Lee Rockey (1926-2002) was a swinging jazz drummer in the 1940s and 50s, who played with Herbie Mann and Neal Hefti among others. In the late 1960s – after he had moved from New York to Portland, Oregon – Rockey started playing a modified flat bridge violin, cello, oscillators, combined them with free drumming and used a Teac 2340 4-channel tape deck (as soon as those were available) to layer tracks in his own studio.
‘Brass Ring’ is one of the very rare finished and named compositions from that period. Smegma’s Ju Suk Reet Meate released this unique piece from the late 1970s on Pigface Records. All instruments are played by Lee Rockey on this intense, multi-layered mix of avant-garde electronics, free jazz, and psychedelia. Rockey takes you on a trip across constantly shifting planes while being bombarded by an array of electronic sounds. The ride ends in the contrasting ‘natural’ sounds of a spoken outro and a recording of backyard birds. Rockey mixed and edited the original tracks. Ju Suk Reet Meate took care of the final edit. Great edition from Portland’s finest.