Arthur Doyle will be joined tonight by a cooperative of his sonic and attitudinal acolytes, including the Louisiana-based curator and sound artist Robert Peterson and members of the Brooklyn-based avant-psych band NYMPH. Peterson began this process in Summer of 2010 when he contacted Doyle to perform at a NYMPH show in Doyle’s hometown of Birmingham; the show climaxed in a joyous collaboration of all three entities, and their personal and performative connection has grown, organically and forward-moving, since. Peterson will be augmenting Doyle’s vocals and saxophone with ambient, mesmeric loops chopped from real-time source-recordings made amid the performance. Edifying Doyle’s inflammatory, improvisational alto sax and trademark “voice-o-phone” with a polyrhythmic and textural support-system, NYMPH will warp its unique cavalcade of exuberant shred-rock into a tonally more subdued and sensitive approach akin to their exploratory, loving performances of pieces by Don Cherry, Sonny Sharrock and Pharoah Sanders. As has become characteristic since the band’s recent expansion to an eight-piece, NYMPH will be enriching it’s guitar-centric attack with baritone sax, clarinet, trumpet, tape-delayed drones and a shuddering jungle of hand percussion sounds. What will transpire is a true genre-bending set of risk-taking improv and ebullient sonic agglomeration. Read more about the project.

Arthur Doyle: saxophone, vocals, guru-guru
Robert Peterson: vocals, live loops
Matty McDermott: Guitar, Clarinet, Percussion
Jason Robira: Drumset, Percussion
Jim McHugh: Guitar, Tape-Delay-Drones, Organic Synthesizer, Percussion
Eri Shoji: Percussion, Vocals
Dylan Angell: Trumpet
Nickle Emmit: Bass
Jessica Stathos: congas, percussion
Jeff Tobias: saxophones

Best known as a composer and improviser, Loren Connors has issued over 50 guitar records on his own imprints (Daggett, St. Joan, Black Label) since the late 1970s and over two dozen on other labels across the globe. He has recorded under the names Guitar Roberts, Loren Mattei, Loren MazzaCane Connors and other variations. Connors’ singular adaptation of the blues is a distinct personal vision combining the Delta bottleneck sound and the ancestral blues voice (appearing as distortion, baying hounds or multi-tracked guitar), with hauntingly unexpected sounds. Outside of Connors’ three decades of solo work, he has collaborated with Suzanne Langille, Jim O’Rourke, Darin Gray, Alan Licht, Christina Carter, Keiji Haino, San Agustin, Jandek and many others, as well as leading the group Haunted House, whose LP Blue Ghost Blues is due out in September on Northern-Spy Records.

Using double bass as her main instrument, Margarida Garcia developed a close collaboration with guitarist Manuel Mota in 1997. The two have worked as a duo as well as in the group, Curia, which includes Afonso Simões and David Maranha (organeye, osso exótico). Garcia has also worked with Sei Miguel from 1999 to 2002. Other close collabs include Marcia Bassett, Barry Weisblat and Mattin. She has played in live/recording settings with Nöel Akchoté, Otomo Yoshihide, Ferran Fages, Alfredo C. Monteiro, Ruth Barberán, John Tilbury, Eddie Prevost, Rhodri Davies, Matt Valentine, Erica Elder, David Keenan and Alex Neilson (tight meat duo).  Margarida’s collaborations with Loren Connors can be heard on the Clandestine Cassette Series # One (Northern-Spy Records) and Red Mars (Family Vineyard)

En is Maxwell August Croy (co-runner of Root Strata) and James Devane. Both multi-instrumentalists, their sound is a rich blend of acoustic sources (notably koto and guitar) fed through complex systems to create a resplendent, textured palette of sun-drenched sound. Their first album, ‘The Absent Coast,’ was released on Root Strata in 2010 and their second album is scheduled for release on Students of Decay this coming autumn.

Matthew Shipp was born December 7, 1960 in Wilmington, Delaware. He started piano at 5 years old with the regular piano lessons most kids have experienced. He fell in love with jazz at 12 years old. After moving to New York in 1984 he quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. He was a sideman in the David S. Ware quartet and also for Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory before making the decision to concentrate on his own music.

Wire Magazine called Joe Morris “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the US.” Mostly known as a highly acclaimed guitarist, Morris added upright bass to his instruments in 2000 and has since earned a similar level of acclaim having performed on the instrument with Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Ken Vandermark, Marshall Allen, Sunny Murray, Joe Maneri, Billy Bang, Taylor Ho Bynum, Roy Campbell, Steve Lantner, etc. As a bassist/bandleader he has recorded for Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Riti, Skycap, Not Two and the recently released solo bass LP “Sensor” on the No Business label.

