NJNC Profile Lunar Adventures New Jazz, New City II at New City Theater October 27 at 8 p.m. storm. At still others, a calypso beat sidles into their work. There is also a good deal of non-pretentious, good-natured theater to the Lunar show. The time I saw them atVancouver's Railway Club, there was a television monitor behind the band playing somebody's home videos. Simpson also played an amazing improvised noise solo on his drum machine. That should give an idea, eh? See you there. Paul de Barros Standifer (Cont. from Page 1) ers like ourown.Northwestcomposers Jim Knapp and Chuck Israels. The When Omette Coleman, Ronald Shannon Jackson and James "Blood" rewards of chamber jazz are manifold: when you hear a classic be-bop Ulmer started experimenting with electric jazz in the late '7 0s and c�e quartet or quintet-the kind Floyd plays with at Patti Summers on · up with their dizzying "harmolodic funk;' concept, I was sure that at least Tuesday nights or at the New Orleans Restaurant on Wednesdays, one band in Seattle would launch into the same exhilarating groove. But Fridays and Saturdays-you get burning swing, and long, story-telling alas; the sweet cacophony of harmolodics never materialized on the solos. With a jazz octet you get something entirely different. shores of the Emerald City. That's one reason New Jazz, New City has For starters, with more instruments to work with---or "voices," as ventured across the49th parallel this season,snagging from its usual orbit musicians call them-you have a situation where the whole often equals one of the best bands working the West today-Lunar Adventures. more than the sum of its parts. Matching up different instruments on With a name like that, you'd think these guys are strictly from the different notes in a chord ("voicing" and "orchestration") can yield stratosphere, but while Lunar Ad_ventures can definitely play far-out, unusually large and rich blends. In addition to blend, a larger band can put moonstruck stuff, this band is also one of the most accessible, delightful two melodies in motion at_the same time (counterpoint, or "contrary and well-thought-out units working the area. The group was formed in motion"). And, of course, a large· ensemble can punch a phrase with the 1985 inVancouver, B.C., and, according to bassist Clyde Reed, has been kind of power that a quartet just doesn't have. Look for all of these special ensemble qualities in Floyd's octet perrehearsing twice a week for two years, writing and working up new material. They have produced one tape.for sale, FullM oon, well worth the formance Tuesday night, as well as for strong solos by some of the area's price. Recently voted Best Jazz Perform�rs of the Year by the Canadian · finest: Buddy Catlett (bass); Marc Seales (keyboards); Bill Ramsey Association of Recording Artists, Lunar Adventures consists of bassist '(tenor saxophone); Jim Coil (alto saxophone); Dan Greenblatt (tenor Reed; drummer Gregg Simpson; tenor saxophonist Coat Cooke; and saxophone); and Floyd himself on trumpet and flugelhom, with a · electric guitarist Ron Samworth. All of these musicians have worked · trombone player and drummer yet to .be determined at this writing. . ''We'll be presenting the pieces as a kind of suite," says Floyd, "kind together over the years in various configurations, but Simpson and Reed may be familiar to some Seattleites from their work with TheVancouver of the way Abdullah Ibrahim did when he was here. I liked thatapproach. Art Trio and the New Orchestra Workshop. Simpson was the drummer Some of it's going to be abrasive and far-out, too," Standifer adds. "'We're in the Al Neil trio, and he and Reed also worked together in 1974-75 with going to include soni.e free improv. This isn't going to be vanilla." the Sunship Ensemble, which recorded the album, Pacific Rim for CBC. As if we thought it would be. PautdeBarros Simpson and Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley performed in Seattle a couple of years ago at the New Melody Tavern at the invitation of Al · Hood. That is not the only connection Lunar Adventures has to Washington. Bassist Reed is actually a native of the "other''Vancouver, studied in the '60s with Jerry Gray at Comish and with Ron Simon of the Seattle Symphony and got aPh.D.from the U.W. in 1972-in economics,which Reed teaches at Simon Fraser University when he's not performing with Lunar Adventures. The other. two members of the lunar module come from a younger generation ofVancouvermusicians. Coat Cooke, 34, has worked with the Paul Plimley Octet up at the Edmonton Jazz Festival and wrote the tune the band took for its name. Guitarist Ron Samworth, 26, has worked in adventurous Vancouver rock bands like Neophyte, as well as with 102 S0- ,ACKSON ST. SEATTLE WASHINCiTON Jazzoids and Chief Feature. What do these guys sound like? Well, sometimes they get that edgy, electric, double-meter craziness of Ornette's Prime Time. Other times, Simpson delves into his Celtic heritage, blowing up a modal Highland s­