fbpx

Author: Kerry

The Westerlies: Album Release Show

What: Brass quartet The Westerlies celebrate the release of their self-titled sophomore album.
When: Tuesday, October 18, 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

“What a distinctly American twist: to flip a story of sorrow on its head, opening it up to a future bright with possibility.” — NPR Music

Brooklyn, NY – Following their well-received tribute show to Wayne Horvitz last fall, Roulette welcomes back brass quartet The Westerlies to celebrate the release of their self-titled sophomore album. Already garnering early praise from NPR, the album features original music by each member of the ensemble alongside songs by Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, and an English folk song arranged by Nico Muhly and Sam Amidon. On the heels of their critically acclaimed debut album Wish the Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz, the new album is a boldly personal set of music that is equally virtuosic and vulnerable. The Westerlies perform without sheet music, allowing a direct connection to the audience.

The Westerlies (“prevailing winds from the West to the East”) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of four childhood friends from Seattle: Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone. The Westerlies explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Equally at home in concert halls and living rooms, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

  • Riley Mulherkar – trumpet
  • Zubin Hensler – trumpet
  • Andy Clausen – trombone
  • Willem de Koch – trombone

Passin' Thru Music Festival: 10^32K // Trio 3

What: The inaugural Passin’ Thru Music Festival features a series of performances curated by saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake.
When: Monday, October 17, 2016, 8pm
W: 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 – Passin’ Thru Records presents the inaugural Passin’ Thru Music Festival, a series of performances curated by saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake, including both composed and improvised music by Oliver Lake’s Big Band and The Josh Evans Quintet on Sunday, October 16 followed by 10^32K and Trio 3 on Monday, October 17.

Avant jazz trio 10^32K combines cerebral flamboyance of Frank Lacy’s trombone with Andrew Drury’s kaleidoscopic percussion, complimented the big broad bass sound of Kevin Ray. Rather than focusing upon the more traditional masters, the trio selects from a compelling repertoire from some of the less-often played, but powerfully innovative composers and players of modern Jazz (Sam Rivers, Albert Ayler, Roswell Rudd, Henry Threadgill, et al) in addition to their own compositions.

Trio 3 offers an unconventional collaboration of internationally-recognized jazz masters Oliver Lake on alto sax, Reggie Workman on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Formed to centralize the members’ creative energies, the group promotes the governing principle of organized Improvisation. Open to the infinite possibilities, Trio 3 mixes and explores different colors within the jazz vocabulary.

Saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake‘s artistic vision remains daring, unique and uncompromising, maintaining his place as one of the preeminent saxophonists in the progressive jazz scene. Known for his work with his Organ and Big Band groups, Lake has collaborated with luminaries such as Myra Melford, Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, and others. Lake is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the Kennedy Center, and Doris Duke Artist Award, and has received commissions from the Library of Congress.

Passin' Thru Music Festival: Josh Evans Quintet // The Oliver Lake Big Band

What: The inaugural Passin’ Thru Music Festival features a series of performances curated by saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake.
When: Sunday, October 16, 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 – Passin’ Thru Records presents the inaugural Passin’ Thru Music Festival, a series of performances curated by saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake, including both composed and improvised music by Oliver Lake’s Big Band and The Josh Evans Quintet on Sunday, October 16 followed by 10^32K and Trio 3 on Monday, October 17.

The Josh Evans Quintet is a straight-ahead yet adventurous group including a tight rotating cast of some of the world’s best musicians. For the past decade, Oliver Lake’s Big Band has served as one of Lake’s greatest achievements and most sophisticated compositional outlets. The band’s most recent recorded release, entitled Wheels, has been met with widespread critical acclaim.

Saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake‘s artistic vision remains daring, unique and uncompromising, maintaining his place as one of the preeminent saxophonists in the progressive jazz scene. Known for his work with his Organ and Big Band groups, Lake has collaborated with luminaries such as Myra Melford, Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, and others. Lake is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the Kennedy Center, and Doris Duke Artist Award, and has received commissions from the Library of Congress.

