” ALLJazz presents renowned Chicago jazz improviser Michael Zerang with internationally acclaimed violinist Biliana Vouchkova for an evening of creative improvisation on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 8:00PM. A Drone Orchestra directed by Taralie Petersen will open the show.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. College/university/high school students receive a $5 discount on either price (valid student ID must be presented at the door – no exceptions). Advance tickets are available online until one hour before the performance. Doors open at 7:30PM.
The ALLJazz Series is sponsored in part by Alchemy and Dobhan Restaurants. Student discount made possible by Grant Samuelsen Real Estate.
About the Musicians
Michael Zerang has been a active musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. He has been a long-standing member of The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Friction Brothers, Brötzmann/McPhee/Kessler/Zerang Quartet, and Survival Unit III with Joe McPhee and Fred Lonberg-Holm.
Biliana Voutchkova is a thoroughly engaged artist, violinist, composer-performer and improvisor who combines regular performances of major solo violin/ensemble works, new music by contemporary composers often written for her, and her own work with performative, long length formats, real time composition and improvisation. Her constant research as a creative artist spans the widest possible range of sound and movement and extends her sonic, technical and physical capacities evolving into the development of a highly individual artistic language. “
Opening will be another installment of the Drone Orchestra hosted by Louise Bock. Featuring guest players Brennan Connors, Brian Grimm, Nadia Chana, Michael Groome, Erik Kramer, Patrick Best, Tracy Peterson, Taralie Peterson, Wendy Maland, and special guest…. “
As always, you can find me on Bass Guitars at the Mason Lounge on S. Park ST every Tuesday night, with the Five Points Jazz Collective! We’ll have the full sextet this week, featuring Charlie Painter on guitar, Trey Grimm on keyboard, Rin Ribble on violin, Kyle Rightley on trombone/euphonium, and Eric Shackelford on drums! Sure to please with funk, latin-jazz, swing, and blues along side the wonderful selection of craft brew that the Mason rotates on tap. Warning! Jazz occurs between 9p-12a.
Built on an improvisational base, Boat Patrol (pictured above) uses a trove of influences and techniques ranging from bluegrass to avant-garde jazz to create extensive musical landscapes and textures.
Boat Patrol began creating music in the fall of 2017 in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Avoiding simple categorization, boat patrol explores every nook and cranny of the musical palate with each live performance serving as a unique portrait of the band. Featuring Cai Mountjoy – bass/madolin/guitar, Daleth Mountjoy – keys/synths, Evan Verploegh – drums/theremin
Labrador. The band. are a mellow, moody three-piece that sounds like the type of estro-rock you might hear in The Bronze on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Brennan Connors & Stray Passage is a free/outside jazz trio. Performances delve into fiery high energy music, focused minimalism, and raw expression.
Donations suggested.
FREE-IMPROV
Sat, 9/8 |6p potluck 8p music $5 @ The Vault
JACK WRIGHT & ROUGHHOUSING (tour)
HIGH PRIESTS OF THE APOCALYPSE
BRIAN GRIMM (cellos)
Improviser extraordinaire and road warrior Jack Wright and his trio Roughhousing is back in Madison for a show at The Vault! Roughhousing features bassist Evan Lipson and guitarist Zach Darrup. Read more about the trio here > Roughhousing EPK. Potluck starts at 6pm – bring a tasty dish to share and enjoy; music starts by 8pm. Enjoy a night of free improv at one of Madison’s most notorious DIY venues with a trio that aims to strip away the layers of facades that plague the digital marketing age.
March 18th & 19th, 2016
$10 cover, doors at 7:30pm
7 S Blair St # 1, Madison, WI 53703
“Their sets embrace plenty of sinuous melody and conversational interplay, but can just as easily dive into minimalism and dissonance.” ~ Tone Madison
Experimental Jazz Trio Brennan Connors & Stray Passage has been performing in Madison for over three years, exciting listeners with their range of sonic capabilities. Their improvised music is directly linked to the atmosphere in the room and energy of the audience. Being that the listener is such a crucial element in shaping the band’s sound, it is only fitting that this album should be recorded in front of a live in-studio audience. Attendees will experience a jazz trio that embraces free and structured improvisation, original compositions, groove based experiments, and sound exploration. The breadth of a performance ranges from focused minimalism to fiery high energy music, all while maintaining a sense of narrative organization and compelling ensemble interplay.
