8/7 | Ben Willis + Brian Grimm @ Bos Meadery

8-7 Ben Willis and Brian Grimm v2

Sun 8/7  |  6pm  $5  @ Bos Meadery

849 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53703

solo & duo performances from

BEN WILLIS – double bass

BRIAN GRIMM – guqin, cello

Bos Meadery – “Mead Made Modern” our mission is to make the world’s oldest fermented beverage in the most modern possible way using local ingredients, so that our mead reflects the flavor of the Wisconsin landscape. Much like farm to table eating, this is field to glass drinking.

BEN WILLIS (DET/AA, MI) – solo double bass

Egret/Flatlander is a set of solo bass pieces by Ben Willis. Composed through development and exploration of improvisational practice, the movements have taken shape as open cellular structures, that act as themes and zones for extemporaneous development.

The pieces make use of a range of extended double bass techniques, drawing inspiration from contemporary classical music and free improvisation. The musical language draws from many influences, including rock structures, folk harmonies and melodies, and doom metal.

Ben Willis is a bassist whose affinities lie in collaborative projects, new music, improvisation, and the merging of cross-disciplinary elements. He’s performed his original collaborative work at venues and festivals around the U.S., including the International Society for Improvised Music Conference, Electroacoustic Barn Dance at the University of Mary Washington, the Whitewater Arts Alliance Series at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater and the Ratchet Series at the Skylark in Chicago. In 2013, he was a Robert Black Bass Fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. Much of his work highlights the importance of collaborative, performative process in the development of new art. He is a member of the Weather Duo, an electroacoustic ensemble with cellist Pat Reinholz, dedicated to performing new music that blends classical training with improvisation and folk idioms. The Weather Duo has contributed music to the Li Chiao Ping dance company, a video project with artist Doug Rosenberg and dancer Sally Gross, and composed occasional film scores. In live performance, they explore multimedia collaboration with the help of live video artist Anna Weisling. He has also toured and recorded as a sideman, working with many indie/folk artists, including Anna Vogelzang, Dietrich Gosser, and Thistle and the Thorns. He often participates in recitals of new music and collaborations with composers, and performs regularly with the jazz/rock project Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps, and the free improvisation trio Glacier. He currently resides in Ann Arbor, MI. He earned a BM in Performance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and MM in Improvisation from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He’s studied bass with Richard Davis, Diana Gannett, and Bob Hurst, and composition with Andrew Bishop.

Buy Egret/Flatlander here >>


BRIAN GRIMM (MAD, WI) – solo cello & guqin

Cellist & composer Brian Grimm grew up surrounded by Chinese string instruments of every sort. After initial lessons in Chinese music with Yang Wei (pipa) & Daxun Zhang (bass) of the Silkroad Enesemble, he was lucky to then study guqin (zither), pipa (lute), gaohu (fiddle) & daruan (bass lute) in Hong Kong with members of the 香港中樂團 Hong Kong Chinese OrchestraWuji Ensemble 無極樂團. Over the last 15 years Grimm has developed a deep language of Free Improvisation & Composition with groups such as The Brothers Grimm, Lovely Socialite, and Brennan Connors & Stray Passage. In conjunction with performing & teaching, Brian runs GrimmusiK Records – a label for all projects involving him & his brother AJ (classical & flamenco guitar).

** BC Grimm’s new CD “Orbis Obscura” for Pipa, Fuzz & Delay drops Friday, 8/12 on Other Obscura Records @ ArtIn Gallery on East Wash! **

J100

COMING SOON! NEW BC GRIMM CD “ORBIS OBSCURA” DROPS FRI 8/12


 

 

4/12 – 4/19 | Brian Grimm Tax Day Tour (ft. Ben Willis; NoExit Performance)

BCG Tax Day Tour header

Tues 4/12 – Tues 4/19  BRIAN GRIMM TAX DAY TOUR

Heading on the road with electric cello, cellitar, guqin zither & a pedal board!

For bios, photos, etc. check out:  BC Grimm EPK

Tue, 4/12  |  9p-12a  Free  @  the Mason Lounge  [Madison, WI]

Five Points Jazz Collective, the resident “Tuesday Night Squad” house-band

Wed, 4/13  |  9:30p  Free  @  Constellation  [Chicago, IL]

Oscar Jan Hoogland Chicago Project – SOUND OF THE CITY WORKSHOP

Thr, 4/14  |  8pm  $8  @  Trinosophes  [Detroit, MI]

Jack Wright & Bob Marsh duo + Willis/Grimm duo

Fri, 4/15; Sat 4/16  |  6p-12a  $5-10  @  Detroit Free Arts Music Festival  [Detroit, MI]

* Fri, 4/15  11:15-11:45pm – Ben Willis + Brian Grimm Duo

Sun, 4/17  |  tba-pm  Free  @  Pioneer Restaurant  [Indianapolis, IN]

Brian Grimm solo set (cello, cellitar, guqin)

Mon, 4/18  |  8p  Free  SPOTLIGHT 2016  @  Clowes Memorial Hall  [Indianapolis, IN]

