May 29 Jack and Ben Wright
8 PM
All Ages
10$
http://www.springgardenmusic.com/
Bio:
JACK WRIGHT. After teaching at Temple University in the 1960s and leaving academia in the early 1970s to engage in radical politics and community organizing, by the late 1970s Wright directed his energies into music. He is one of a very small group of musicians in North America that has played improvised music exclusively since the 1970s. Through years of near constant touring, often performing for audiences in cities and towns where improvised music had never before been heard, he came to be regarded as something of an underground legend. He has deliberately eschewed the conventions and socio-aesthetic limitations of musical careerism to pursue his own vision. Although his de-professionalized approach sets him apart from most musicians at his level of accomplishment, his art has always grown, expanded, and synthesized new information. He is unquestionably an original and virtuosic saxophonist, a master improviser who is deeply lyrical, with humor never far away.
Today Wright tours frequently in Europe and North America (and in Japan in 2006), making new musical and human connections, bringing European musicians to the U.S. and bringing musicians everywhere together. His inspiration has provided crucial impetus to hundreds of musicians and has even motivated several people to establish music venues in order to present him and other improvisers (e.g. Baltimore’s High Zero festival). His vast list of collaborators includes some “name” luminaries (William Parker, Axel Dorner, Michel Doneda, Andrea Neumann, Denman Maroney, Bhob Rainey to name a few) but more significant are the many obscure greats he has played with. He has made over 40 recordings (many published on his own Spring Garden label), performed in over 20 countries, and written extensively and insightfully about music and society for journals such as Improjazz (France) and Signal to Noise (US), as well as his own website.
May 31 TV Pow WSG ASTRO
8 PM
All Ages
10$
http://www.myspace.com/tvpow
Todd Carter :: acoustic and electronic instruments
Brent Gutzeit :: acoustic and electronic instruments
Michael Hartman :: acoustic and electronic instruments
TV Pow is a trio of composers and free improvisers first organized in Tokyo 1995 by Michael Hartman and Brent Gutzeit, and later joined by Todd Carter in the move to Chicago in 1996. They employ samplers, percussion, invented instruments, synthesizers, turntables, tape manipulation, computers and multi-speaker surround-sound systems in a constantly evolving soundscape of sparkling electronics, ambient drones, minimalist techno, and cinematic field recordings. Creating through live performance something both new and recombinant, TV Pow has toured throughout Japan, Europe, and the United States.*
*still we are banned from Canada.
June 1 Tatsuya Nakatani
2 PM Improv Workshop, any instrument , all levels
10$
7:30 PM Concert
10$
http://www.hhproduction.org/TATSUYA_NAKATANI_WORKS.html
Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) is originally from Osaka, Japan. In 2006 he performed in 80 cities in 7 countries and collaborated with 163 artists worldwide. In the past 10 years he has released nearly 50 recordings on CD.He has created his own instrumentation, effectively inventing many instruments and extended techniques. He utilizes drumset, bowed gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects, bells, and various sticks and bows to create an intense, organic music that defies category or genre. His music is based in improvised/ experimental music, jazz, free jazz, rock, and noise, yet retains the sense of space and beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music.In addition to live solo and ensemble performances he works as a sound designer for film and television. He also teaches Masterclasses and Workshops at the University level. He also heads H&H Production, an independent record label and recording studio based in Easton, Pennsylvania. He was selected as a performing artist for the Pennsylvania Performing Artist on Tour (PennPat) roster as well as a Bronx Arts Council Individual Artist grant.
Mexicains Sans Frontieres
120 S Division Av #226
Grand Rapids , MI
49503
tel 616-706-7963