Luther Gray started playing drums in punk rock bands. He later developed a significant interest in jazz and cut his teeth playing around the D.C. area with the likes of Butch Warren, Cecil Payne, Webster Young, and Buck Hill at the same time performing and recording with indie rockers Tsunami, Delta 72, Jenny Toomey, and Ida. In 1999 he moved to Boston, where he currently resides. Luther has since worked with Joe Morris, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Cameron Brown, Joseph Daly, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, Geoff Farina, Andrew White, Rob Brown, Taylor Ho Bynum, Raqib Hassan, Bill Pierce, Joe Beck, Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark and many others. His band, Lawnmower, has a critically acclaimed CD, titled West, on the Clean Feed label. He has performed in festivals and concerts across the country and abroad and has recorded for the Simple Machines, Hat Hut, Riti, Skycap, Touch and Go, Clean Feed, Atavistic, NotTwo, Jardis and AUM Fidelity labels, among others.

Ivo Perelman Quartet: “The Hour of the Star”

by Fabricio Vieira (Brazilian journalist and jazz critic)

The literary universe of Clarice Lispector has formed a delicate bond among the latest works by Ivo Perelman. Despite the different partnerships and results obtained in each one of the now five albums named for one of the author’s works, it’s possible that in the future this collection will simply become known as the “Claricean Cycle”. The newest piece from this series is “The Hour of the Star”, its title taken from the last book published by Lispector (1920-1977) while she was alive.

“The Hour of the Star” unveils itself as a work of reunions; reunions with former partners Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris; with the piano; and, of course, with the unsettling “Claricean” atmosphere. Perelman hasn’t recorded with a pianist in a decade, since “The Ventriloquist” sessions recorded in 2001. And it’s symbolically relevant that this dialogue with the piano was taken up again precisely with Matthew Shipp. It was by Shipp’s side that the saxophonist recorded “Cama de Terra”, a work that marked a turn in the direction of his music, distancing himself from the Brazilian roots on his first albums, and moving toward a more universal and abstract sound. Another former partner who has now returned is Joe Morris. Perelman had recorded just one album with Morris, “Strings”, an unusual string duet in which the saxophonist put aside the wind instrument and ventured out with the cello. But unlike that experience, here Morris is not accompanying on his fantastic guitar: this time it’s the musician’s faceted bass.

These reunions all took place in the studio. The quartet reunited for the first time on the day the album was recorded, in September 2010. The result is a quite centered piece of work, without broad, featured soloists, with the polyphonic interaction driving the flows of conscience and sound. The cohesion and balance exhibited by the musicians on this session make it so that we might sometimes doubt that they had never played together before. But you just have to remember that they represent some of the stellar points of contemporary free music. More surprising would be to bring together Perelman, Shipp, Morris and Cleaver and not obtain a result that is, at least, compelling. The week after the album was recorded, the quartet took off for São Paulo (Brazil), the city where the saxophonist was born, to make their stage debut. Seen there were moments of magnificent, inspiring and disconcerting music.

Even though it’s very unlikely that Shipp, Morris and Cleaver have read any of Lispector’s books, the tone of her writing slyly echoes in different passages of the album. By evoking the name of one of Brazilian literature’s most worshipped figures, Perelman never meant to carry out an instrumental rereading of her text. What matters here is the gloomy and suffocating mood that emanates from the words to the sounds; a subtle, but vital, intertextuality. This can be appreciated from the melancholic lethargy of “The Right to Protest” to the incandescent peaks of “Whistling in the Dark Wind”.

The quartet is responsible for another great triumph, the title track “The Hour of the Star”, the culminating point of the album and one of the brightest moments of Perelman’s extensive discography. At almost 14 minutes long, “The Hour of Star” emanates the atmosphere of resonant communion achieved by the instrumentalists, soaked in a spirituality-laden mood and with airs of ardent prayer. Shipp is one of the pillars here, and it’s difficult to imagine the track without his presence. His dripping fingering acts as a counterweight to the dissonant ecstasies reached by Perelman’s playing, which roars desperately and beseechingly, as if summoning the gods, with helpless appeal, for answers. Left unanswered, the sax quiets and Shipp takes the lead, filling out the space with delicate and danceable layers, until Perelman’s heated return for the final part. In his second entrance, the saxophonist comes back even more incendiary, as if this were his last chance to be heard. At the group’s first performance in São Paulo, it was exactly this piece that hotly closed the night. The audience’s ecstatic response showed the impact and expressive and communicative force carried by this piece.

The fact that Cleaver is not a muscular drummer only serves to suit the quartet’s sound, which doesn’t demand a more robust beat. His impeccable timing creates a dynamic foundation along with Morris’ smooth and stippled phrasing, ideal for Perelman to develop his drawn-out ideas. In “A Tearful Tale”, in the prolonged passage that features just the drummer and the bassist, one can clearly make out the overlapping dialogue of the two instrumentalists, the way they achieve a contagious, circular cadence, which prepares the ears for the sax’s reentry. Next to the title track, “A Tearful Tale” is at the peak of the album, and is the perfect calling card for the quartet’s sound. On this track Shipp has more time to display his fine art, his delicate melodic fragments adding to the sweet strength imposed in some passages by his hammering left hand.