Curated by Meredith Monk: David Behrman's Reinventions

What: David Behrman calls upon the talents of guitarist John King and fiddler Cleek Schrey to present Reinventions, a program of updated works.
When: Thursday, October 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 – David Behrman calls upon the talents of guitarist John King and fiddler Cleek Schrey to present Reinventions, a program of updated works. The inaugural event in Meredith Monk’s performance series at Roulette, Curated by Meredith Monk features performers selected by Monk who are following his or her own path, asking questions, finding places that fall between the cracks of genres or categories. There is an inclusiveness and a weaving together of elements that lead to the discovery of new worlds. There is no discrepancy or polarization of high art/low art, electronic/acoustic music, ritual/dance, jazz/classical, abstract/personal. Anything is possible; nothing is taken for granted. Freedom of the imagination, authenticity and liveliness are part and parcel of each artist’s work.

David Behrman has been active as a composer and artist since the 1960s. He has made sound and multimedia installations for gallery spaces as well as compositions for performance. Sound and multimedia installations include: Cloud Music (1979), a collaboration with Robert Watts and Bob Diamond, recently acquired into the collection of the Smithsonian; Pen Light (2002); and View Finder (2005). Together with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, and Gordon Mumma, Behrman was a founding member of Sonic Arts Union. He had a long association with the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio as composer and performer.

John King is a composer, guitarist and violist. His string quartets have been performed by the Eclipse Quartet (LA) and the Mondriaan Quartet (Amsterdam), in addition to the Secret Quartet, which has premiered many of his compositions at The Stone, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center Festival, and Roulette.

Cleek Schrey is fiddler, improviser, and composer from Virginia and currently based in NYC. Recent engagements include a residency with David Behrman and Anton Lukoszevieze at Café OTO in London, the Beckett in London Festival with Gare St. Lazare, and a solo appearance at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Schrey has studied composition with David Behrman, Paul Caputo, Bunita Marcus, and Walter Zimmermann. The journal Sound Post has noted that Cleek “possesses a rare combination of traits: deep respect for traditional music and the people who make it, and an unbounded curiosity about new directions for sound.” Schrey is currently pursuing a Masters in Music Composition at Wesleyan University.

Glenn Branca: The Third Ascension and The World Premiere of The Light (for David)

The Glenn Branca Ensemble, led by Glenn Branca, makes its Roulette debut on October 8, 2016

 Featuring the world premiere of The Light (for David), written for David Bowie, and a revised version of The Third Ascension

“If art music and rock music sat at either end of a scale, Glenn Branca would be standing on the fulcrum, smashing each side with as many guitars as possible.”

– Vice, May 2016

Roulette is pleased to present legendary avant-garde composer-guitarist Glenn Branca and his sextet, The Glenn Branca Ensemble, in a program featuring instrumental works for four guitars, bass and drums in three different tunings. From his formative No Wave band Theoretical Girls to his epic 100-electric-guitar symphonies, Branca has been a trailblazer, acclaimed for his massive swirls of sound, and original use of repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. For this Roulette appearance, he will premiere The Light (for David), and revisit The Third Ascension – two works, Branca notes, which are “intensely powerful and not for the faint of heart.”

WHEN: Saturday, October 8, 2016 at 8 p.m.

WHERE: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn

TICKET: General Admission: $30; Members/Students/Seniors: $25; $35/$30 at the door (Door opens at 7 p.m.). roulette.org or call 917-267-0363.

The performance will run one hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.

The Light (for David) is Glenn Branca’s tribute to David Bowie. Although their approach to experimental rock took different paths, Branca and Bowie have long admired each other’s work. They once collaborated in a Tony Oursler audio-video installation created for Das Kunstprojekt Der Expo 2000 in Germany, when Branca was invited to compose music for a text written by Oursler and read by Bowie. Branca writes in an exclusive interview for Roulette's fall program: “David Bowie was our hero. Intelligent, talented and with the desire to create a really new different rock…When he died, I was shocked like everybody else….I hadn’t realized how much he meant to me throughout most of my life. I think somehow knowing he was here, was like having a muse.”

