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Interactions Quartet East features Andrew Raffo Dewar (s. saxophone), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jessica Pavone (violin/viola), and Aaron Siegel (percussion). The quartet will perform excerpts from Dewar's "Interactions #1-6 (2009)," "Piece for Four Instruments (2002)" and new work in progress.

The "Interactions" series of compositions explore a variety of strategies in notation and performance combining traditional scoring, photographs read musically, notated structural materials that function invisibly within the music, and improvisations that can be difficult to determine where they lie on the spectrum of fixity and flux. "Piece for Four" is a work using invented spatial notation that explores group dynamics and indeterminate counterpoint resulting in an array of irrational rhythmic relationships. These compositions destabilize conventional approaches to foreground and background sound events in favor of a collective sound that allows the listener to draw their own conclusions.

Andrew Raffo Dewar (b. 1975 Rosario, Argentina) is a composer, musician, scholar and educator. In addition to leading his own ensembles, he works internationally in collaborative groups with a wide range of musicians and artists. Dewar studied and has worked with musical innovators such as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Steve Lacy and Alvin Lucier. He holds an MA and PhD in music from Wesleyan University and teaches at the University of Alabama.

www.freemovementarts.com

Jazz Composer Series is supported in part through an anonymous contribution.

 

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

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Interdisciplinary artist Lea Bertucci presents the world premiere of two works: Respire and SEEP for her Jerome Foundation Residency at Roulette.

Respire, a composition for an ensemble of six acoustic instruments and four-channel synthesis. Conceived as a meditation on the act of breathing, this work will be based on long form patterns of inhalation/exhalation and will examine the relationship between acoustic and electric sound. The instrumentalists will be distributed throughout the balcony of Roulette’s theater to create dynamic movement of acoustic sound. Speakers will also be strategically placed throughout the theater, which will allow the synthesizer a similar sort of mobility, at turns blending and contrasting electric and acoustic sound.

SEEP is an experimental film shot the summer of 2012 in the mountains of southern Utah. A 23 minute long montage of dreamy reflections, mingling organic forms and patterns of moving light. This film will be presented with a live soundtrack performed by Lea Bertucci (Bass Clarinet, tapes) and Sandy Gordon (Vibraphone).

Featuring
Lea Bertucci, Sandy Gordon, Nate Wooley, Jessica Pavone, Martha Cargo, John Stanesco, James Ilgenfritz, Aliza Simons, Matthew Regula

Lea Bertucci is an interdisciplinary artist who works with photography, sound, video and installation. She received her BA in Photography from Bard College in 2007, the same year she was awarded a fellowship from the Tierney Foundation. The emphasis of her work lies in exciting the liminal areas of perception.

http://www.brokendiorama.com/

Lea Bertucci’s performance is made possible with support from Jerome Foundation.

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$15 General Admission
$10 Members/Students/Seniors

Hope Dawson is Missing is the follow-up to violinist/violist/composer Jessica Pavone's 2009 Tzadik release, Songs of Synastry and Solitude. Lyrics meditate on plutonian themes of destruction and rebuilding, migration, falsities, and undeniable truths. Pavone augments the Toomai string quartet's format from SOSS--a string quartet that includes double bass--with guitar, drums, and voice to further explore her orchestration of songs for chamber ensembles.

Featuring:
Members of the Toomai String Quintet
Joshua Modny - violin
Erin Wight - viola
John Popham - cello
Andrew Roitstein - double bass

Mary Halvorson - guitar
Tomas Fujiwara - drums
Emily Manzo - voice

Also performing this evening is Magda Mayas & Tony Buck duo! Berlin based pianist Magda Mayas has developed a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects as she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage. Tonight Mayas joins forces with one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports - percussionist Tony Buck!

An active performer in New York City for the past decade, Jessica Pavone has been leading her own bands; Army of Strangers and The Pavones, has performed in ensembles led by Anthony Braxton, Jason Cady, Jeremiah Cymerman, Matana Roberts, Henry Threadgill, and Matthew Welch, as well as such collective groups as the Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo, Normal Love, and The Thirteenth Assembly.

As a composer, Pavone has earned grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund, the American Music Center, The Kitchen, MATA, The Jerome Foundation, and the group, Till By Turning, which recently presented the European premiere of her piece "Quotidian" at Faust's Klangbad Festival 2009 in Germany. Her discography features more than 30 recordings, including recent releases from the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings and William Parker. Jessica's music has been released by the Tzadik, Thirsty Ear, and Porter record labels.

Tony Buck is regarded as one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience across the globe. He has been involved in a highly diverse array of projects but is probably best known around the world as a member of the trio The Necks. Following studies and early experience in Australia he spent time in Japan, where he formed PERIL with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki before relocating to Europe in the mid-nineties. Some of the more high profile projects he has been involved with include the band Kletka Red, and touring and recording with, among others, The EX, The Exiles, and Corchestra, and involvement with most of the international improvisation and new music community and festivals. He also creates video works for use with live music performance and has had pieces shown in Tokyo, Belfast, Berlin, New York and Sydney.

