Two groups: sax player from Seattle,Wally Shoup, with Charlie Rowan and Paul Hoskin plus New Zealand guitarist, David Watson, with Ushio Torikai.
Wally Shoup (born 1944) is an American jazz alto saxophonist and painter. Based in Seattle, Washington since 1985, Shoup is a mainstay of that city’s improvised music scene. Seattle Metropolitan named him one of the 50 most influential musicians in that city’s history.
Born in North Carolina, and raised in Charlotte, Initially working as a schoolteacher, Shoup moved Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1960s, then to Colorado in 1970. There, he first lived in Manitou Springs and later in Colorado Springs.
By his own account, Shoup “grew up listening to black music in the South, the blues and jazz and R&B,” was “introduced to free jazz in the late ’60s… in Atlanta”. Although his “voice is definitely influenced by African-American music” he “kind of felt like free jazz was the domain of black musicians.” Hearing Britain’s Music Improvisation Company, “he simultaneously discovered free improvisation and his calling as a musician.” “It wasn’t jazz-based,” he would say in 2003.” They were trying to find some new ways of improvising. I realized that was the kind of music I wanted to know about, and the only way I could know more about it was by playing it.”
David Watson (born 1960) is a musician originally from New Zealand. Watson has lived and worked in New York City since 1987. Originally known as a guitarist, since 1991 Watson’s work has also featured new music for the Highland Bagpipes.
Before moving to New York, while in New Zealand in the 1980s, Watson co-founded Braille Records to document the local experimental music scene. He organized national improvisation festivals (Off the Deep End, in 1984 and 1985) and in 2001 started the Artspace/alt.music festival to present new experimental music in Auckland.
Watson’s work includes regular performances with MacArthur Award winner John Zorn; ongoing recording projects with Lee Ranaldo and Christian Marclay; a premier performance of a Robert Ashley work in New York; performances in Europe with rock-minimalism pioneer Rhys Chatham ; recording project with downtown drum legend Jonathan Kane; performances with Zeena Parkins at Brooklyn Academy of Music and a score for Jeremy Nelson Dance.