Either/Orchestra Plays Either/Orchestra

Either/Orchestra has been an accidental band for 41 years. In the mid-’80s, Boston saxophonist Russ Gershon went to Berklee to enhance his technique after a string of rock bands he had joined ended. He soon told some pals that he’d supply the beer if they stopped by with their instruments to play some pieces he’d written, simply so he might hear how they sounded. In the subsequent four decades, Either/Orchestra has become one of jazz’s most fascinating and steadfast almost-big bands, with a half-dozen horns and a versatile rhythm section that make them capable of playing most anything. As Gershon told radio station WGBH in 2025, explaining how Mingus and the Art Ensemble of Chicago guided the ensemble’s development, “[I] wanted to present a picture that went all the way from the earliest roots of jazz through swing and bebop, and modern jazz, and all the way to outer space.”

A decade into Either/Orchestra’s existence, their story took a surprise twist. When Morphine’s Mark Sandman returned from tour with a copy of Ethiopian Groove: the Golden ’70’s, Gershon began absorbing music from the era of emperor Haile Selassie and arranging some of the tunes for Either/Orchestra. Several of those charts landed on their 2000 album, More Beautiful Than Death, leading to an invitation to appear in Addis Ababa. That performance soon became part of the very story it admired, released as part of the groundbreaking Éthiopiques series five years later. Either/Orchestra has since contributed to two more Éthiopiques titles, first backing singer Mahmoud Ahmed and then recording the music of Nerses Nalbandian for an album released in late 2025.

While Either/Orchestra will play a set of Éthiopiques tunes at Big Ears, they will also explore more of their massive catalogue in another set, offering more of that full picture of jazz that Gershon espouses as a mission statement. This band of composers and interpreters, after all, helped launch the careers of John Medeski, Miguel Zenón, and Jaleel Shaw. There’s no lack of history from which to pull.