Friday June 19, to Monday June 22, 2015, four evenings of concerts at 8:30 pm. Zula Pesents welcomes you to the second annual SOMETHING ELSE! Festival of Creative Music, at Artword Artbar. http://zulapresents.org/
This year’s festival line-up should satisfy all adventurous ears… get ready for some seriously outrageous fun!
Concert tickets ($12-18) and Festival Passes ($35) can be reserved via email cem@zulapresents.org or by phone 289-993-1993.
Artist in Residence for this year’s festival, Ellwood Epps of Montreal (photo). Epps will initiate Friday, Saturday and Monday concerts with a solo trumpet set, and will sit in with various musicians. He will also conduct a free Saturday afternoon improvisation workshop (see below).
Friday, June 19, 8:30 pm ($15/12)
OSWALD/MALONE/LEE/FRASER (Toronto/London/Hamilton) Alto-saxophonist John Oswald, with London percussionist Terry Fraser, joining Hamiltonians improvising bassist David Lee and jazz trumpeter Mike Malone.
ALDCROFT/THOMSON (Toronto/Montreal) Guitarist Ken Aldcroft and trombonist Scott Thomson
ELLWOOD EPPS (Montreal) Artist in Residence, trumpeter Ellwood Epps
Saturday, June 20, 5:00 pm, free.
Ellwood Epps will conduct a free Saturday afternoon improvisation workshop at Artword Artbar, discussing things, technical and practical, things an instrumentalist or an improviser would want to know… Call 289-993-1993 for info.
Saturday, June 20 8:30 pm ($15/12)
NOT THE WIND, NOT THE FLAG (Toronto): Colin Fisher (guitar, bouzouki, ney, tenor sax, guzheng, hulusi, misc. percussion) and Brandon Valdivia (trapset, mbira, slit-drum, percussion)
BRODIE WEST (Hamilton) Alto saxophonist Brodie West
ELLWOOD EPPS (Montreal) Artist in Residence, trumpeter Ellwood Epps
Sunday, June 21 8:30 pm ($15/12)
SEE THROUGH TRIO (Toronto) Pianist Tania Gill, saxophonist Karen Ng, and bassist Pete Johnston.
CHRIS PALMER (Wellington/Hamilton) Improvising guitarist Chris Palmer, with a sense of adventure and mischief.
DALE MORNINGSTAR (Hamilton) Multi-instrumentalist Dale Morningstar plays a rare solo set for us on guitar, keyboards or…
Monday, June 22 8:30 pm ($18/15)
ERIC BOEREN 4TET (Amsterdam) Four heavy-hitters of the Amsterdam creative music scene and the New Dutch Swing sound… in Hamilton for the first time! Ebullient cornetist Eric Boeren with all reeds virtuoso Michael Moore, monster double bassist Wilbert De Joode (photo on poster), and master drummer Han Bennink.
ELLWOOD EPPS (Montreal) Artist in Residence, trumpeter Ellwood Epps
BIOGRAPHIES:
Artist in Residence for this year’s festival, Ellwood Epps of Montreal is busy as an improvising trumpet player, a most versatile musical collaborator, teacher, concert and festival organizer, truly one of the leading lights of Canada’s creative music scene. He has performed with Steve Lacy, William Parker, Jean Derome, Le Quan Ninh, Joe McPhee, Butch Morris, John Butcher, Marshall Allen and many other greats. Ellwood is active with several working groups: the longstanding Pink Saliva (an electric band with Michel F Côté and Alexandre St-Onge), Land of Marigold (with Josh Zubot), the Ratchet Orchestra, and in duet with saxophonist Yves Charuest.
OSWALD/MALONE/LEE/FRASER: World-renowned Toronto composer, sound artist improviser, alto-saxophonist John Oswald of Plunderphonics fame and the ever-fluid, nimble London free-jazz percussionist Terry Fraser meet two talented Hamiltonians: adventuresome improviser, bassist David Lee and versatile jazz trumpeter Mike Malone. First encounters are often the most precious and exciting, especially, for creative forces with such disparate backgrounds!