Unlike many stars of free jazz saxophone, Perelman doesn’t act just as a propeller of torrential sound interventions. He’s an improviser with high and fractured tessitura, but also carries marked melodic sensibility. This feature safely led him to a frontier where he doesn’t usually visit, the blues. Led by the contagious fingering of Morris, the saxophonist tries out the genre, in his own way, in the unusual “Singing the Blues”, which is structured through a highly singable theme, alternating with sharp and well-aimed improvisations. There’s a certain ironic parody in the air, especially in the repetitive and danceable final sequence.

Perelman’s melodic profile is also more explicitly present in “Whistling in the Dark Wind”. This is a piece that grows with each minute, slowly gaining body and intensity – a characteristic particular to the saxophonist’s poetry. After leisurely groping along in its first half, “Whistling in the Dark Wind” reaches a point of acceleration and disintegration that is maintained for minutes, with Cleaver instilling a stronger rhythm and Shipp hammering the keys until the pressure releases to reach its contemplative ending.

It’s odd that, 20 years since his album debut –with “Ivo”, in 1989–, Perelman has called upon Clarice Lispector to light the way into the third decade of his artistic journey. A master of dense writing, filled with characters searching for answers to their everyday longings and their darker fears, Lispector goes beyond simple narration, stripping down the words and leading readers to a world of daydream, one moment anesthetized, the next dangerously expanding the senses. As the musician explains, the writer’s text “transcending the word, becomes a powerful agent for expanding the human mind”. The same can be said about the saxophonist’s work, especially “The Hour of the Star”. To hear it is to have the possibility to go beyond the simple enjoyment of a beautiful piece of music. Here it’s about discovering moments of rare inspiration that grab the listener, taking them out of their comfort zone, inviting them to accept the challenge of entering a new realm, with all the risks inherent in such a venture. In the end, it would be difficult not to consider “The Hour of the Star” as a small treasure, the fruit of the brilliance of its four driving forces.

Pat Maherr performs as both Indigent Senility and his DJ moniker Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting, the second being with Danish free-drone duo Family Underground. Maherr, based in Hubbard, Oregon, has previously split his time between a plethora of monikers, from the chopped and screwed hiphop of DJ Yo Yo Dieting to Sisprum Vish’s lo-fi noise, developing the gritty collage sensibility which he’s mastered to a disturbing degree.

Paul Flaherty (tenor & alto sax ) has been playing free improv music for the past 40 years. His music is an attempt each time to release to whatever sounds or improvised themes that need to emerge. There are no written tunes, pre-arranged outlines, or  group leaders once the music begins. The influences include jazz, noize, classical, rock, blues, eastern, etc.  Based in Connecticut for his entire life , there were long periods where “gigs” were few and far between. A thousand late night solo street playing scenes and and a thousand private / public free-form jam sessions helped bring the music into focus.

In the late 80s Flaherty began a collaboration with drummer Randall Colbourne that continues to this day . It’s produced over 15 free jazz albums with musicans that have included Mike Murary, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, Raphe Malik, Richard Downs, Steve Scholz, Froc,  and James “Chumley” Hunt among others. In the late 90s Flaherty began touring and recording with elastic drummer Chris Corsano. This connection also continues to this day and has produced over 15 free jazz/noize releases as well.  Musicans recording with Paul & Chris include Wally Shoup, C. Spencer Yeh, Thurston Moore, Bill Nace ,Steve Baczkowski, Greg Kelley, Matt Heyner and Heather Leigh. Other Flaherty recording projects have included 3 solo albums,  and records with: Jeff Hartford, Marc Edwards, Lawrence Cook, Weasel Walter, Bill Walach, Joe Mcphee, Steve Swell, Barry Greika, Bob Laramie and Glen “Hobbit ” Peterson.

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher’s College. He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc.  Swell has 30 recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases.  He received grants from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006.

C. Spencer Yeh was born in Taipei, Taiwan 1975, moved to the US in 1980; studied radio/television/film at Northwestern University, and isnow based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Yeh is active both as a solo and ensemble artist, as well as with his primary ‘organized sound’ project, Burning Star Core. As an improviser, Yeh has focused on developing a personal vocabulary using violin, voice, and electronics. As a sound organizer/composer, Yeh works with all aspects available surrounding a work, aurally and physically, as elements key to the cumulative experience.  He is concerned not only with the sensual aspects of sound, but the gestural qualities as well.

