Milo Fine, Anthony Cox and Kyle Motl: Unimpeded Mutual Interpenetration; An Appreciation

 Milo Fine, Anthony Cox and Kyle Motl:  

Unimpeded Mutual Interpenetration; An Appreciation.

On September 13 , 2026 Cox and Motl brought their double basses to Fine’s Studio Toile d’Angles in near north Minneapolis for two hours of intense, exciting improvisation, perhaps fitting the Free Jazz label.  Fine rotated between playing clarinet, percussion and his Bosendorpher Imperial.  This time I did not ask about planning vs. improvisation.  When I first heard Fine and Cox a year ago, Fine affirmed that that two hour performance was 100% improvised and Cox reported that the two of them had been practicing their improvisation together for five decades.  I suspect Motl, who teaches bass at the U of M,  has not been playing bass for two decades, let alone five, but their answers to my question last fall would have been equally true this week.

In my appreciation of the Cox Fine performance in 2025 I express my wonder in the up close experience of Fine’s magnificent greater-than-grand Bosendorpher and the decor dominated by posters for great and (likely) schlocky horror movies. I will not repeat those impressions but report that a portion of his piano work this time involved intricate and sometimes rough treatment of the piano’s strings and sound board in addition to most of the 97 keys.  His percussion choices include a full drum kit, tubular bells, a colorful rotating acoustic sound generator (unknown to me) and a seven foot long rainstick.

I am one of those people who know what they like and often have trouble describing why when it is not something subject to the “It's got a good beat and you can dance to it” criteria of my youth. And while there were plenty of beats in this music, only very well-trained modern professional or very adventuresome amateur dancers would easily take to it.  

More melodic and a bit less abstract than the Cox/Fine event of last year, the music was far from jazz standards an uninformed listener might expect.  Nor was it close to modern classical one might hear from Kronos Quartet, Cage, Glass, etc.  The segments lasted maybe twenty minutes followed by 10 second breaks followed by new pieces.  Fine moved to different instruments, between and during  pieces and several times blew on his clarinet while at the same time attacking the piano keyboard.  

New to the show, Motl’s playing was highlighted by his adventuresome moves beyond his bowing and finger-plucking.  He added new frets and bridges consisting of two chopsticks shoved between strings and the contrabass neck and moved those up and down while plucking and bowing, including interludes where another chopstick substituted for bow or fingers.  He pushed the base of a bow between strings and against the soundboard and used a second bow to draw out a new bass sound by pulling it across the firmly held soundboard connected bow. 

Cox’s approach was not showy in the same way but contributed in a convincing manner to the performances. While not as prominent that evening, Cox was not at all a “plain” rhythm accompanist. The two bass lineup is one I’d not heard live and experienced only a few times with records by Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.  The records invariably featured horns and other instruments, so hearing these bass players as co-leaders in these improvisations was revelatory.

This was the first time I heard Fine on percussion and clarinet and he has the chops for those and for the piano.  His father was a percussionist with the Minnesota Orchestra and played jazz too, including on some of Milo’s recordings.  The drumming was not monstrous but it was powerful and well-considered throughout.  

The sound quality was fantastic.  The dozen listeners were within twenty or fewer feet of the bass players and the end of the piano. The basses were on the left (from listeners’ view) in front of a stairway and elevator ascending to ground level  and the drum kit, bells, etc. were behind the right side piano and tucked slightly back from the stairway and elevator.  While the whole setup was miked, that was for recording.  I couldn’t see any speakers but I believed that at least the rainstick was amplified and its sound broadcast throughout the room by six or eight hidden speakers  No.  Somehow the gently shaken seven foot long dried and hollowed cactus or tree branch, loaded with pebbles or seeds, created a constellation of breathtaking sounds that filled the room from every angle. I imagined it was the twinkling of stars.   

Fine told me that he declined a pricey bid from an acoustic specialist when building his mostly underground studio and worked with his architect and decided to cover the concrete walls with white acoustic drywall or paneling. Whatever they did, it worked fantastically well for the three performances I have attended.

Fine’s and allies’ work is available through his Shih Shih Wu Ai Records and elsewhere.  https://milofine.com/recordings. Concerts at the Studio run from April to the end of October/beginning of November. Notices here: https://milofine.com/concerts.  Ask for alerts from Fine: mfine377@aol.com.

 

It is said that Shih Shih Wu Ai is a rough translation of the Buddhist idea of "the unimpeded mutual interpenetration of all phenomena."  This trio have not interpenetrated all phenomena, but are moving together in that direction.

Photos of the studio: Studio Toile D'Angles - SALA Architects.