Ches Smith & Devin Hoff (Good for Cows) w/ Mary Halverson, Jessica Pavone

Zs

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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Peter Evans and Nate Wooley

MV Carbon

Peter Evans has been a member of the New York musical community since 2003, when he moved to the city after graduating Oberlin Conservatory. Peter currently works in a wide variety of areas, including solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro-acoustic music and composition. As a performer, Evans has been working to break through the technical barriers of his instrument and enjoys playing with steady configurations of improvisers; each band explores a specific concept or style as much as possible. Current bands include the Peter Evans Quartet (with Brandon Seabrook, Tom Blancarte, & Kevin Shea), Moppa Elliott's terrorist bebop band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the hyperactive free-improvisation duo Sparks (with Tom Blancarte), the free-jazz quintet Carnivalskin (with Klaus Kugel and Bruce Eisenbeil), the Language Of with Charles Evans, duos with trumpeter Nate Wooley and saxophonist Dave Reminick, the New York Trumpet Ensemble, as well as a sustained interest in solo performance. In New York, Peter also performs contemporary notated music with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Contiuum, and Ensemble 21. He has continued to perform on piccolo trumpet in Baroque settings, performing Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 at the Bargemusic series, and in Bach’s Mass in B Minor at St Peter’s Church. Other collaborators have included: Mary Halvorson, Dave Taylor, John Zorn, Okkyung Lee, Taylor Ho Bynum, Perry Robinson, Jim Black, Evan Parker, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Gould, Jack Wright, Luka Ivanovic, Brian Chase, and Alan Kay. Recent travels have brought Peter to venues and festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the UK, and Southeast Asia. Recordings include "More is More", a solo trumpet album on psi, the self-titled first album of the Peter Evans Quartet (on firehouse12), and Shamokin!, the second album by MOPDTK, on HotCup Records.

Nate Wooley (b. 1974) grew up in a Finnish-American fishing village in Oregon. He has spent the rest of his life trying musically to find a way back to the peace and quiet of that time by whole-heartedly embracing the space between complete absorption in sound and relative absence of the same. He began playing trumpet professionally at age 13 with his father, and after studying he moved to Colorado where he studied more with Ron Miles, Art Lande, Fred Hess, and improvisation master Jack Wright. His tenure with Jack began to break Nate out of self-imposed molds and into the sound world that he has embraced as his own. Nate currently resides in Jersey City, NJ and performs solo trumpet improvisations as well as with his trio Blue Collar with Steve Swell and Tatsuya Nakatani. He has also performed regularly with Anthony Braxton, Bhob Rainey, Alessandro Bosetti, Fritz Welch, Herb Robertson, Kevin Norton, Tony Malaby, Randy Peterson, Scott Rosenberg, Matt Moran, Chris Speed, Andrew D’Angelo, Tim Barnes, Okkyung Lee, Assif Tsahar, and other improvisation luminaries.

M.V. Carbon plays cello through an array of electronics and combines it with light sensitive oscillations and pulsations. She uses analog synthesizers to create base drone tracks that are layered to form intonations that evoke meditative tendencies. Analog reel-to-reel tape machines are used to pick up the natural delay of each particular room space that she performs in. She carries the listener through different realms of consciousness by using variations in repetition and subtle changes in frequency.

Steve Swell's Nation Of We

Saco Yasuma, Will Connell, Ras Moshe, Sabir Mateen, Darius Jones---Reeds
Flip Barnes, Matt LaVelle, Roy Campbell---Trumpets
Peter Zummo, Dave Taylor, Steve Swell--Trombones
Jason Huang, Charles Burnham, Rosie Hertlein, Daniel Levin---Strings
Todd Nicholson, Alby Begochian--basses
Chris Forbes---Piano
Jackson Krall---Drums

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher’s College. He has toured and recorded
with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to
so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has 20 recordings as a
leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers", recorded on the CIMP label, was ranked number 2 in the 2004
Cadence Readers Poll. He received grant from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the
National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the
Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006. Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including “Slammin’ The Infinite” with Sabir Mateen, The Ullmann/Swell 4tet featuring Barry Altschul, “Unified Theory Of Sound” with Cooper-Moore, “Fire Into Music with Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We. He was the Jazz Journalist’s Associations Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008. Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special ed kids.

Steve has been a part of big bands or large ensembles as long as he has been
performing. He’s toured and recorded with the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich,
Alan Silva, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and many others. He
formed this band at the end of 2005 to foster what he hopes is more of an integration of the
disparate musical scenes now residing in New York. Steve gives written information,
conductions and other, on the spot, musical directions, but by and large, each performance
is dependent upon the members of the ensemble and their contributions. The written
material is really only a rough guide as to what can develop spontaneously which is what
gives the music its magic. By gathering the many different improvisational disciplines found
in this city, quite possibly new improvisational vocabularies and sensibilities will develop
thereby keeping the art of improvisation a lively one here in our hometown. These three
nights will give the band the opportunity to really come together as never before. Nation Of
We has one recording on Ayler Records.