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.
“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 the past 5 years, exciting listeners with a range of sonic capabilities. Their improvised music is directly linked to the atmosphere in the room and energy of the audience. The listener is such a crucial element in shaping the band’s sound that they recorded this album in front of a live studio audience – expertly captured by master engineer Steve Gotcher at Audio for the Arts. Listeners will experience a jazz trio that embraces both 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 orchestrates drum and percussion textures, while Brian Grimm rounds out the trio bowing cello, contra-cello, and electric bass.
We are ecstatic and grateful to setola di maiale records in Italy for officially releasing our first album!
We’ll be joined by a fantastic drummer & friend of mine, Hamir Atwal (San Francisco), with his trio Invisible Guy. The group features Michael Coleman on keyboard & Ben Goldberg on clarinet. We are very glad to share our CD release show bill with another trio that explores the dynamics of free-improv in full range!
“Mr. Goldberg is a clarinetist of range and curiosity.” – The New York Times
Ben Goldberg’s Bay Area-based trio looks forward and backward at the same time, creating both nostalgic reveries and modern statements. Goldberg is known for drawing on his Jewish roots and radical versions of Klezmer music and his clarinet work is always focused with an endearing lyrical quality. Pianist Michael Coleman leaps between stride riffs and electronic splatter. Drummer Hamir Atwall provides everything from a swinging undercurrent to a clattery rush.
As a trio, Ben, Michael, and Hamir are in strict pursuit of beautiful melody. Michael Coleman says: “Melody is the knife that cuts through to truth. Then there is the importance of breath, and personal expression.” Reviewing a 2014 concert, Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune said the group is “an unusually focused ensemble inventing a musical syntax for itself.”
From 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio released Masks and Faces and “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music” (SF Chronicle) to 2013’s simultaneous release of Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues (featuring Joshua Redman) and Unfold Ordinary Mind (featuring Nels Cline), which the New York Times noted for “a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising,” clarinetist and composer Ben Goldberg has shaped a career through relentless pursuit of musical truth across many genres and styles, resulting in the Downbeat Critics’ Poll naming him the #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in both 2011 and 2013. In 2015 Ben released a recording of his songcycle Orphic Machine , sung by Carla Kihlstedt and performed by an allstar nine piece band including Nels Cline, Greg Cohen, and Ches Smith. The LA Times called Orphic Machine “knotted and occasionally spooky composition marked by dazzling interplay.” All Music Guide says “Orphic Machine is wildly ambitious and sophisticated, but also graceful, emotionally honest, and accessible. It makes the profound embraceable and, as a result, is a masterpiece.” Ben currently composes for and leads the following groups:
Unfold Ordinary Mind ; Go Home ; Ben Goldberg School ; and Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen.
Drummer/Percussionist Hamir Atwal is a Berklee College of Music graduate who
has taught at Music Academy International, and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Hamir is an active endorser of DREAM Cymbals. Hamir has played with saxophonists Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, and Grant Stewart; Bassist/Producer Bill Laswell; and clarinetist Ben Goldberg.
Michael Coleman is a pianist, improviser and composer currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. He has had the pleasure of playing with many great musicians and recording with some of his favorite bands and people. Apart from leading his own groups (Beep!, CavityFang, Young Nudist), Michael has toured the world with Chris Cohen, tUnEyArDs,
Sean Hayes, Miles Kurosky and Jug Free America.
GRIMM & PEDERSEN└ formerly of stray passage ☾☽ crutching and beyond ☾☽ a mime slowly sinking into a vat of glue
VENEREAL CRUSH ├ quell form orchestra drone ☾☽ knitting wrong stitches ☾☽ a thing with long legs rising above thick trees
TAR PET ╪ wavering leavings ☾☽ knife juice ☾☽ a flame that will not go out
MID WASTE ╘ city waste ☾☽ rib cage blooming ☾☽ a stuttering child
Justice resonator at Bright Red Studios. Please feel free to bring spectors and baubles as this will be a daemon friendly event. 5 CREDITS FOR THE TRAVELING RADIENTS. It will begin on time, even though time is an illusion perpetuated by the watchers.
For those of you who follow along with GrimmusiK (or have looked at the shows page on this website) you’ll notice that I play bass every Tuesday night from 9p-12 at The Mason Lounge with the Five Points Jazz Collective. The Mason Lounge is one of my favorite bars in Madison, WI. Brian, the owner, serves 15-or-so carefully selected craft beers on tap which thoroughly range the palette. Every Tuesday, I eagerly await a rundown on the new kegs that have been tapped.
