Cellist Rubin Kodheli in a new trio with bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3) and Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), featuring special guest guitarist Mary Halvorson. They will perform improvised music in the spirit of their first EP, “Departure.”
Jumping into a Rubin Kodheli musical experience is like taking a leap of faith, not only for the rigorous musicians involved – in this case drummer Brian Chase (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs), bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle), and guitarist Mary Halvorson (Anthony Braxton) – but also for an adventurous audience. The four-piece ensemble is the literal opposite of a square quartet, but more like an anti-quadrilateral, a unit perhaps not limited to the dimensions we are firmly aware of. They are rugged yet spiritual, audacious yet meditative, and each musician is certainly unparalleled in what they can accomplish on their individual instruments.
But what makes this ensemble sing is their collective ease in putting aside their own inner creative voices and finding a frequency above and beyond themselves. Their ambition to find this coherent whole is a bit radical — especially considering that their sound dwells in the center of pondering about the differences between improvisation and spontaneous composition. While each musician listens outside themselves – a unique mindset in the realm of jazz – the music is by definition absolutely unpredictable, even for the players, but also has the power to summon a universal energy we can all enjoy.”
Juilliard-trained composer Rubin Kodheli is a celebrated, genre-transcending creative rebel. Rubin crafts rapturous sonic collages which stir the soul and senses. His compositions teem with contemplative invitation and nuance, providing the opportunity to listen repeatedly, each time ripe with the possibility of hearing something that previously went unnoticed. The inspirational tapestry of his work is intentionally woven from blended threads of rock, jazz and classical influences, a stylistic trademark that has afforded Kodheli a career rich in its diversity of output. From his compositions appearing in feature films such as Precious (2009), to his original symphonic rock compositions, to his collaborations as a performer with genre defining artists — including Philip Glass, Henry Threadgill, Christian McBride, Dennis Russell Davies, Meredith Monk, Joan Jett, Laurie Anderson, Tom Harrell, Snoop Dogg many more — Kodheli creates an intimate, masterful reimagining of the expressive capacity of his instrument.
Brooklyn-based musician Brian Chase is the drummer for Grammy-nominated rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, NYC’s experimental music community and Drums and Drones, a solo project with a compositional focus on the harmonic resonances derived from drums and percussion. Recorded works include several with Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many with leading improvisors and composers such as Zeena Parkins, Catherine Sikora and Jeremiah Cymerman. In 2018, the Drums and Drones project released Drums and Drones: Decade, a triple album with 144 page book (Chaikin Records), described in The Wire as “an indispensable statement on how drummers hear sound.” For more info visit www.chaikinrecords.com.
Trevor Dunn was born in 1968 behind the Redwood Curtain. His first instrument was the clarinet and he began to focus on the electric bass at age 13. Four years later he co-founded the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle. In 1990 he received a BA in music from Humboldt State where he performed Koussevitsky’s Concerto for Double Bass with the HSO. In 2001 his solo piece “Depaysemant” for prepared contrabass was premiered at Lincoln Center. Currently Dunn lives in Brooklyn, NY and can be heard on over 150 recordings including original chamber music: Nocturnes (Tzadik) original film music: Four Films (Tzadik); his rock band MadLove (Ipecac) and his avant-jazz “trio-convulsant” (Ipecac). In 2012 he set a world record by performing in all 50 states, plus DC, in 51 days with Melvins Lite. He also plays in the rock band Tomahawk and the jazz quartet Endangered Blood as well as groups with Erik Friedlander, John Zorn, Kris Davis and Nels Cline. www.trevordunn.net
Guitarist, composer and MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson has been called “NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “the most forward-thinking guitarist working right now” (Lars Gotrich, NPR.org) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). Halvorson’s most recent releases, Amaryllis and Belladonna, showcase her string quartet writing deftly interpreted by The Mivos Quartet, alongside a new sextet featuring Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). The twin debuts for Nonesuch Records, released in May 2022, were called “…new landmarks in Halvorson’s already inimitable discography” in a five star review by The Guardian. Collaborative projects include the longstanding collective ensemble Thumbscrew (with Michael Formanek and Fujiwara), and a chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone. Over the past two decades Ms. Halvorson has also performed in bands led by Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Trevor Dunn, Ingrid Laubrock, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, Ches Smith and John Zorn, among others.