Weasel Walter is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser best known for leading the seminal punk-jazz/no wave band The Flying Luttenbachers between 1991 and 2007. Seamlessly uniting the intensity and abstraction of improvised musics with the nihilistic aesthetic of extreme rock forms, Walter is committed to speed, unpredictability and articulation of sound. Walter has performed or recorded with such luminaries as Evan Parker, Marshall Allen, Kevin Drumm, Mick Barr, Darius Jones, Ken Vandermark, Jim O’Rourke, John Butcher, William Winant, John Lindberg, Peter Evans, Vinny Golia, Marco Eneidi, Mary Halvorson, Greg Kelley, Gianni Gebbia, Frank Gratkowski, Joe Morris and Paul Flaherty as well as playing in prominent underground rock bands like Cellular Chaos, Burmese, Behold…The Arctopus and XBXRX.

Family Underground are a free-drone duo from Denmark comprised of Sonic Sara, Byronic and Brotherjinx.

Indigent Senility: Slowly demented and nightmarish wasteland sequences from Portland, Oregon’s Pat Maherr, crafting his debut album under the Indignant Senility moniker. Maherr has previously split his time between a plethora of monikers, from the chopped and screwed hiphop of DJ Yo Yo Dieting to Sisprum Vish’s lo-fi noise, developing the gritty collage sensibility which he’s mastered to a disturbing degree.

Pat Maherr aka Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting (aka DJ Yo-Yo Dieting) first appeared on the radar with the dilapidated droneworks of his Indignant Senility releases. This, however, is a very different affair, concerned with ultra-slow and stodgy hiphop, chopped and screwed with a lo-fi experimental agenda. The sludgy pace of the chopped ‘n screwed aesthetic was originally borne in deepest Texas with the codeine-imbibed beats of DJ Screw but has since been adopted everywhere, from the Drag beats of Salem and oOoOO to remixes of Justin Bieber, admittedly taking it to the nth degree.

Photo by Reuben Radding

Bassist and composer James Ilgenfritz kicks off his first Artist-in-Residence performance with the music of Anthony Braxton for solo bass. Ilgenfritz will also bring a chamber ensemble to premiere a new work for septet, featuring Leah Paul (flute), Kirk Knuffke (trumpet), Julianne Carney (violin), Chris Dingman (vibraphone), Taylor Levine (guitar), and Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), with Ilgenfritz on contrabass. The evening will conclude with Billy Fox’s Blackbirds and Bullets celebration of their CD release Dulces, which includes Ilgenfritz on bass.

I: James Ilgenfritz: The music of Anthony Braxton for Solo Bass

Various works from Anthony Braxton’s Duo, Quartet, Ghost Trance Music, Pulse Track, and works for brass ensemble or orchestra are collaged together using Language Music -based improvisation structures.

II: New music for chamber ensemble

A new chamber work for septet, featuring Leah Paul (flute), Kirk Knuffke (trumpet), Julianne Carney (violin), Chris Dingman (vibraphone), Taylor Levine (guitar), and Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), and Ilgenfritz on contrabass, followed by a game piece for the septet, augmented with percussionists and woodwinds.

II: Billy Fox’s Blackbirds and Bullets: CD Release Party Composer Billy Fox’s second record for Clean Feed, Dulces, features jazz improvisation influenced by west african and north indian music. The band, Blackbirds and Bullets, features James Ilgenfritz (bass), John O’Brien(drums), Evan Mazunik (keyboards), Miki Hirose (trumpet), Gary Pickard (saxophone), Matt Parker (saxohpone), and the composer playing maracas and conducting.

Established in 2006, ISSUE’s AIR program provides emerging artists with a 3-month residency including rehearsal space, production, curatorial, and pr/marketing support to create new works, to reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience. ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation, the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

Described as “the talk of the italian jazz scene” [Jazzit, december 2006] since its birth in 2004, Improvvisatore Involontario has soon become one of the most innovative and relevant artists’ collectives in Europe.

…Drummer Francesco Cusa along with guitarists Paolo Sorge and Carlo Natoli, founders of the association, have spread their connections worldwide starting from Catania (Sicily): the association counts today more than 20 members hailing from Rome, Milan, Paris, Berlin and New York where Marco Cappelli (virtuoso guitarist and fellow member) has long established himself among the most active performers in the downtown avantgarde scene.

Now, after European tours and gratifying reviews of its members’ newest records on the US press, improvvisatore Involontario lands in NYC to present its orchestra and its latest releases.

