Improvisation Summit of Portland Archive of Events

Craig Taborn Bio:

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, CRAIG TABORN has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over twenty five years. He has experience composing for and performing in a wide variety of situations including jazz, new music, electronic, rock, noise and avant garde contexts.

Taborn has played and recorded with many luminaries in the fields of jazz, improvised, new music and electronic music including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Dave Holland, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Steve Coleman, David Torn, Chris Potter, William Parker, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Susie Ibarra, Ikue Mori, Carl Craig, Dave Douglas, Meat Beat Manifesto, Dan Weiss, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and Rudresh Manhathappa.

Taborn is currently occupied creating and performing music for solo piano performance (Shadow Plays / Avenging Angel), piano trio (Craig Taborn Trio), an electronic project (Junk Magic), the Daylight Ghosts Quartet, a piano/drums/electronics duo with Dave King (Heroic Enthusiasts) and a new trio with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith as well as piano duo collaborations with Vijay Iyer (The Transient Poems), Kris Davis (Octopus) and Cory Smythe. He is also a member of the instrumental electronic art-pop group Golden Valley is Now and performs frequently on solo electronics.

Craig lives in Brooklyn.

BRANDON LOPEZ is a NEW YORK CITY based bassist and composer who’s work is a syncretism of disparate styles and musical processes used to extend and transgress the vocabulary of the double bass.

Ryan “Ry” Albert Miller is a forward-thinking guitarist, composer, and improviser with a captivating new sound. Ryan is an active member of Portland’s thriving creative music scene; uniquely fusing through-composition with avant-garde leanings. 

https://ryanamiller.bandcamp.com/album/fate-wave

Grant Pierce is a drummer and singer/songwriter living in Portland, OR. He is a member of the free jazz squall, Halfbird, and the heavy-psych band, Young Hunter. 

https://grantpierce.bandcamp.com/

Matana Roberts is an internationally celebrated composer, performer, band leader, saxophonist, sound experimentalist, and mixed-media practitioner.

Working across many contexts and mediums, including improvisation, music composition, visual art, dance, poetry, and theatre, Roberts is perhaps best known for their acclaimed Coin Coin project – a multi-chapter work of ‘panoramic sound quilting’ mixed media performance work, that aims to expose the mystical roots and intuitive traditions of American creative expression, while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement with narrative, history, community and political expression within sonic structures.

The ongoing twelve-part Coin Coin series began with Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres (2011), which was named “one of the most conceptually ambitious, sonically captivating, emotionally raw musical odysseys of the decade..” by Tiny Mixtapes, whilst The Wire deemed Matana “a major talent”. SPIN Magazine described this first chapter as “Deeply spiritual, sadistically dissonant, evocative as any novel.” The album’s story begins the Coin Coin cycle in 1742, the birth year of freed slave entrepreneur Marie Therese Metoyer, whose nickname, “Coin Coin” (also a nickname given to Matana by their grandfather) gives us the title of what NPR called “consistently rewarding music”.

Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile is woven together from verbatim conversations Matana had with their grandmother. It features the talents of tenor Jeremiah Abiah, pianist Shoko Nagai, trumpeter Jason Palmer, double bassist Thomson Kneeland, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. In the wake of its release, Pitchfork deemed Matana “one of the most exciting new spirits in contemporary music,” and LA Times called Matana, “a unique, shape-shifting compositional voice”. Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee took a different path, with Roberts electing to perform solo, and making heavy use of electronics for the first time. A Closer Listen called it “a quilt of conviction, a tapestry of interlocking genres and a musical masterpiece,” whilst Pitchfork was enthralled, claiming that “Roberts isn’t just a storyteller, musician, ethnographer, historian, bandleader, arranger, improviser, or activist. [They] play all of those roles, yes; collectively, they power one of the most provocative ongoing bodies of work by any American musician”.

Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis was released in 2019, predominantly telling the story of a girl whose parents were killed by the Klu Klux Klan. NPR summed up Matana as a “multidisciplinary visionary”, Stereogum called the album “a staggering work of art,”, and The Quietus concluded that “one can only assume that when the 12-album cycle is completed, it will be regarded as a singular masterpiece of twenty-first century sonic and narrative art.

With a reputation forged over the last two decades for visceral and galvanising live performance (recognised for example by Brooklyn Rail as a “beautiful and transporting” experience), November 2022 saw Roberts tour Europe presenting Coin Coin Chapter IV: Memphis with a 5-piece group at several prestigious venues including Berliner Festspiele, Banlieu Bleues in Paris, and Milton Court in London – where The Wire described the performance as “like getting a glimpse into another dimension” and “a feat of architecture just as much as songwriting”.

Previous live performances, both ensemble and solo, across the global contemporary music spectrum, have been rapturously received. These include Big Ears in Tennessee, USA, which Rolling Stone described as “a jazz show that felt like a noise show”, a “deeply moving” (The Quietus) performance at Unsound in Krakow, PL, a show at Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, USA which The Boston Globe deemed “soul-baring and participatory”, Donaufestival in Donau, Austria, and Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, NL, where Matana was a guest in 2021.

In recent times they have served as distinguished guest composer at the University Of Chicago, chair of the Music Sound department at Bard MFA, music & sound fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme. New performance works and scores have been commissioned by Donaueschinger Musiktage (DE), Miller Theater’s Composer Portrait series (US), The Crossing (US), Walthamstow Borough Of Culture (UK), Brooklyn Rider (US) and by the composers, Claire Chase, Elaine Mitchener and Johnny Gandelsman, while their mixed-media artworks have been shown across a variety of solo and group contexts including a major residency and solo exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum, and works shown at Akademie der Künste, daadgalerie and Savvy Contemporary (Berlin), Bergen Kunsthall and New York’s Fridman Gallery.

Matana Roberts Artist statement:

How can you use the art of sound to make painful remembrance joyful, without negating the importance of said painful experience? What is myth as it pertains to the creative act? What is ephemera? How can you honor and document the unknown in an image? How do you foster sonic creativity from perceived nothingness? Where do the personal, cultural, and emotional collide in the rendering of an embodied sound world? How can you use sound and or image to make witness a participant, a participant a witness? These are some of the questions that currently fascinate me…

This current phase of my work is focused on exploring experience, memory, cognitive dissonance through collaged sound and image exploration for the purpose of creating instantaneous, yet malleable connection. I seek through my work, new ways to explore and establish alternative creative arts ideology that I hope will leave a legacy of curiosity, generative critique, challenge. I am committed to the natural creativity inherent in the process of experimentation, hoping to be a catalyst for bringing viewers and listeners into new redefinitions of what it might mean to embody a moment, using my work to show new ways of bridging divergence, fostering unheard dialogue…new ways of seeing our world.

Mat Maneri   ASH

Mat Maneri viola  Brandon Lopez bass  Lucian Ban piano  Randy Peterson drums

Mat Maneri  envisages his music as one of activity in stasis, or motion within stillness. His music continues from the lineage of master improvisers Paul Bley and Paul Motian (with whom Mr. Maneri has played in the past) with a sound that is distinctly his own and developed over decades of discovery and practice. Following his acclaimed 2019 ‘Dust’ album Sunnyside records announces Mat Maneri’s – ASH  the second installment from his trilogy for quartet. The new recording showcases his stirring playing in a program of open-ended compositions that showcase his unique marriage of jazz and microtonal music alongside an ensemble of modern master improvisers: drummer Randy Peterson, pianist Lucian Ban, and bassist John Hébert. If a certain elusiveness permeated the first album, “Dust”, with ASH comes the permanence of memories burned into the mind, of songs triggered by scenes past from decades before, of what poet Denver Buston, who penned poems for each track on the album, calls “all that’s left is this what was once something before it was ash”

Watch Mat Maneri Quartet

From the first piece, its title track, the album explores extending the boundaries of what you can create in, of how various sources – a viola sonata from Brahms, a motive from an improvisation by Joe Maneri, or a Sicilian lullaby – can be filtered through a certain microtonal group approach to push the parameters of what a jazz quartet can do today. Silence and memories can be equal sources to create music in the moment with both poetic imagination and a narrative sense within an improvised performance. 

