10/18 | BlueStem Jazz Presents: Brennan Connors & Stray Passage live audience in-studio recording session at Audio For The Arts!

Friday, 10/18/2024
8pm, $15 tix
Audio For The Arts recording studio
7 S Blair St # 1, Madison, WI 53703

Presented by BlueStem Jazz and Audio for the Arts.
Brennan Connors & Stray Passage Jazz trio return to AFA studios once again to record their new album in front of a live studio audience! As any free-improviser will tell you, the audience is also a bandmate. You are crucial to the performance of improvised music! It is a feedback loop between the performer and the listener. Whatever energy you give to us we respond and give back to you. However you react to our music, in that moment changes what we play and which direction the improvisation moves in. It’s a give and take, so come be a part of that magic circle and inspire us with your presence! It’s just not the same without you.

Brennan Connors & Stray Passage has maintained a presence in Madison, Wisconsin as rugged experimental jazz trio for nearly a decade and a half. In 2016 we recorded our first album, which was released in 2017 on the Italian record label Setola Di Maiale. It’s time to make a new document of where we currently are with our music, and you are invited. This event will be a live in-studio recording at Audio for the Arts, and a ticket to the live show comes along with a CD and a digital download of the new album once it is officially released.

Brennan Connors (saxophones & flutes) continues his wide eyed, open eared journey exploring music, sound, and whatever is around such things. He has been leading the trio into spaces that reflect and express those explorations, here and now.

Brian Grimm (strings & effects) is currently composing musical scores and soundscapes full-time for professional live theatre throughout the Midwest.

Geoff Brady (drums, percussion, theremin) still brings his excellent drum work to the trio (Mr. Harvey Pekar wrote, “Brady is a fine, subtle percussionist.”). He has also been utilizing his virtuosity on the theremin as new staple in Stray Passage’s sonic lineup.

This event is BYOB.


Check out some clips from our March 2024 concert at Cafe Coda!


Our album “Emergence” (2017) was also recorded live with a live in-studio audience back in 2016 at Audio For The Arts. You can check it out here >>


This Is Not Shakespeare’s MACBETH |Closing Weekend |Behind the Scenes (vid)

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It’s closing weekend, get your tickets!

NoExit Performance
THIS IS NOT SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH
June 13th through June 29th 
The Irvington Office Center (Indianapolis)
William Shakespeare | directed by Michael Burke
Original Foley/Sound-Score
Composed by Brothers Grimm
Performed by BRAIN GRIMMER

Tickets: $20 General Admission | $15 Student/Senior

Thu, 6/13: 8pm – Fri, 6/14: 8pm – Sat, 6/15: 8pm
Thu, 6/20: 8pm – Fri, 6/21: 8pm – Sat, 6/22: 8pm
Thu, 6/27: 8pm – Fri, 6/28: 8pm – Sat, 6/29: 8pm

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Behind the scenes video of the recording session at Bradbury’s Coffee!

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Notes on the Score:

The concept for this score involved setting a foley/sound-design score > No melody & rhythm, but dissonant, atonal harmony, soundscapes & uncomfortable textures.  We began by going into Bradbury’s Coffee (Madison, WI) after hours and recording every sound that triangular room was capable of.  AJ was our sound-guide as we recorded: room noise, beams, ladders, stools, tables, washing machines, refrigerators, espresso machines, coffee grinders, various water drips, toilets, knives, and general kitchen-ware.  With this Bradbury’s audio (recorded by Jon Brumbaugh) and other foley recorded at home, we’ve created roughly 100 Sound Libraries for MACBETH – each library housing up to 128 ten-octave, velocity/pressure sensitive Sample Instruments. The end result is about 2,300 custom-constructed sample instruments nested into one-channel (maximum of 16,384 instruments per channel). Controlling these sounds in real time with Ableton Live 8 through Akai APC 40 & Keith McMillen QuNeo midi controllers, we hope to instantaneously surprise, inspire, pace, & effect the actors performances with our live sound-experiments.  

Macbeth set up: Ableton Live w/ Akai APC 40 & K. McMillen QuNeo

Macbeth set up: Ableton Live w/ Akai APC 40 & K. McMillen QuNeo

||Special thanks to Bradbury’s Coffee for letting us record ALL of the sounds in their space! Also, thank you Jon Brumbaugh for recording audio & Glynnis Ritchie for taking excellent video during the Bradbury’s recording session!
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