Tag: Brandon Lopez

Spotlight On Brandon Lopez

On December 16 2019, bassist and composer Brandon Lopez presents sun burns out your eyes, a new work for trio and 4tet developed as part of his Roulette Residency and made possible with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.


Tell us about yourself and what you’re planning for Roulette.

I’m a bassist and composer and my work deals with improvisation. This coming December, I’ll present music for trio and quartet. The work, I think, will involve repetition and stasis and also none of it.

Who would be your ideal collaborator?

The ideal collaborator has little problem with frustration and the wrong choices being the right ones and the right ones needing a little shit on them.

What is influencing your work right now?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intangible, the left hand path, and how to make a cat happy. Unsure how that cocktail is influencing me, but I need to stand up. The level of inebriation can only be seen then. Unsure if the legs work. Will see in December.

What is your first musical memory?

Swearing off the stuff after getting a D in 3rd grade music class. My recorder had melted next to the family’s wood stove, and I was too sheepish to ask my mother to order a new one. That was maybe the first time I muttered, “fuck music”—and by no means the last of the sentiment.

How would you describe the New York music scene?

The New York music scene seems, by the grace of god, a fertile valley. Have to admit, all these condos feel like watching the fast-motion bleaching of the great barrier reef that creates a sometimes overwhelming sense of dread.


Brandon Lopez: sun burns out your eyes takes place on Monday, December 16, 2019 at 8pm with performers: drummer Gerald Cleaver, electronicist Cecilia Lopez, and saxophonist Steve Baczkowski.

Brandon Lopez + Steve Baczkowski

Brandon Lopez + Steve Baczkowski
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Bassist, improviser and composer Brandon Lopez continues his 2018 Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette with a duet with saxophonist Steve Baczkowski that tests the limits of the musicians’ endurance and instruments.
When: Thursday, July 12, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost:  $20 Door, $15 Presale
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SU180712

Brooklyn, NY – In the second performance of his year-long Van Lier Fellowship, bassist Brandon Lopez is joined by saxophonist Steve Baczkowski in a duet that tests the limits of the musicians’ endurance and their instruments. Known for the intense physicality of their performances, Lopez and Baczkowski transition between brutality and tenderness in a single show.

Brandon A. Lopez, deemed the “Ubiquitous Free Improv Bass Ace” by the Village Voice and said to play with a “bruising physicality” by the Chicago Reader, was born and raised in northwestern New Jersey. It was there that he cultivated a taste for left-of-center music and he has since had the pleasure of working with many of the world’s luminary left-of-center musicians, including Weasel Walter, Mette Rasmussen, Gerald Cleaver, Peter Evans, Ingrid Laubrock, and Dave Rempis. Lopez leads a piano trio “Mess” with Sam Yulsman and Chris Corsano. He frequently plays solo. He is the 2018 Artist-in-Residence at Issue Project Room and was awarded a Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette in the same year. He attended New England Conservatory.

Steve Baczkowski is a Buffalo-based saxophonist. He has worked with Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker, and many others. His debut trio album will be released on Relative Pitch Records in the next year. Brandon Lopez and Steve Baczkowski met at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts, the center for improvised and strange music in Buffalo, New York. Quick friends, they decided to test the musical waters of the Brooklyn underground. A year later, they gave a brutal performance at the Exposure Festival in Chicago, wowing listeners and critics.

[VAN LIER FELLOW] Brandon Lopez: The Lamentations + Bennett/Foster/Wooley/Lopez

What: Bassist, improviser and composer Brandon Lopez plays The Lamentations, followed by a newly-formed quartet.
When: Thursday, June 21, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25 Door, $20 Presale
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180621

Brooklyn, NY – Brandon Lopez plays The Laminations with frequent collaborator Sam Yulsman. Composed specifically for improvising musicians, the piece—although named after The Book of Lamentations—is secular and ripe for interpretation. Lopez will then be joined by Nate Wooley, Michael Foster, Ben Bennett to perform as a quartet.

Brandon A. Lopez, deemed the “Ubiquitous Free Improv Bass Ace” by the Village Voice and said to play with a “bruising physicality” by the Chicago Reader, was born and raised in northwestern New Jersey. It was there that he cultivated a taste for the left of center musics and has since had the pleasures of working with many of the world’s luminary left of center musicians such as Weasel Walter, Mette Rasmussen, Gerald Cleaver, Peter Evans, Ingrid Laubrock, Dave Rempis, and has toured and played prestigious halls, DIY basements, festivals across North America and Europe. Lopez currently leads a piano trio dubbed “Mess” with Sam Yulsman and Chris Corsano. He frequently plays solo. He is the 2018 Artist-in-Residence at Issue Project Room and was awarded a Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette in the same year. He attended New England Conservatory.

The Lamentations
Brandon Lopez – Bass
Sam Yulsman – Piano

Bennett/Foster/Wooley/Lopez
Nate Wooley – Trumpet
Michael Foster – Saxophone
Ben Bennett – Percussion
Brandon Lopez – Bass