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Naked Musicians

Francesco Cusa, conduction
Gaia Mattiuzzi, vocals
Antonino Chiaramonte / Anna Troisi, live electronics
Flavio Zanuttini, trumpet
Alberto Popolla, bass clarinet
Gaetano Messina, violin
Tommaso Vespo, piano
Marco Cappelli / Enrico Cassia / Fabrizio Licciardello / Paolo Sorge, electric guitar
Alessandro Salerno, classical guitar
Michele Caramazza / Luca Lo Bianco, electric bass
Antonio Quinci / Andrea Sciacca, drums

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Skinshout

Francesco Cusa, drums
Gaia Mattiuzzi, vocals

The Drums&Voice duo presents its debut album Caribbean Songs

“a record where ancestral calls, primeval sounds, tribal melodies acquire new life and new meanings thanks to the extraordinary vocal improvisations and inventions of Mattiuzzi and the relentless, polyrhythmic, colourful work dispensed by Cusa”
- Vincenzo Ruggero, All About Jazz Italia

..::Electroshop::..
Live electronics & visual performance

Anna Troisi, sounding sculptures and live electronics
Antonino Chiaramonte, live electronics and live video processing
Gaia Mattiuzzi, voice
Marco Cappelli, electric guitar
Francesco Cusa, drums
Alberto Popolla, bass clarinet

E l e c t r o shop (Concrete sound workshop) arises from an original idea by Antonino Chiaramonte and Anna Troisi, and takes the form of an open working group involving artistic collaborations between composers and performers from around the world. Electroshop is a workshop where the building of the sounding artworks (the ”concrete” musical instruments) the programming of original audio signal processing software and the video overlap with the creation of compositions or with electroacoustic improvised performances, achieving a correspondence between the created instruments, the live video and the music. It is in this way that the musical com position conforms to the concept of a “unique work of art”. Sound and video are focused on sensorial faculty. The musicians aim is to create a sort of cosy and intimate sound experience.

The Collected presents new works for celebrated electric guitar quartet Dither, including world premiers by Brent Miller, Adam Fong and Denise Gilson, and music by Lisa R. Coons from Dither’s 2010 album.  Each piece focuses on different idiomatic elements of the quartet’s sound palette and develops aesthetic concepts from both classical and vernacular repertoires.

Dawn of Midi is a collective made up of Indian contrabassist Aakaash Israni, Pakistani percussionist Qasim Naqvi, and Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani. Creating a bold face on the notion of idiosyncratic music, Dawn of Midi blends together the sentiments of many musical worlds. In this age of modern improvisation where the distinctions between musical normatives are blurred, DoM’s thematic and timbral approach is reminiscent of many genres bound in one simultaneous moment.

Dither, a New York based electric guitar quartet, is dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire, spanning composed music, improvisation, and electronic manipulation. Formed in 2007, the quartet has performed in the United States and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works and large guitar ensemble pieces. With sounds ranging from clean pop textures to heavily processed noise, from tight rhythmic unity to cacophonous sound mass, all of Dither’s music wholeheartedly embraces the beautiful, engulfing, and often gloriously loud sound of electric guitars. The quartet’s members are Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Josh Lopes, and James Moore.

Among Dither’s recent collaborators include downtown bagpiper Matthew Welch, composers Eve Beglarian and David Lang, and guitarist/composers Bryce Dessner, Nick Didkovsky, Marco Cappelli, Elliott Sharp, and Mark Stewart. In Fall of 2008, the quartet traveled to Hong Kong to premiere an evening-length theatrical work by Samson Young, “Hong Kong Explodes!” funded by the Hong Kong Council for the Arts. Recent performances in New York include the Performa Biennial, The MATA Festival Interval Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon, at which they gave a monstrous performance of Eric km Clark’s exPAT, a Dither commission for hearing-deprived guitar orchestra. Dither’s debut album was released by Henceforth Records in June 2010.

The Collected is a new music collective of performing artists and composers who share a dedication to programming experimental, genre-crossing and noise-based music.  With members living on the east coast, the west coast, in the midwest and the southern states, this group programs concerts that attempt to bring together far-flung and aesthetically diverse individuals through collaborative and boundary-defying performances.

Dawn of Midi is a collective made up of Indian contrabassist Aakaash Israni, Pakistani percussionist Qasim Naqvi, and Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani. Creating a bold face on the notion of ideosyncratic music, Dawn of Midi blends together the sentiments of many musical worlds. In this age of modern improvisation where the distinctions between musical normatives are blurred, DoM’s thematic and timbral approach is reminiscent of many genres bound in one simultaneous moment.

DoM’s sound-world is one of effortless juxtaposition; from the harmonic language of Debussy to the clambor and rattle of extended techniques evoking Cage’s piano preperations. In the global art music setting, one can sense a paradigm shift that veers towards an appreciation of timbre, color, and the silences that frame a musical offering. This new sensibility is immediately recognizible within DoM’s language. Dawn of Midi is creating a sound that connects with people who are unfamiliar with improvised music as well as highly adept listeners of more eclectic musical stylings.