The program also features a revised version of The Third Ascension, which received its U.S. premiere at The Kitchen (NYC) to sold out houses last February. The work is a follow-up to Branca’s 1981 The Ascension – “a landmark work, that fused the rigorous minimalism of Philip Glass and Steve Reich to clanging, noxious harmonies and thundering rock volumes, [encapsulating] the fury, pathos, and raw energy of New York at the beginning of the 80s” (Pitchfork). With The Third Ascension, Branca furthers his experimentation with resonances generated by alternate tunings for multiple electric guitars.

The Vinny Golia Quartet with Tim Berne, Ken Filiano, and Michael TA Thompson

What: The Vinny Golia Quartet brings together a vast array of music, sound and experience as one entity.
When: Tuesday, October 4, 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 – The Vinny Golia Quartet (members Tim Berne, Ken Filiano, Michael TA Thompson, Vinny Golia) use composition as a structure to create musical forms. Having played together in various configurations since 1978, the quartet brings together a vast array of music, sound and experience as one entity.

As a composer, Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of jazz, contemporary classical, and world music into his own unique compositions. As a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences all over the world. In 1982, he created the ongoing 50-piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles. Golia is the 2006 recipient of The Jazz Journalists Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Saxophonist and composer Tim Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s. Known for his complex, multi-section compositions, Berne has performed and collaborated with Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, and as a member of the cooperative trio Miniature. He is one-third of the group BBC (Berne / Black / Cline) along with drummer Jim Black and Nels Cline of Wilco.

Active since the early '80s, bassist Ken Filiano has since contributed to dozens of albums, most of them pertaining to creative jazz, from post-bop to free improvisation. Since the 1970s, Filiano has played or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Fred Ho, Nels Cline, Bill Dixon, Fay Victor, and many others. As an educator, Filiano teaches at the New School, School of Visual Arts, and Hunter College.

  • Vinny Golia – Woodwinds
  • Tim Berne – Alto Saxophone
  • Ken Filiano – Bass
  • Michael TA Thompson – Drums

Kris Davis + Craig Taborn

What: Star pianists Kris Davis and Craig Taborn perform together in an evening of original compositions and improvisations.
When: Sunday, October 2, 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 – Roulette is thrilled to present an evening of original compositions and improvisations from two of jazz’s most celebrated contemporary pianists, Kris Davis and Craig Taborn.

Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure,” according to JazzTimes. Reviewing one of the series of albums that Davis has released over the past decade, the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the “sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities” in her playing and compositions. Davis’ newest album as a leader is the quintet set Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed, 2013). She made her debut on record as a leader with Lifespan (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), followed by more for the Fresh Sound label: the quartet discs The Slightest Shift (2006) and Rye Eclipse (2008), and the trio set Good Citizen (2010). Her 2011 solo piano album on Clean Feed, Aeriol Piano, appeared on Best of the Year lists in The New York Times, JazzTimes and Artforum. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Piano from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in Classical Composition from the City College of New York. She currently teaches at the School for Improvised Music. Regarding her art, JazzTimes declared: “Davis draws you in so effortlessly that the brilliance of what she’s doing doesn’t hit you until the piece has slipped past.”

Craig Taborn is an American pianist, keyboardist and composer who also dabbles in organ and Moog synthesizer. Taborn began playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by the freedom expressed in the recordings of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor. While still at university, Taborn toured and recorded with saxophonist James Carter. He went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. Taborn had released five albums under his own name and appeared on more than 70 as a sideman.

  • Kris Davis – piano
  • Craig Taborn – piano

Kamikaze Ground Crew

What: Kamikaze Ground Crew draws from over 30 years of repertoire with the addition of new compositions and arrangements.
When: Thursday, September 29, 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 – Kamikaze Ground Crew began in 1983 as a backup band for the Flying Karamazov Brothers, filtering its music through the eclectic new-music ethos of the 1980s. The group developed through larger theatrical productions and emerged with a life of its own, becoming a vehicle for new compositions and arrangements as an abstract circus band. The ensemble is horn driven, utilizing three woodwinds, brass and drums, along with the occasional keyboard, ukulele, or electric guitar, as well as voice. Originally based in California, the group has maintained its current configuration since relocating to New York in the late 1990s. The performance will draw from over 30 years of repertoire with the addition of some new compositions and arrangements.