Magda Mayas is a pianist living in Berlin. Developing a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage. Lately she has also focused on the clavinet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices. Current projects are "Spill", a duo with drummer Tony Buck, a duo with Anthea Caddy (cello), a duo with Christine Abdelnour Sehnaoui (sax), "Great Waitress", a trio with Monika Brooks (acc) and Laura Altman (cl) and different collaborations with Andy Moor, Clayton Thomas and Peter Evans. Magda Mayas has performed and toured in Europe, the USA, Australia and Lebanon with many leading figures in improvisation such as John Butcher, Peter Evans, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, Axel Dörner, Johannes Bauer, Christoph Kurzmann, Thomas Lehn and Tristan Honsinger

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This concert celebrates Tzadik's release of Songs of Synastry and Solitude; a collection of songs for string quartet influenced by an interest in the simple beauty of folk songs, the ghosts of all things lost and Leonard Cohen's encouragement to live outside this world.

As a composer, Pavone has earned grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund , the American Music Center , The Kitchen , MATA and the group, Till By Turning , which recently presented the European premiere of "Quotidian" at Faust's Klangbad Festival 2009 in Germany. Her discography features more than 30 recordings, including recent releases from the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet , Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings and William Parker .
"Jessica Pavone is one of the busiest young performers on the city's creative music scene," declared Steve Dollar in a 2008 feature in the New York Sun, "lending her strings and a direct, personal style of playing them to all kinds of settings." Jazz Review's Philip Clark writes, "We learn things from her music that we didn't already know. [Her] harmonic openness turns the microscope on herself and she responds with lines of honest clarity, an oblique perspective on the familiar." AllMusic.com's Charlie Wilmouth adds, "Her work possesses an uncommon amount of elegance"¦each piece is perfectly formed, expiring just as its tiny collection of melodic materials cycles through to its logical conclusion."
www.jessicapavone.com

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Good for Cows began as a duo in 1999 when Devin Hoff (string bass) and Ches Smith (drums) would meet regularly to work on musical ideas from a rhythm section's perspective. At first the two focused on creative interpretations of jazz compositions, particularly the music of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Charles Mingus. It wasn't long before their shared love of independent rock ("punk") bands such as Black Flag, Minutemen, and Minor Threat began to inform the duo's sound in their use of timbre, aggressive energy, and personal voice. Equally important were devices such as multidirectional rhythm, aural cues, and in-the-moment investigations of distinctive sound worlds gleaned from study of contemporary composer/performers Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Cecil Taylor, and Fred Frith.

Good for Cows have since written numerous compositions and improvisations, searching for the strengths of the spare bass and drums instrumentation. They released their self-titled debut CD in 2001 (Evander Music), and a follow up, "Less Than or Equal to" on (former Deerhoof guitarist) Rob Fisk's Free Porcupine Society label in summer 2003. A third record, "Bebop Fantasy" was released by Asian Man Records in 2005, and a fourth is in progress.

Ches Smith tours and records with Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, Xiu Xiu,
Secret Chiefs 3 and Trevor Dunn's trio-convulsant, and leads his own
bands Congs for Brums and These Arches.

Devin Hoff tours and records with the Nels Cline Singers, Stephen
Bernstien, and Xiu Xiu, and leads his own project, Devin Hoff Platform.

Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone are a Brooklyn-based collaborative duo that have been working together for over four years composing and performing a unique body of music, drawing from classical, jazz and folk traditions while experimenting with new forms. Their music explores improvisation and composition while utilizing amplification and electronic effects as well as acoustic presentation. The compositions in their current repertoire generally range in length from two to six minutes, with each of them composing separate pieces for the project.

Zs was founded in 2000 and has existed as a trio, sextet, and quartet, now solidifying into the trio formation of Sam Hillmer (tenor saxophone), Ben Greenberg (electric guitar), and Ian Antonio (drum set). While our music has been variously categorized as no-wave, brutal-prog, and post-minimalist, Zs is primarily concerned with making music that challenges the physical and mental limitations of both performer and listener. Manipulating extended technique, unique instrumental synthesis, and near telepathic communication, Zs aims to create works that envelop the listener and unfold sonically over time, evoking unspoken past, present, and future rites and ritual. Zs has performed in lofts, galleries, rock clubs, and concert halls across the United States and Europe with The Locust, Gang Gang Dance, Animal Collective, The Dirty Projectors, Orthrelm, Octis, The Flying Luttenbachers, Behold... The Arctopus, Yellow Swans, Get Hustle, Dan Deacon, Aa, Marnie Stern, Peter Brotzman and Han Bennick, Joe Maneri, Christian Wolff, Louis Andriessen, and Petr Kotik, among many others. Zs has recorded for the 31G, Tzadik, Troubleman Unlimited, Planaria, Gilgongo, Sockets, Ricecontrol, and Zum record labels. The members of Zs also perform with Little Women, Cutter, Yarn/Wire, Hunter-Gatherer, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, Regattas, and Trouble.