ALDCROFT/THOMSON: Fresh off a European tour and a recording (Red & Blue on Trio Records), this dynamic duo have a decade of playing, recording & touring together and it shows! Guitarist Ken Aldcroft contributes the carefully crafted dissonances that refract his post-Abercrombie jazz guitar vocabulary through, for one, Derek Bailey’s technical extensions, while trombonist Scott Thomson was taught by Roswell Rudd, with more extreme technical revisions by Paul Rutherford and Günter Christmann. Their music is always improvised and bound to surprise…
NOT THE WIND, NOT THE FLAG: A fascinating project by two deep players, in some ways, their life’s work, Colin Fisher (guitar, bouzouki, ney, tenor sax, guzheng, hulusi, misc. percussion) and Brandon Valdivia (trapset, mbira, slit-drum, percussion) are Not the Wind, Not the Flag. On any occasion their music could echo the traditions of Balinese or West African music, Persian or Turkish music or it could be devastatingly loud post-hardcore, noise, free-jazz eruptions… or all of that at once!
BRODIE WEST: Alto saxophonist Brodie West has been an active member of Toronto’s creative music scene for the past 20 years, as a member of Drumheller, Deep Dark United, the Woodchoppers Collective and Zebradonk, having played with some of Toronto’s finest jazz musicians and improvisers. He has toured and recorded with a wide range of international musicians: Getatchew Mekuria, Han Bennink, The Ex, Ken Vandermark & Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed. West plays with The Lina Allemano 4 and The Ryan Driver Sextet, leads his own ensemble Eucalyptus, also plays in a duo with Evan Cartwright and performs solo.
SEE THROUGH TRIO: Currently composed of pianist Tania Gill, saxophonist Karen Ng, and bassist Pete Johnston, See Through Trio formed in 2004, with primary musical influences being the free-jazz innovators of the early 1960s, especially Jimmy Giuffre, Carla Bley & Ornette Coleman. The subsequent free-improvisation scene that developed in Europe also figure an important touchstone, as do the psychedelic folk music and progressive rock that emerged from the UK in the 1960s and 70s.
Each member of the group has played in many bands – a wide range of musical styles, including: traditional jazz, math rock, folk, New Orleans-style party music, singer/songwriters, big band swing, indie rock, country, progressive rock and more. These distinct sounds are connected by the playful deconstructionist spirit of jazz and creative music by three talented, imaginative musical beings.
CHRIS PALMER: A truly original improvising guitarist with a keen sense of adventure, humour, fire, curiosity and mischief, New Zealander / Hamiltonian Chris Palmer can easily rock a house party or stun a literary audience, hypnotizing them with his charm and chops.
DALE MORNINGSTAR: Producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist artist, one of the founders of 90s avant-rock band The Dinner Is Ruined, Dale Morningstar plays a rare solo set for us on guitar, keyboards or… if we’re really lucky, a taste of the infamous, amplified stationary bicycle! This very creative force has a slew of exciting tricks up his sleeve, as evidenced on well-known Canadian indie-rock recordings he has produced and played on, both others’ and his.
ERIC BOEREN 4TET: Four heavy-hitters of the Amsterdam creative music scene and the New Dutch Swing sound… in Hamilton for the very first time! Ebullient cornetist Eric Boeren has built this burning group of alchemists, playing music based on the early works and instrumentation of Ornette Coleman’s famous quartet. Featuring veteran improvisers; American ex-pat, all reeds virtuoso Michael Moore, monster double bassist Wilbert De Joode, and one of the fathers of free-jazz, master drummer Han Bennink!
Like Coleman, Boeren’s roots are jazz & blues, strong melodies mixed with unexpected keys to challenge improvisers. Boeren’s linguistic and tonal originality add much to his Dutch-jazz adaptations of Coleman tunes, to compositions by Coleman collaborators like Don Cherry and to Boeren’s own pieces. The 4tet assemble, deconstruct and reassemble with a rare blend of intellect, playfulness and musical virtuosity, a perfect balance of control and serendipity.