DINNER – dance by Tommy Lewey, NoExit Performance

score by Brian Grimm

Tue, 4/19  |  9p-12a  Free  @  the Mason Lounge  [Madison, WI]

Five Points Jazz Collective

5 points jazz collective

Five Points Jazz Collective! Live Jazz every Tuesday night from 9p-12 @ the Mason Lounge > 416 S Park St

 


4/24 | Jack Wright & Bob Marsh @ Arts + Literature Laboratory

4-24 SHOW POSTER 4.2

Sun, 4/24 | All Ages  $10  7pm  @ Arts + Literature Laboratory

2021 Winnebago St, Madison, Wisconsin 53704

JACK WRIGHT & BOB MARSH (TOUR)
sax + bass, electronics, sound suit

BC GRIMM & MICHAEL KOSZEWSKI (Mad) [of Lovely Socialite]
cello, Chinese string instruments + percussion

TONTINE ENSEMBLE (MILWAUKEE)
double bass, cello, viola, violin – through fx

JACK & BOB

These two have been playing together since they met in Detroit in 1986, their duo transforming over time as their music has developed. This despite moving far apart, and never more than at present; after fifteen years in the Bay Area Bob now lives in Pueblo CO and Jack is in Easton Pa, so their meetings are infrequent. They have toured on the East and West Coast and the Midwest, most recently connecting in the Bay Area, before that tours that took them from the east coast to Chicago. Their music has shifted from a huge web of notes and fast-shifting directions on conventional instruments to sound and space, with Bob playing electronics and distorted voice….yet still they are indelibly the same duo. And the best of friends.

A review of a 2012 performance in Philadelphia from Cadence Magazine: “Jack Wright (sax) and his longtime collaborator, Bob Marsh (cello, voicings) sat in cramped quarters with records stacked all around, low ceiling strung with Christmas lights, and frightful paintings lining the wall. The two explorers seemed to like the atmospheric space and quickly went about their business of quietly merging tones and thoughts. Marsh, who was on a rare trip to these parts from this California abode, used everything out of his cello case on his instrument except the kitchen sink, which he was unable to get down the steep stairs of the lair. Also of note was the sighting of Wright in real pants and not his ever-present shorts…” 

GRIMM & KOSZEWSKI

Michael Koszewski (percussion) & Brian Grimm (cello, Chinese string instruments) of Madison’s psychedelic Jazz/Rock outfit Lovely Socialite join forces as a duo. Both cut from the New Music cloth, they bring sensitivity, dynamics & chops to their explorations. Between Koszewski’s 5 years in Madison’s acclaimed Clocks in Motion Percussion ensemble & BC Grimm’s array of Chinese zithers, lutes & bowed strings – who knows what sonic orchestrations may come to pass.

Michael Koszewski and BC Grimm

TONTINE ENSEMBLE

Tontine Ensemble was founded in the spring of 2014 with the mission to perform improvisational and contemporary chamber works, as well as champion the compositions of Milwaukee composers. Its four current members first played together for a Blank Radio recording session and immediately began rehearsing regularly. Allen Russell, Molly Lieberman, Pat Reinholz, and Barry Paul Clark are all classically trained musicians who teach and regularly perform in a variety of styles around the Milwaukee area and beyond.

Tontine Ensemble has appeared as guest artists at Mike Neumeyer and Friends, Danceworks, Inc. (Paleontology of a Woman – 2014, Footsteps, Shadows & Whispers – 2015), Milwaukee Follies, Formations Series for New and Improvised Music, Alverno Presents (Prince Uncovered – 2015) and The Pre-Maturely Air Conditioned Arts Collective.  The ensemble has shared the stage with JOBS, Netmoiré, Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps, Geodes, Trench, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, and Jamison Williams.

Tontine Ensemble
http://tontineensemble.com/


“I, Nefarious” CD available for Pre-Order

Fri, 1/08 *Sat, 1/09* |  8pm @ Audio For The Arts Studios

7 S Blair St, Madison, Wisconsin 53703

DOUBLE RELEASE SHOW

$10 admission gets free copy of Bell Monks “Big Bay” EP [Wren&Shark]
$5 for BRAIN GRIMMER “I, Nefarious”

NUDE HUMAN

BELL MONKS

WILLISGRIMMISWILLIMM DUO


 “I, Nefarious” CD compilation by BRAIN GRIMMER

Release Date Jan 8th 2016

on GrimmusiK & Mine All Mine Records

Drawing influences from Hip-Hop, Jazz, and World Music, this CD compilation features the producer heavily on cello & bass as well as Chinese zithers & lutes to create bizzaro covers and off kilter remixes.  Reserve your limited edition disc, co-release with Mine All Mine Records. Features collaborations with SiLas Be Ritchie, Brian Tairaku Ritchie, C.J. Boyd, Bashiri Asad, Nice Boy Vice, Rob Dixon, Justin Brewer, & Alan Watts

Pre-Order Today!