What: The world premiere of the trio celebrates the meeting of free jazz masters, Joe McPhee and Alvin Fielder, joined by bassist Damon Smith.
When: Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door
Brooklyn, NY – Master musicians Joe McPhee and Alvin Fielder, joined by bassist Damon Smith, will play together for the first time following Fielder’s illness. The evening will offer a rare opportunity to witness two free jazz greats reflect on their storied careers. With strong ties to American jazz traditions as well as European-style free improvisation, all three musicians will push the boundaries of jazz, swing, and blues in unlikely and inspiring ways.
Mississippi-born jazz drummer Alvin Fielder began his career in Chicago, where he co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1965. Over the next several decades, Fielder has played with Sun Ra, Muhal Richard Abrams, Eddie Harris, Kalaparusha, Fred Anderson, Lester Lashley and Roscoe Mitchell, among others. Fielder is featured on Roscoe Mitchell’s seminal 1966 Sound recording. He is the 2012 recipient of the Resounding Vision Award from Nameless Sound in Houston.
Joe McPhee is a jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer hailing from Miami, Florida. Active since the late 1960s, McPhee plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, whose theories of “deep listening” strengthened his interests in extended instrumental and electronic techniques, and Albert Ayler, who inspired McPhee to pick up the saxophone, McPhee has produced over 100 recordings throughout his 50+ year career.
Damon Smith’s explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Born and raised in the fertile Bay Area music scene of the 1990s, Smith is heavily influenced by visual art, film, and dance, and counts Werner Herzog and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company among his collaborators.