The California Outside Music Associates (COMA) has been performing throughout California for the past 8 years in various configurations and collaborations. The current group includes Dax, John and cellist/improvisor ZONE. These musicians have played in groups performing music ranging from classical, blues, rock, to the current emphasis on the improvised arts.

Ornamental Urban Shrubbery is their second CD release. Hidden between buildings, in vacant lots, in planters by the sidewalk or in the cracks of the street the city is filled with urban shrubbery. Often passed by, looked over and unnoticed until that moment when one doesn't pass, but looks and notices.

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"C.O.M.A. does with jazz what Kronos Quartet does with chamber music: they update and expand the tradition" - Greggory Moore, Long Beach Culture

"Sounds fly about like sparrows in a corn mill, extremely punctuated, very expressive and technically challenging the utmost mastery of the musicians." - Fred M. Wheeler, Tokafi

"...the result leaves lasting impression. Heard is well and happy, even when an issue or another the trio seems to embark on a summation of seats own common in some improvised music."
-Eduardo Chagas, Jazz e Arredores

"...a tour de force of both in and out. There is so much room to explore various tonal colors and to squeeze the sublime out of the instrumental interplay, that the trio creates off a palette suitable for a larger ensemble. " - Mike Wood, Music Emissions

"Ransacking genres only to fuse them into unpredictable juxtapositions, COMA are happy to displace expectations and provoke seriously head-scratching thoughts..." - Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

"I’m very sympathetic to COMA’s concept for their album, namely that there are many ornamental plants in any given city, quietly going about the business of beautification. However, it is rare that they are overtly noticed, regardless of their existence. Dedicating the album to “everything that goes unnoticed by most, and appreciated by way too few” takes the concept a bit further."
Dave X, Startling Moniker

"Intriguing without being busy or frantic, and prone to interesting displays of unorthodox tones (putting the theremin to work was a really good idea). Having a really nice drum sound never hurts either. Exotic but enjoyable." - RKF, Dead Angel

"Coma fairly throbs with life. These pieces are improvisational, but the three tend to find the center of the song quickly and then build on that." - J. Worely Aiding & Abetting