the hours of the psychedelic experience itself. The beauty of it all—the breathy zest of "Dance of the Monolith," the scatty trio verbiage of "Lust," the dark lilt of "Isabel," the cool tilt of "Relax and Flow"—is that the listener needn't be a retired warhorse from the days of microdots and window pane. Just be of open mind and good will. The music will reward you.

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Track Listing

Push; Beat The Drum; Dance The Monolith; Lust; Relax And Flow; Bring Delight; Consciousness; Isabel; Up!; Trance Out ; Bonus track : Push (alternate take).

Personnel

Mark Lotz

flute

Zack Lober

bass

Jamie Peet

drums

Album information

Title: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out! | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: ZenneZ Records

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