After working as a group since 2007, Dawn of Midi released their debut Album First in March of 2010 (Accretions) to unanimous high praise from critics around the world. Within six month’s of the album’s release, the group’s music was featured in Downbeat Magazine, Time Out New York, Point of Departure, New Music Box, The Chicago Reader Critic’s Choice List, The Wire (on the bi-annual compilation CD The Wire Tapper) and was named among the top 3 “Best Piano Albums of 2010″ by About.com. In the same year, a court-métrage was created for their piece ‘A way with words’ by French filmmakers Maxime Bruneel and Adèle Miossec. In 2010, DoM has performed concerts in New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Kyoto, California, Chicago, The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and the ISIM Festival at the University of Michigan. In the spring of 2011, Dawn of Midi has been invited to perform at Gasteig in Munich (home of the Munich Philharmonic), Frankfurt, Niederstetten, England, Portugal, and Austria. Dawn of Midi is also in the planning stages of a Large-scale multimedia project, Kashmir.

Acid Birds

Charles Gayle plays double bass, tenor sax, piano, and has recently been exploring voice in his free jazz and improvised work. He was born in Buffalo, but moved to New York in the 1960s and played on the streets until (in the 1990s) he was noticed. Since then, he has played everywhere from The Knitting Factory to a multi-country European solo tour.

Acid Birds was formed in 2004 in Brooklyn, NY, by Andrew Barker (drums & percussion), Jaime Fennelly (harmonium + electronics) and Charles Waters (alto saxophone & bass clarinet). NY-based Barker and Waters are both founding members of Gold Sparkle Band, and Fennelly, who recently relocated to Chicago from the Pacific Northwest, is 1/3 of Peeesseye. Their first self-titled LP came out on the Italian label QBICO in 2009. Their second LP, Acid Birds II, will be released in January 2011 on Sagittarius A-Star, and the new Brooklyn label Electric Temple Records will be releasing their first cassette, entitled Mock Load, to coincide with their Midwest / East Coast tour in February 2011.

Andrew Barker has worked with Gold Sparkle Band, Sirone of the Revolutionary Ensemble, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell’s TAZ, Rob Brown, Chris Jonas, Sonny Simmons, Sabir Mateen, Virginia Genta, and many others. He has appeared on several recordings, including Apostolic Polyphony (with Matthew Shipp and Charles Waters) and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra’s Mayor of Punkville. In addition to several ongoing projects, Barker has also recently formed a metal band called Hallux.

Jaime Fennelly is most well-known for his work with Peeesseye (with Chris Forsyth and Fritz Welch), who recently released Pestilence & Joy and a collaborative recording with Talibam! He has recorded several albums for labels such as Digitalis Industries, Sick Head, Locust and Evolving Ear. In addition to his work with Peeesseye, he performs solo under his new project Mind Over Mirrors, and is also a member of Phantom Limb & Bison and Manpack Variant.

Charles Waters is a member of the Gold Sparkle Band, a large collective of musicians that has included Nate Wooley, Sabir Mateen, Matt Lavelle, Hill Greene, and many others. Waters studied clarinet with Eugene Kavadlo of the Charlotte Symphony, and has also worked with William Parker’s Little Huey Music Orchestra, Matthew Shipp, and Chris Jonas’ Brooklyn Comprovisers Orchestra.

Charles Gayle

Born and raised in Buffalo/New York, the great Charles Gayle has been playing saxophone and piano for over 40 years. After working the steel mills in Buffalo, he came to New York City in the late 60′s to work his music full-time.

When he couldn’t find any paying gigs, Charles began playing for spare change on the streets and in the subways. For the next twenty years Charles played and lived on these same streets, playing what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted; the free-est of free jazz. The 1990′s finally saw him playing at the Knitting Factory and on the European stages with his outstanding, most expressive saxophone performances which soon made him famous. Though Charles told me in the lovely Thompkins Square Park in Manhattan, that the music he is playing at the piano on his new CD “Jazz Solo Piano” is the music of his youth he used to play in clubs in his native Buffalo. Charles played a November solo tour in 2002 in Prague, Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. He was invited to play some concerts in Russia in spring 2004 and performed at the renowned. Jazz festival in Clusone/Italy as well a the Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland.

In 2005 Charles toured with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille and in 2006 with his own trio. From 2007 – 2009 he played once more with Rashied Ali and William Parker in the trio “By Any Means.” Shortly after Rashied Ali’s passing in august 2009 the trio performed at the Newport Jazz Festival (with Muhammad Ali on drums replacing his late brother). Charles Gayle has studied the double bass recently and switched back to tenor saxophone – also he has discovered the voice as an instrument.

Jim Pugliese is a drummer, percussionist and composer. As a freelance percussionist he has performed with The New York Philharmonic Horizon Series (guest artist), New York City Ballet and soloist or performer on numerous new music and jazz festivals. For the last 20 years, Jim has been improvising, recording and touring with many of downtown’s most prominent composer/improvisers including John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, Bobby Previte, Elliot Sharp and Anthony Coleman. He has recorded on over 100 CD’s of new music, jazz, rock and movie soundtracks. Jim’s latest CD ”Phase III Live @ Issue Project Room NYC” won “Best New Release of 2008″ in All About Jazz NY. Jim performs on and endorses Alternate Mode’s Malletkat.