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"The Pavones" is the result of a lifetime of musical influences. An avid fan of new music and improvisation who grew up a kid of the 80's 90's, Pavone is searching to find a way to merge influences of the different sounds she has ever loved through her own voice as a composer. From the first study of Beethoven's Violin Romance in F, to the highly influential adoption of her father's old vynyl collection as a young teenager; growing up with the Four Seasons and Murry the K compilations as well as "formal" study of classical viola and composition. She now learns and grows from being a working musician amongst others a vast city of creativity, and other influential interests include folk rock, free improvisation, William Primrose, Jeffry Hyman, soul, the hopes of returning as Florence Ballard in the next life, visual arts and the grace of the human body.

Brooklyn based string instrumentalist/composer Jessica Pavone, has been active in New York City for the past eight years. She is best known for her work performing all over the world with Anthony Braxton in his current Septet and Twelve+1tet and for her duo project with guitarist, Mary Halvorson, which has been described as "distinct and beguiling...its core is steely, and its execution clear." (The New York Times). As a composer, Pavone has received grants from the American Music Center and commissions to write chamber music from the MATA Foundation, and the chamber music collectives; Till by Turning and The Eastern Winds. She has been noted as having "the ability to transform a naked tonal gesture into something special" (The Wire). She currently leads and plays bass guitar and viola in her 60's soul inspired band The Pavones , plays viola and composes for ... No Way to Say Goodbye (a string quartet that substitutes a second violin for a double bass) and a CD of her indeterminate works for solo viola was recently released by the Nowaki label in Paris, France.
As an instrumentalist, she improvises in bands led by William Parker, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Matana Roberts and has interpreted new music by Glenn Branca, James Fei, Butch Morris, David Grubbs, Matthew Welch, Aaron Siegel, Loren Dempster, and T ristan Perich.
Since 2000, she has documented her music via her self-run label, Peacock Recordings, which was recently awarded a grant from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program, and her growing discography and list of works can be witnessed via her web site, Jessicapavone.com.

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THB (cornet, compositions,) Matt Bauder (tenor sax, clarinet,) Mary Halvorson (electric guitar,) Evan O'Reilly (electric guitar,) Jessica Pavone (viola, electric bass,) Loren Kiyoshi Dempster (cello,) Tomas Fujiwara (drums.)

The THB Ensemble is a small ensemble committed to the further exploration of the extensions of composition and improvisation pioneered by masters like Ellington, Ives and members of the AACM. Led by cornettist/composer Bynum (best known for his work with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, and the Fully Celebrated Orchestra,) the group features some of New York's most outstanding young musicians, all established as leaders and composers in their own right, with the skills to navigate through many styles and genres in the search for something else.

Taylor Ho Bynum is a performer on cornet and various brass instruments, composer and bandleader. Born in 1975, Bynum was raised in Boston and presently resides in Brooklyn. He has established a reputation as a unique musical voice willing to take chances in a wide variety of artistic contexts. His projects cover a diverse range of artistic expression -- from ensembles in the jazz tradition, to work with DJs, contemporary classical composers and world music ensembles, to composing for film and theater, to collaborations with dancers and visual artists. He presently leads his Sextet and the nine-piece ensemble SpiderMonkey Strings, and works with many of the leading figures in creative music. Bynum's work with Anthony Braxton has spanned ten years and projects ranging from duo to orchestra, most recently touring Europe with Braxton's new Sextet and Trio, and co-conducting Braxton's European Creative Orchestra. Their CD "Duets (Wesleyan) 2002" has received wide critical acclaim. Bynum's next CD as a leader, "Other Stories (Three Suites,)" with SpiderMonkey Strings, will be released on 482 Music this fall. Check out www.taylorhobynum.com for more info.

The Village Voice calls Bynum "one of the savviest trumpeters to come along in recent years, a growling sound-and-space man in the tradition of Lester Bowie" and Signal to Noise Magazine reports, "his command of color and nuance is supreme...I don't know how he did any of this, but it's wonderful...Sheer joy."

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Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone have been collaborating for over three years to create a unique body of duo music. The pair combines lush melodies with textural improvisation and jagged rhythms to create concise, enigmatic musical episodes. Their collaboration utilizes a variety of timbres, achieved through amplification and electronic effects as well as acoustic presentation. Halvorson and Pavone, each of whom contributed original compositions to the project, have developed a constantly expanding repertoire comprised of over 50 pieces. This concert celebrates the release of their fist album on the Lucky Kitchen label.