7:30p door / 8:30p music / $5-10 suggested donation / BYOB
TERRENCE MCMANUS (NYC) – electric guitar + electronics
BC GRIMM (Mad) – pipa, guqin, frankencello + electronics
A native of Brooklyn, New York, guitarist/composer/sound artist Terrence McManus has been called “… one of New York’s latest guitar heroes …” (All About Jazz), and that he has “… hit on an entirely new language.” (Gambit), and “… possesses the goods to impart a significant impact …” (jazzreview.com). Time Out New York calls him a “Texture-minded guitar abstractionist …” and the NY Times times has described him as a “guitarist drawn to abstract texture”.
He has performed or recorded with many of the major innovators in contemporary music, including John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Don Byron, Ellery Eskelin, Herb Robertson, Mark Helias, John Hollenbeck, Ben Monder, Russ Lossing, Randy Peterson, Mat Maneri, Tom Rainey, Michael Sarin, and Marty Ehrlich. He has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the New York Guitar Festival, Jazz Festival Willisau (Switzerland), Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Austria), the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park, and the inaugural month at John Zorn’s The Stone. Terrence was featured in the book State of the Axe: Guitar Masters in Photographs and Words, by legendary photographer Ralph Gibson.
Terrence currently performs with the Gerry Hemingway Quintet, the Gerry Hemingway/Terrence McManus Duo, the John Hébert/Terrence McManus Duo and in a trio with John Hébert and Billy Mintz. Terrence is featured on the Gerry Hemingway Quintet release Riptide (Clean Feed Records) and the Hemingway/McManus Duo release Below the surface of (Auricle Records). In 2010 the Hemingway/McManus Duo toured the Midwest, performing and teaching in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. That same year the John Hébert/Terrence McManus duo performed and taught in New Orleans, LA.
Terrence is also a member of multiple NYC groups including the Cellar and Point and Bryan and the Haggards, and he has been a guest musician with the new music group Ensemble Pampelmousse.
Terrence has also provided music for the theater, in a production with the New York City players at the historic NYC theater venue the Performing Garage.
Terrence’s previous ensembles include Transcendental Numbers, with Mark Helias and Gerry Hemingway, which has a recording entitled Transcendental Numbers (NoBusiness Records) that Time Out New York calls “… a set of subtle, highly textural trio improvisation.” He also lead a chamber ensemble that included Ellery Eskelin, Mat Maneri, Russ Lossing and Gerry Hemingway, which performed a sixty minute, multi-sectional, through-composed work titled The Machine; the piece has also been performed in a trio configuration and in a solo guitar setting.
An accomplished solo guitarist, Terrence performs his own works on electric and classical guitar and has developed a unique style of improvisation, drawing on extended technique and prepared guitar. His solo recording Brooklyn EP was described as having “… visceral, stimulating fabrics.” (The New York City Jazz Record). He has done numerous solo tours, performing in California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Alaska. In 2011, Terrence was selected as a semi-finalist on classical guitar in the Portland State University Guitar Festival.
Actively involved in education, Terrence has taught at The University of California, San Diego, Hochschule Luzern (Luzern, Switzerland), The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Rutgers University (Newark), California State University, Bakersfield, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Saddleback College.
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 Percussionensemble & BC Grimm’s array of Chinese zithers, lutes & bowed strings – who knows what sonic orchestrations may come to pass.
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.
We had a wonderful show last night @ Bright Red Studios! Thanks to all who came out!
∮ Lovely Socialite explored a quartet free-improv set with Pat on cello, Abe on vibes, Mike on assorted home-made percussion and drum set, & BCG on gaohu, pipa, bass & cajon. So much open, quiet space. We were able to explore individual solo moments all around, as well as every duo pairing within the larger quartet. Very rewarding, as most Socialite sextet improvs exist in a wall-of-sound-madness! I was grateful to explore sparcer orchestrations for such an open ear’d audience. (new album due out by early fall!)
∯ Taralie of Spires That In The Sunset Rise, known as Tar Pet when solo – gave us a really deep set. My favorite two pieces were in the middle. One was a layering of melodic cello drones that bubbled forth minute changes, all playing against one another to create a long landscape. Once the scene was set, she switched to sax and blew an elegy to Ornette Coleman, who passed away this week. I think we all knew what it was about, because Taralie was so excellent and clear in her delivery of the meditation. What a way to send-up Ornette! [peace, respect]
…oh yeah, DISTORTED CELLO DRONES!!!. < that’s all I need to say on the one that followed.
∰ The touring musician of the night, Jonah Parzen-Johnson (Brooklyn, NYC), treated us to his carefully crafted ‘bari-sax + electronics’ compositions. Inbetween pieces, he would share introspections and wonderments de jour. Anything his soul was searching at the moment. A lot of it about how we interact with each other, but all of it posed in the form of (yet) unanswered questions. Much appreciation for the insight into his being and process. Jonah is on tour for his new album “Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow”, which you should buy right now! He’s halfway through a 5 week tour, help support his final leg with a purchase of his well developed music!
