Current BOZO Events

We've had a bit of a change in that we've given up our post office box - all questions, comments, observations, orders, et alia should now be addressed to Marx Music, 1576 Huron St, St Paul, MN 55108. Let us know how we can help you - a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Well, have you missed us? The biggest current event is that we're finally back in touch with this website after almost a year! Our webmaster and the BOZO organization parted ways, and it's taken until now - and the invaluable help of our art director Michael Diehl - to get back online and inside the site. Not that much new has happened in the last ten months - BOZO allegro has been very, very busy playing for weddings/private parties/corporate events, and we have no immediate plans to either record (we promised our accountant we'd show a profit in 2002) or publically appear (The Dakota doesn't seem to like us much anymore). But if either of those situations change, at least now we can let you know about it. In the meantime, watch for new hot CD pix, updates of the various nooks and crannies on this website, and who knows what sort of surprises. And hey - it's nice to be back!

BOZO allegro held its CD release party for its third album, Le BOZO, C'est Moi, January 31 at The Dakota Bar & Grill in St. Paul, and a splendid time was had by all.

There were two big changes in personnel. At times, BOZO has felt like the jazz version of Spinal Tap when it came to drummers. We went through five (count 'em!) drummers before we found one we wanted to record with (and who wanted to record with us) - he quit the day after the recording sessions finished. In six performances, we've had five (count 'em!) different drummers on the gigs. We finally found the right guy. Dave Stanoch was inventive and solid as a rock, and we welcome him to the BOZO fold. Now if he just doesn't explode...

Or implode...

Or spontaneously combust...

And, for the first time ever in a BOZO band, acoustic grand piano! Bozo Gregg was unable to join us for the party, so we asked our pal Sarah Burk to sit in and, as she is primarily a piano player, encouraged her to use the Yamaha grand on the Dakota stage as much as she wanted. It was revelatory how the music changed - both more subtle and soft and percussive and powerful at the same time. Look for us to continue to explore this version of BOZO allegro unplugged!

BOZO allegro has released its third disc, Le BOZO, C'est Moi. This time around, it's a sextet! Here's our press release:

ATTN: MUSIC/ENTERTAINMENT

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

The New BOZO allegro CD!

Marx Music is proud to announce that BOZO allegro, the Twin Cities' stalwart rock-jazz band ("Horn-happy jazz/rock...ambitious (and) bouncy" - Tom Surowicz/Star Tribune), is releasing their third CD, Le BOZO, C'est Moi, which is the group's first recording as a sextet.

With a three-horn front line and a Hammond organ in the rhythm section, composer/arranger/head BOZO Mark Browning Milner decided to shoot for a Horace-Silver-meets-Jimmy-Smith-meets-Booker-T-&-The-MGs-meets-The-Jazz-Messengers sort of synthesis, all filtered through that inimitably BOZO rock/latin/jazz thang.

The CD features eight tunes written specifically for the new, improved instrumentation - "Lake Hammond" (dedicated to MPR's venerated jazz dj), "Nude Math", "Clown Without Pity" (the first ever BOZO ballad), "Bee Jay", "Le BOZO, C'est Moi", "Erotica Sympathy" (the second ever BOZO ballad), "Responsible Bad Boys", and "Little Wonderland" (in which Bo Diddley meets Nicholas Slonimsky). The band's longtime theme song, "BOZO allegro" (natch!), is 1) finally available on the new CD and 2) a live recording - two more firsts.

As the titles - and the album graphics - suggest, the band's infectious, high-spirited, humour-laden approach to vibrant, improvisation-based instrumental music continues unabated on Le BOZO, C'est Moi. The new sextet guarantees as much enthusiastic musical fun as was available with the original nonet on previous CDs The REVOLVER Suite (BOZO meets The Beatles) and Relentlessly Cheerful (w/guests from Steely Dan, James Brown, Carla Bley, and The Brecker Brothers).