This week, we’re happy to have a special trio night with Brennan Connors & Stray Passage! “Brennan Connors & Stray Passage is bringing it’s unique blend of free jazz, improvised music, and original compositions to the Mason. Come join us for a night of dynamic music running the gamut from fiery high energy sounds to focused minimalism. Brennan Connors on saxophones; Brian Grimm on cello and bass; Geoff Brady on drums and percussion.”
Sat, 7/18 | Strollin Park Street (Mad) Jazz Festival
Produced by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, the season’s second Strollin’ event offers a family-friendly 5 ½ hours of continuous and stylistically-diverse live jazz in the afternoon in and around the Villager Mall at the south end of South Park Street, followed by an “after-party” at north end of the Street, at The Mason Lounge. As always with Strollin’, there’s no cover charge. Here’s the line-up.
One City Early Learning Stage at the Villager Mall (South East Corner of the parking lot, across from McDonald’s): Noon-2:30pm
Madison Music Foundry Student Jazz Ensemble: Noon-12:30pm
Fountain of Life’s Rivers of Madison: 12:45-1:45pm
Black Star Drum Line: 2pm-2:30pm
The Urban League Community Room: 2pm-3:30pm
Rick Flowers Quartet
Madison Police Station- South District (outdoor stage, or the community room if weather is bad): 3:15pm-5:30pm
Mad City Funk 3:15-4:15pm
Golpe Tierra 4:30pm-5:30pm
The Mason Lounge: 7-9:30pm
bpmTrio: 7-8pm Five Points Jazz Collective: 8:30pm-9:30pm
Strollin’ South Park Street is made possible by a grant to the Jazz Consortium from the John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation, by sponsorships from Prime Urban Properties, One City Early Learning Centers, the South Metropolitan Business Association, Sergenian’s Floor Coverings, Uncle Joe’s Shoes and Sportswear, with additional support from media sponsors WORT-FM and Isthmus and from the Urban League of Greater Madison and Lane’s Bakery.
Netmoiré creates an energetic, abstract, and mercurial experience that blends the avant-garde with electronic, beat-driven music. Netmoiré is an improvisational trio featuring Jason Charney (computer), Josh Simmons (computer), and Nick Zoulek (saxophones). The trio came together while pursuing graduate studies at Bowling Green State University, and bonded over a shared passion for improvisation. Searching for the overlaid patterns found through improvisational networking, Netmoiré creates an energetic, abstract, and mercurial experience that blends the avant-garde with electronic, beat-driven music. Their influences and inspirations include Death Grips, Colin Stetson, J Dilla, Tim Hecker, Evan Parker, Ben Frost, and most importantly, an affinity for chaotic sound.
Special Note: Lovely Socialite will be in Blast House Studios on Jan 3rd & 4th, finishing their second album with Landon Arkens!
A night of eclectic improvisation with feat. guitarist Mike Sopko + drummer Hamir Atwal. Joining the bill will be Madison’s own Brennan Connors & Stray Passage with Brennan Connors on sax, Geoff Brady on kit, & BC Grimm on contracello. Special thanks goes out to the Mason Lounge for making this show possible! > fb.event
Hamir Atwal studied at the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship studying improvisation/composition with saxophone great Joe Lovano and trombonist Hal Crook. After graduating from Berklee, Hamir moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he collaborated/recorded with musicians such as clarinetist/composer Ben Goldberg, Blue Note recording artist Greg Osby and saxophone legend Joe Lovano. In addition to performing, Hamir has taught drum clinics at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Berkeley JazzSchool, and Music Academy International (Nancy, France). He has performed internationally with notable musicians such as Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Ben Goldberg, and many more.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Mike Sopko, has been playing and studying guitar for over 20 years. Mike teaches and performs throughout the the US studying with a variety of teachers such as Dave Fiuczynski, Richard Smith and Bob Fraser. He has developed an array of guitar styles, including jazz, classical, and Bluegrass. Over the years, he has played, recorded, and toured with such musicians as Thomas Pridgen, G. Calvin Weston (Ornette Colman), Mike Watt, and Martin Dosh. Mike teaches at the Avloni Academy of Music, where he has been the head guitar instructor since 2003. In 2010, Mike founded the Bay Area band, Glimpse Trio/Duo, with drummer, Hamir Atwal. Glimpse Trio’s first album, 1985, was awarded “Editor’s Pick of the Month” in Downbeat Magazine by famed jazz/blues critic Frank Alkyer.
“a blend of jazz, rock and blues with infectious folkiness. . .” – Downbeat Magazine