Co-leader, composer, and arranger Gina Leishman is recognized as a composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer, splitting her time between writing and performing, both with her various ensembles and in the theater. As a composer, she has written for opera, theater, dance, TV and film, and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards. Collaborations include directors Karin Coonrod, Robert Woodruff, Lisa Peterson and Joseph Chaikin; writers Ellen McLaughlin, Tony Kushner and Naomi Wallace; choreographers David Gordon, Bebe Miller and Deborah Slater; and performance artists Rinde Eckert and John Kelly. She has released numerous recordings as co-leader of Kamikaze Ground Crew, as well as her solo projects which feature her compositions and songs.

Doug Wieselman has played with a variety of artists in different fields including John Lurie, Antony and the Johnsons, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, CocoRosie, Martha Wainwright, Anthony Coleman, Jerome Robbins and Robert Wilson. He has co-led Kamikaze Ground Crew for over 30 years and has released a solo clarinet record based on melodies from bodies of water.

  • Gina Leishman – piano, accordion, alto and bari sax, voice co-leader, composer/arranger
  • Doug Wieselman – clarinets, tenor and bari sax, co-leader, composer/arranger
  • Steven Bernstein –  trumpet, slide trumpet, composer/arranger
  • Peter Apfelbaum – tenor sax, clarinet
  • Art Baron – trombone
  • Marcus Rojas – tuba
  • Kenny Wollesen – drums

Damon Smith, Alvin Fielder, Joe McPhee Trio

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.

Resonant Bodies Festival

What: Roulette’s fall season kicks off with three nights of the acclaimed contemporary vocal performance festival Resonant Bodies.
When: Tuesday-Thursday, September 6-8 2016, 7:30pm
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 – Acclaimed Resonant Bodies Festival returns to Roulette in its fourth annual incarnation as New York’s most innovative and wide-ranging presenter of contemporary vocal artists. Featuring an international roster of virtuosic singers, world premieres, and an exhilarating mix of genres, the nine vocalists performing over three days will provide an immersive musical experience unlike any other.

Opening night (September 6) features soprano Julia Bullock, winner of the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition, singing David Hertzberg, Lukas Foss, and John Cage; flutist, lyric soprano, and curator of a vibrant repertoire of lesser-known contemporary masterpieces, Alice Teyssier, will perform with her multi-media experimental ensemble, The Atelier (Bradley Scott Rosen, Michael Weyandt); and award-winning Ethiopian-born, Swedish composer/vocalist/improviser Sofia Jernberg, will make her New York debut with her own compositions for solo voice as well as new works showcasing her virtuosic vocal talents.

The second night (September 7) features the “open-hearted” (Wall Street Journal) performing style of mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer, performing Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, and Florent Ghys; along with the fearless, boundary-pushing tenor Peter Tantsits, giving the US premiere of several works by Karlheinz Stockhausen; and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, founding member of the Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth, performing works by Georges Aperghis, Stockhausen, Jake Endris, David Heard, and a world premiere of an original work for voice and electronics.

The final night (September 8) will feature “Hamburg’s queen of avant-garde” (Hamburger Abendblatt) Frauke Aulbert, who boasts a vocal range of four octaves, sharing her explorations of extended vocal techniques from around the world, on the same program as Sophia Burgos, a rising star of contemporary vocal music, presenting a collage of virtuosic vocal music by Philippe Leroux, Lucian Berio, and Zesses Seglias; and “preternaturally focused” (The New York Times) Canadian soprano Charlotte Mundy, who will be joined by her ensemble, TAK, to perform premieres by Natacha Diels, Doug Balliett, and Erin Gee in settings of Anne Carson’s poem, “The Albertine Workout.”