This latest project titled “Jimmy’s Music Club” is a mobile unit. The musical structure stays the same and musicians change, each allowed to speak in his or her own voice within the structure. It is a continuation of my ongoing quest to combine my diverse performing experiences into a single sound where the rhythmic harmonics inspire the harmony. The music skirts and shifts along the edges of free improvisation, deep groove and New Music. It reflects my ongoing quest to explore the powerful, enlightening and spiritual secrets of drumming and is inspired by recent association and work with Nii Tettey Tetteh, master musician from Ghana, with Milford Graves, learning drumming and healing through the heartbeat and the study of the spiritual songs of the Mbira Dzavadzimu from Zimbabwe.

Performers for this concert: Christine Bard, drums; Aram Bajakian, guitar; Audrey Chen, cello, vocals; Lewis Barnes, trumpet; Darius Jones, alto Sax; Steve Swell, trombone; Jim Pugliese, drums, vocal, mbira, shacktronics; Ken Filiano, bass.

Positive Catastrophe

Positive Catastrophe is the brainchild of Taylor Ho Bynum and Abraham Gomez-Delgado. Bynum has been described as “animated as a vintage Loony Tune…one of the most exciting figures in jazz’s new power generation” (Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago). Gomez-Delgado has been called “the new century’s mad scientist, creating a musical hybrid so seemingly wrong it can be nothing but right” (Global Rhythm Magazine). Together they have come up with Positive Catastrophe: a trans-idiomatic ten-piece little big band that connects the dots between Sun Ra and Eddie Palmieri.

The group enlists a bevy of New York’s most adventurous jazz and salsa musicians, all composers and leaders in their own right, whose performing credits include Anthony Braxton, Max Roach, Henry Threadgill, Paul Motian, Steve Coleman, and Eddie Bobé. With the exceptional musicianship of the players and their fluidity in multiple genres, a unique instrumentation that hints at a traditional jazz and salsa big bands yet includes french horn, erhu, and rock guitar, and a pair of dramatic vocalists that are comfortable singing in three languages, Positive Catastrophe creates a truly boundary-crossing kind of new music.

“This is the audio equivalent of a funhouse mirror. ‘Travels,’ for example, sounds like a low-speed collision between Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War,’ Julie London’s ‘Cry Me a River’ and Chano Pozo’s Dizzy Gillespie vehicle ‘Manteca’ – all mashing together while the drivers giggle. Pos-Cat maintains a playful, even giddy vibe as it bends its Latin, swing, and progressive vibes so that they’re each recognizable but delightfully warped. If you’ve been hungering to hear Latin-based jazz in a new light, your prayers have been answered.” (Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, NY Press.)

“The ten-piece Positive Catastrophe pools the resources of two outstanding bandleaders: the ever-searching avant-jazz cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, and Abraham Gomez-Delgado, head of the eclectic alterna-Latino outfit Zemog El Gallo Bueno…full of swagger and groove, it combines Mingus-esque polyphonic momentum with vibrantly off-kilter world-funk.” (Time Out New York.)

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter (b. 1945, Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is both a writer and a musician, and plays alto and tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinet and piano. Since coming to New York in 1970, he has sought out musicians and situations that encourage free expression. When he first came to the city he played in soul bands as well as avant-garde jazz groups. He has always tried to transcend genre boundaries (Hip-Hop, R&B, DJ, classical (both traditional and avant-garde), world music (both traditional and contemporary), Jazzoetry, Abstract, Concrete, Noise, Punk, Hardcore Punk, Electronic (of all sorts), Commercial, Non-commercial, Professional, Non-professional) and still finds it to be as daunting a challenge as ever. Nonetheless, at the same time he remains undaunted in the face of this challenge in part because all through the years he has always been recharged and renewed by the energy that emanates from and still pours into his life and into New York, particularly in the form of tremendously motivated, devoted, and able musicians who are drawn into the cosmic cauldron that is NYC from all over the world. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, visual artist Marilyn Sontag.

Set 1:

Indigo Street (guitar)
John Bohannon (electronics)
Pete Drungle (piano, keyboard)
Gary Heidt (bass, guitar)
Justin Veloso (drums)
Daniel Carter (alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute, trumpet)

Set 2:

Atiba N. Kwabena (vocals, woodwinds and percussions)
Aquah Tcherbu (balaphone and percussions, also plays vibes and marimba)
Motoki Mihara (bass)
Nkosi Nkululeko (percussion)
Federico Ughi (drums)
Daniel Carter (alto, tenor, and soprano, saxophones, clarinet, flute, trumpet)

Gary Heidt sang with Devil Donkey on the 80′s Houston hardcore scene, then co-founded the lo-fi collective Mammals of Zod (“masterpiece”–Village Voice). In the 90′s in New York he gigged frequently with Carter and Sabir Mateen, and co-founded 67-year performance project Lovesphere. Co-author of The Defenestration Trilogy of operas, his poetry recently appeared in Fence. He sings with Fist of Kindness.

