Calling Situation, the 2025 album by Texas-based Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet, eclectic would be an understatement. As far as experimental instrumental music goes, the group’s third outing, Situation has it completely covered. With Alex Coke on flute and sax and Carl Michel on guitars, the album features a wide range of talented musicians playing an array of instruments.

The 14-track, 61 minute album Situation kicks off with “440”, a track originally written and recorded by the late great jazz artist Carla Bley in 1979. “440” is a tuneful track that sets the stage for the entire Situation album. They say you can judge an album by the songs the band covers and “440” does that perfectly as does another cover here of “Aquarium”, written by French classicist Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns circa 1886. Preceding the Saint-Saëns piece is “Introduction To Aquarium” arranged by Carl Michel.

That sense of melodic tunefulness embraced by the above mentioned covers, is carried forward on many of the original tracks composed by both Coke and Michel. Not quite avant-garde in scope, there is nevertheless a devout sense of playfulness running throughout the entire album, one sonic surprise after the next.

Compared to Coke’s playful sax and flute, Michel’s guitar sounds are neo-progressive in scope and for guitar fans the fretboard effect is enhanced with the inclusion of pedal steel guitarist Bob Hoffnar. The title track penned by Michel, “Situation”, running almost 7 minutes is as close to avant-garde experimental jazz as it gets, with the track greatly enhanced by the vibraphone of Carolyn Trowbridge and harp of Elaine Barber.

The second half of the album continues the jazzy, easy listening aspects, not quite smooth jazz but easy on the ears all the same. Track 9, “Sea And Sky” is one of the best here with daring interplay from all while the only track penned by pedal steel player Bob Hoffnar, “Let’s Go To The Park” adds yet another layer of sound to the eclectic mix.

Another highlight, along the lines of the Saint-Saëns piece is a tuneful abbreviated excerpt of Pines of Rome, written in 1924 by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi.

Further covers from the pens of Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter, if not as melodic than the aforementioned neo-classical covers, adds further variety to an already diverse album. Keep an open mind and marvel as Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet weave their music magic. 

RMR speaks with Alex Coke & Carl Michel

RMR: How would you describe the chemistry on the Situation album compared with the other two albums by Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet - both compositionally and from a band lineup perspective, and did you have a musical mission of sorts while writing and producing the Situation album? This same lineup recorded all three albums?

Alex: I’ve been joking that rather than “cover tunes” we play uncover tunes in that we try to uncover musical things about the music rather than just repeat them verbatim. We’ve been lucky enough to have the same personnel on all three recordings and it’s a wonderful thing to write for musicians and not just instruments. I think we’ve really evolved in that regard. Rather than writing for a specific instrument, we can write for a person. The band also relates to each other in that way.

The first time we played together, we enjoyed the sound and were all curious as to what could happen. After each recording Carl and I get together and talk about musical ideas we could include to make a richer experience. For example, the first CD has a much more open improvisational feel. For the second recording, we wrote more precise arrangements. We learned a lot about how the group could function and that carried forward into our third recording.

RMR: How would you best describe your original music? It’s very adventurous yet quite tuneful. Do you feel, being both melodic and experimental, that Situation covers the best of both worlds or do you avoid labels and descriptions of your music? Is the word eclectic a kind of understatement when it comes to describing your music?

Alex: I love free music and try to incorporate it into many of my pieces. I love color and surprise in music and this is a perfect group for that. As I mentioned before Carl and I always talk about the music, how we can explore different areas and how this particular instrumentation can work. I think our collaboration works well and our compositions complement our goal of giving the listener a unique musical journey. I’m always fascinated how listeners hear our music, their labels and descriptions. I like to say that instead of covering genres of music, we uncover them.

Carl: I think labels often pigeonhole us. And with this kind of music, it’s very difficult to categorize us in one genre. I like melody. I think that it enables people to grasp an idea and then lets us continue to explore our sound. I guess you could call sound eclectic, but I don’t think that the term accurately describes our sound. I think that when people hear us, they understand the uniqueness of this group and that it’s hard to fit us into a category and they appreciate the way we present our music, whether it’s melodic, experimental or both.

RMR: The sextet lineup offers a lot of diverse musical sounds. Did you record the album with all the members present or were overdubs added to complete the lineup of sounds and tell us something about performing live with the sextet.

Alex: We’ve recorded all our albums live, with a rare overdub here or there and with lots of attention to the final mixing and balance of the sound. Playing live is a challenge. Most of the sound people have not encountered a group like this before. We think of it more as chamber music without the need for a lot of amplification, but of course, depending on the stage and set up we need a bit of monitor and sound reinforcement.

RMR: Can you tell us something about the cover version of Camille Saint-Saëns from Carnival Of The Animals and the cover of “440” by Carla Bley. How big an influence were those artists on your music? Saint-Saëns wrote his epic in the 1880’s and it has endured. Tell us about the “Introduction To Aquarium” preceding the Saint-Saëns piece. You also cover Pines of Rome, written in 1924 by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. Are there other classical composers you would like to cover in the future?

Alex: Harpist Elaine Barber plays in the Austin Symphony, and continuously has great ideas for our repertoire. On our second recording, she arranged a Bagatelle by Valentin Silvestrov. For Situation, she had recently played Pines of Rome with the Austin Symphony and thought an excerpt would be interesting for our group. I think she’s currently looking into something by Shostakovich.

Carl: After the recent passing of Carla Bley, I revisited her music. I decided to arrange “440” for the unique set of instruments that comprise the Alex Coke-Carl Michel Sextet. Carla was somebody I admired for many reasons, including that she could write melodically and very experimentally. The arrangement of “Aquarium” by Saint Saëns popped into my head and I began hearing how it could be performed by our sextet. For our purposes, I felt that “Aquarium” needed a little extra something so I came up with an introduction based on the opening harmonic structure of the piece, featuring our bassist, James Suter.

RMR: What other plans do you have for 2025 and beyond as far as composing and recording new music and other album releases and plans for concerts, videos, etc.

Alex: We, of course, would like to play as much as possible though finding the right venues can be a challenge. We have several videos up on our website. Carl and I are already excited about writing the next group of pieces. 

Carl: We will be working on compositions during 2025 and 2026 for a new recording that we plan to go into the studio for. We hope to have a new recording available in 2026. We have some videos posted on YouTube of past performances at: https://youtube.com/@carlmichel4497?feature=shared