The group is led by Brennan Connors on tenor and soprano saxophones. Geoff Brady provides orchestrated drum and percussion textures & Brian Grimm who rounds out the trio playing cello, contra-cello, and electric bass. On Friday, March 18th & 19th (Fri, Sat) – the trio will record two, live-concert performances which are open to the public. The sessions will be hosted & recorded by master engineer Steve Gotcher at Audio for the Arts on 7 South Blair Street in Madison WI. Stray Passage would be honored by the presence of anyone who wishes to experience the recording process.
…shifting the approach from the narrow field of ‘note/genre based’ improvisation, to the wide universe of ‘sound/conversation based’ exploration!
>> *Update! We have lowered the price of this workshop to just $24 for each 2-hr class. You can still sign up for the whole series ($90) – OR – sign up for a one-time class on December 7th ($24)!
Who should sign up?
Any age. Any instrument(s). From experienced improvisers to beginners, all are welcome. I’m especially interested in reaching people who are “afraid to fail” in improvisation, so we can break down that barrier.
First and foremost, anyone, at any skill level can participate – together. This workshop will shift the participant’s perspective on what improvisation is. We’ll take it from simply being note/genre focused and transform the player’s approach to being sound/conversation focused. It will greatly broaden who the player can improvise with, how long they can play, and how creative they can be!
SESSION FOCUS
When it comes to improvisation, sometimes people freeze… “what do I play next?”, “I can’t think of any other ‘things’ to play…”, “what if it doesn’t ‘sound good’?”, etc. ad infinitum… This can easily be overcome by shifting the approach from the narrow field of ‘note/genre based’ improvisation, to the wide universe of ‘sound/conversation based’ exploration.
EVERY TIME WE HAVE A CONVERSATION, WE ARE IMPROVISING!
Every single person who uses language is an improviser… So, everyone already possesses the skills required for group-improv. When you sit down to free-improv with a group of musicians – even if you’ve never played with them before – it should be natural, music is a language. We’ll work on communication skills in order to have a conversation in sound.
We’ll touch on Avant Garde & Extended Techniques as a dialect of improvisation. We’ll focus on how, much to the surprise of traditional thinking, experimental sounds can be found in nature everywhere. I have heard many of my improvising collaborators play rhythms & textures that I’ve previously experienced in nature &/or surrounding environments. It is coded in our DNA & can’t be escaped, but rather must be acknowledged and embraced. There is naturalism in experimental sound that needs be explored in order to communicate & relay your meaning to the listener.
LISTENING
In each class we’ll take time to listen to examples of different approaches to improvisation that correlate to the session’s focus.
EXPERIMENT
By the very nature of the word/process, you must be open to failure. You must be willing to “play a wrong note” or “try a sound/technique you’ve never played before”. That’s what an experiment is: you have an educated guess about what outcome may happen, but you can’t know for sure until the experiment is performed & data collected. – Try a new sound or technique, listen… did it work? No? Alter the experiment & try again… still No? Then, it’s probably safe to move on to a new sound-experiment. OR Yes? Great!! Keep exploring it, what else can you create from that experiment, and where will it lead you?”
“BCG… who in the scootin’-fruidy is this guy?!…”
BC Grimm is active professionally as a teacher, composer, improviser, performer, sound designer, electronic musician, & multi-instrumentalist on cello, bass guitar, & Chinese String strings (古琴 guqin, 古筝 guzheng, 琵琶 pipa, 二胡 erhu, 高胡 gaohu). A frequent collaborator in Madison’s avant-garde music scene, BCG is also passionate about exploring music traditions from around the world. After earning a Bachelor of Music Composition with honors from Butler University, he has found a niche composing, performing, and recording scores for dance, theatre, & film.
“ … compositions are both classical and experimental, both disciplined and exploratory.”
– Isthmus, The Daily Page (June 2012, ‘Redolent Spires’ album review)
“Madison-based multi-instrumentalist Brian Grimm specializes in playing the guqin and guzheng, Chinese zithers that sometimes run as large as a small canoe. He’s also a classically trained cellist and, under the name Brain Grimmer, produces adept and twisted instrumental hip-hop. In performances with Julian Lynch’s band and various jazz and improvisational groups around town, Grimm draws on both formal music studies and avant-garde extremes.”
– Arts Extract Podcast, Scott Gordon (June 2014, ‘The Ideating Knell’ album review)