Federico Ughi is a drummer based in New York. Born in Rome, Italy in 1972 he relocated to London at age 21 to play music, from there moving to New York in 1999 again to play music. He has been based in Brooklyn, NY ever since. Federico plays drums, writes songs and lyrics and plays with people he likes. He has performed or recorded with Federico Ughi Duets, Federico Ughi Options Quintet, Daniel Carter, William Parker, Darius Jones, Eri Yamamoto, The Cinematic Orchestra, Bloody Riot, Leila Adu, the groups Testastella and WAKE UP! among others.

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter (b. 1945, Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is both a writer and a musician, and plays alto and tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinet and piano. Since coming to New York in 1970, he has sought out musicians and situations that encourage free expression. When he first came to the city he played in soul bands as well as avant-garde jazz groups. He has always tried to transcend genre boundaries (Hip-Hop, R&B, DJ, classical (both traditional and avant-garde), world music (both traditional and contemporary), Jazzoetry, Abstract, Concrete, Noise, Punk, Hardcore Punk, Electronic (of all sorts), Commercial, Non-commercial, Professional, Non-professional) and still finds it to be as daunting a challenge as ever. Nonetheless, at the same time he remains undaunted in the face of this challenge in part because all through the years he has always been recharged and renewed by the energy that emanates from and still pours into his life and into New York, particularly in the form of tremendously motivated, devoted, and able musicians who are drawn into the cosmic cauldron that is NYC from all over the world.  He lives in Manhattan with his wife, visual artist Marilyn Sontag.

WAKE UP!
Demian Richardson (trumpet)
David Moss (electric bass)
Federico Ughi (drums)
Daniel Carter (alto, soprano, and tenor, saxophones, flute, clarinet, and trumpet)

Guest Musicians:
Laurie Hockman (flute)
Margo Grib (violin, viola, voice)
Claire de Brunner (bassoon)
Marianne Giosa (trumpet, flutes, percussion)
Rebecca Schmoyer (guitar)
Taylor Cannizzaro (cello)
Ken Silverman (guitar)
Pete Drungle (piano and/or electric keyboard)
Tom Zlabinger (bass)

Claire de Brunner has studied with the principal bassoonists of the NY Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. After attending conservatory, she discovered the downtown music scene of the ‘80s, playing with bands such as 101 Crustaceans and Church of Betty. From there, she studied jazz with Lee Konitz and Connie Crothers and became active in the free improvisation world, where she collaborates with many musicians.

Cellist Taylor Cannizzaro studies sociology at SUNY Purchase College. She continues to expand her knowledge of music by performing various styles with different artists around the New York area.

Guitarist and other-strings experimenter Ken Silverman uses his forays into jazz, rock, and blues to further his adventures in free improvisation, experimental music and composition. He has played with Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell and others. While not eschewing the “powerful” aspects of his instrument, Silverman puts a great emphasis on what can be achieved through delicacy and melody.

Pete Drungle (piano and/or electric keyboard)

Tom Zlabinger (bass) is a lecturer of music and director of jazz ensembles at York College CUNY. A student of Anthony Cox, he has made music with a wide range of musicians including Marshall Allen, Glen Branca, Lukas Foss, and William Parker. He is currently completing his dissertation at The Graduate Center CUNY on jazz and improvised music in Vienna.

Margo Andrea Gezairlian Smithers Grib actress, singer, violinist, composer, dancer, poet, comedian. Credits include Atlantic theater Co (founding member), Einstein on the Beach (world tour), London Shakespeare Co., C’est Vrais by Robert Frank, Ivory Consort  and Alba Consort.

Federico Ughi is a drummer based in New York. Born in Rome, Italy in 1972 he relocated to London at age 21 to play music, from there moving to New York in 1999 again to play music. He has been based in Brooklyn, NY ever since. Federico plays drums, writes songs and lyrics and plays with people he likes. He has performed or recorded with Federico Ughi Duets, Federico Ughi Options Quintet, Daniel Carter, William Parker, Darius Jones, Eri Yamamoto, The Cinematic Orchestra, Bloody Riot, Leila Adu, the groups Testastella and WAKE UP! among others.

WAKE UP! is a genuine band, but even more than a band, it’s a movement for increasing consciousness–a movement primarily interested in evoking the evolution of consciousness in us all, through SOUND and beyond. The members of WAKE UP! all knew each other from previous music collaborations, but it wasn’t until May, 2009 that Federico Ughi, Demian Richardson, David Moss and Daniel Carter started getting together regularly as a quartet. The band integrates and synthesizes an array of styles, while not being limited or stuck in any one style or genre. “With a debut self-titled album (out now), WAKE UP! are riding a wave of youthful enthusiasm every bit as boisterous and impatient as their name.” –Daniel Spicer, The Wire