Musicians include Phil Holm on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jeff King on tenor sax, Mike Haynes on trombone, Gregg Inhofer on Hammond organ, Mark O'Day on drums, and Milner on bass, with ace percussionist Rey Rivera on select tracks.

For more information, visit our website at www.marxmusic.com (Well, here you are, so visit already!)

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Likewise, BOZO adagio has finished its second album, titled Magic Music - Chants For Meditation, and has officially released both this CD and the first BOZO adagio disc, Turn Off Your Mind, Relax And Float Downstream. Here's the press release for those:

ATTN: MUSIC/ENTERTAINMENT

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

BOZO adagio - A Quiet Debut

Marx Music is pleased to present the contemplative side of the BOZO musical organization, as it explores new sonic territory with the release of two albums by the "band" BOZO adagio.

BOZO adagio is the solo side project of Mark Browning Milner, the composer, arranger, and head honcho for Twin Citizen rock-jazz stalwarts BOZO allegro. BOZO adagio could be considered the musical yin to BOZO allegro's yang: restful instead of exciting, minimalistic instead of complex, and meditative instead of intense.

On Turn Off your Mind, Relax And Float Downstream (recorded in the mid-90's but now digitally remixed and remastered), the personnel consists only of Milner on keyboards with the Pacific Ocean on improvisational ambience, together playing radically slowed down versions of three classic Anglo-American folk songs - "Amazing Grace", "Barbara Allen", and "Farewell To Tarwathie".

The second and more recent BOZO adagio recording is Magic Music - Chants For Meditation. This CD features an expanded lineup which includes an 18-voice mixed chorus (from the Minnesota Chorale), Indian raagini, "now" boxes, and guests from BOZO allegro all joining Milner, once again on keyboards.

The liner notes of each album (posted elsewhere on this website) contain detailed descriptions of the individual conceptualizations and realizations.

For more information - about BOZO adagio or BOZO allegro, Mark Browning Milner, and other pertinent and impertinent topics - visit our website at www.marxmusic.com (Well, you're already here, so just go exploring!)

Enjoy these musical offerings from BOZO adagio.

A restful and meditative time is guaranteed for all.

Where can I get Le BOZO, C'est Moi, Relentlessly Cheerful, The REVOLVER Suite, Turn Off Your Mind, Relax And Float Downstream, Magic Music: Chants For Meditation, and Small Steps? You can order from this website - just hit the "To Order" button above/below - or, if you live in or near the Twin Cities, all four albums are now available at The Electric Fetus, the St. Paul Applause Records, and the Uptown Cheapo. Ask for 'em by name!

International sales of Le BOZO, C'est Moi, Relentlessly Cheerful, The REVOLVER Suite, and both BOZO adagio albums are going well. To date, we've sold BOZO product in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Chile, Germany, Canada, and Japan.

Le BOZO, C'est Moi, Relentlessly Cheerful, Small Steps and The REVOLVER Suite are on KBEM's ("Real Jazz - Real Traffic") playlist. Give them a call at (612) 529-5236 and request your favorite tune!

If you know a club in your area where it would be cool to see us, give them our website address and ask them to contact us. Watch this page for future bookings. We could be coming to your town, we're gonna party down, we're a BOZO band!

Perhaps you heard BOZO allegro's REVOLVER versions of George Harrison's songs "Taxman", "Love You Too", and "I Want To Tell You" on National Public Radio in the days following his death. We were honored to be played in the Quiet Beatle's tribute - we will miss him.

National Public Radio has used the BOZO version of "Taxman" as the musical lead-in on numerous occasions, including an April 15th feature on tax day. That was our first national exposure, and we're glad they keep spinning us now and then. Similarly, we pop up on Minnesota Public radio from time to time as well - recently heard was "Lake Hammond", "Breathless Mornings", "Here, There And Everywhere" and "Eleanor Rigby". Thanks Jim Ed! Thanks Dale!