Over the course of a twenty-five year career, Mat Maneri has defined the voice of the viola and violin in jazz and improvised music. Born in Brooklyn in 1969, Maneri has established an international reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation, praised for his high degree of individualism, a distinctive marriage of jazz and microtonal music, and his work with 20th century icons of improvised music. As young musician, Maneri was influenced by the sounds of his childhood home. His father, saxophonist and composer Joe Maneri, was on faculty at the New England Conservatory, and colleagues like Ran Blake and Gunther Schuller were frequent visitors. Important influences on Maneri’s work – in addition to all the major forces of jazz – include Baroque music (which he studied with Juilliard String Quartet co-founder Robert Koff), Elliott Carter, and the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, which was also of central importance to his father, the late, great saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator Joe Maneri. Of his studies with Koff, Mat Maneri has said: “Studying Baroque music helped me to find my sound. [Koff] brought me into the world of contrapuntal playing and a way of using the bow that sounded more like a trumpet, like Miles, to my mind.” Jazz writer Jon Garelick has written of Maneri’s distinctive style: “Maneri’s virtuosity is everywhere apparent – in his beautiful control of tone, in the moment-to-moment details that unfold in his playing, in the compositional integrity of each of his pieces, in what visual artists might call the variety of his ‘mark-making’: spidery multi-note runs, rhythmically charged double-stops and plucking, subtle and dramatic dynamic shifts.” 

”Mat Maneri has changed the way the jazz world listens to the Violin & Viola”All About JazzManeri posses an immediately recognizable sound and approach which marries the distinct worlds of jazz and microtonal music in a fluid, remarkably expressive fashion which The Wire dubbed “endlessly fascinating.”  In 1990, Mat co-founded the legendary Joe Maneri Quartet with his father, drummer Randy Peterson and bassists Ed Schuller and John Lockwood. The quartet’s recordings for ECM Records, Hatology and Leo Records were widely acknowledged by critics and fellow musicians as among the most important developments in 20th century improvised music. Maneri’s 1999 solo debut on ECM Records marked his emergence as a musician with a singular, uncompromised voice, reflecting a growing consensus of Maneri as a central figure in American creative music. Since then, the long list of musicians with whom he has worked includes icons such as Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley, Paul Motian and William Parker, as well as influential bandleaders such as Joe Morris, Vijay Iyer, Matthew Shipp, Marilyn Crispell, Lucian Ban, Joelle Leandre, Kris Davis, Tim Berne and Craig Taborn. More info at Mat Maneri @ ECM

Scott Amendola: Drummer/Composer/Bandleader/Educator 

“Amendola’s music is consistently engaging, both emotionally and intellectually, the product of a  fertile and inventive musical imagination.” Los Angeles Times  

“If Scott Amendola didn’t exist, the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him.” Derk  Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian  

“Amendola has complete mastery of every piece of his drumset and the ability to create a  plethora of sounds using sticks, brushes, mallets, and even his hands.”Steven Raphael, Modern  Drummer  

“…drummer/signal-treater Scott Amendola is both a tyrant of heavy rhythm and an electric haired antenna for outworldly messages (not a standard combination).” Greg Burk, LA Weekly  

For Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. As an  ambitious composer, savvy bandleader, electronics explorer, first-call accompanist and  capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his  wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates  include guitarists Charlie Hunter, Nels Cline, and Jeff Parker, Hammond B-3 organist Wil  Blades, violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassists Trevor Dunn, and Todd Sickafoose, players who have each forged a singular path  within and beyond the realm of jazz.  

While rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area scene, Amendola has woven a dense and far reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to influential artists in jazz, blues, rock and  new music. A potent creative catalyst, the Berkeley-based drummer is the nexus for a disparate  community of musicians stretching from Los Angeles and Seattle to Chicago and New York.  Whatever the context, Amendola possesses a gift for twisting musical genres in unexpected  directions.  

Nels Cline maintains his long-running role in the alt-rock juggernaut Wilco, but the band’s long  stretches of inactivity mean that he can also perform as a member of the Scott Amendola Band  and a recently launched duo project (a tête-à-tête setting in which Scott thrives). Amendola  continues to tour and record with the volatile instrumental band, The Nels Cline Singers, which  released the acclaimed 2020 Blue Note album Share the Wealth, following up 2014’s critically  hailed, genre-obliterating Macroscope (Mack Avenue). It’s not surprising that the Singers  provided an early and essential forum for Amendola’s artful use of electronics, a small  menagerie of devices that has found its way “into everything I do,” Amendola says. “After years  of experimenting I’m using them in a more expressive and confident way than ever before.”  

Amendola established his reputation as a bandleader in 1999 with the release of the acclaimed  album Scott Amendola Band featuring the unusual instrumentation of Eric Crystal on  saxophones, Todd Sickafoose on acoustic bass, Jenny Scheinman on violin, and Dave Mac  Nab on electric guitar. By the time the quintet returned to the studio in 2003, Cline had replaced  Mac Nab, contributing to the quintet’s combustible chemistry on the Cryptogramophone album  Cry.  

Cline was a crucial contributor on Amendola’s 2005 Cryptogramophone album Believe, which  also features guitarist Jeff Parker (from the band Tortoise), Jenny Scheinman, and late bassist  John Shifflett. Scott created his own label, SAZi Records, for his next release, 2010’s exquisite  Lift, a trio session with Parker and Shifflett dedicated to his gossamer, bluesy ballads and  ethereal soundscapes, with an occasional foray into surf rock deconstruction. 

No project better displays Amendola’s big ears and musical ambitions than Fade To Orange a  piece commissioned as part of the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s Irvine Foundation-funded  New Visions/New Vistas Initiative. The roiling work premiered to critical acclaim at Oakland’s  Paramount Theater on April 15, 2011. Determined to refine and document the piece, Amendola  conducted a successful PledgeMusic crowd-funding campaign and recorded Fade To Orange at  Berkeley’s storied Fantasy Studios with his original collaborators—his Nels Cline Singers  bandmates (Cline and powerhouse bassist Trevor Dunn)—and the great Magik*Magik  Orchestra.  

“The idea was really the Singers meet the Symphony,” Amendola says. “I wanted Trevor’s  electric bass for that big contrast with the orchestra, and I conceived of the piece as a concerto  for guitar. He released Fade to Orange on CD and vinyl on his label Sazi Records in 2015. The  album includes four distilled, wildly imaginative remixes of “Fade to Orange” by Cibo Matto’s  Yuka Honda, Mocean Worker, Beautiful Bells, and Deerhoof’s John Dieterich and Teetotum’s  Drake Hardin.  

In some circles, Amendola is best known for his intermittent two-decade collaboration with  seven-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, with whom he connected shortly after moving to the  Bay Area in 1992. They went on to play together with John Schott and Will Bernard in the three guitar-and-drums combo T.J. Kirk, which earned a Grammy nomination for its eponymous 1996  debut album. After years of occasional gigs, they teamed up again in 2011 in a tough and  sinewy duo. They spent five years touring incessantly and released two acclaimed albums:  2012’s recession-inspired Not Getting Behind is the New Getting Ahead and 2013’s Pucker, the  latter showcases Amendola’s melodically inspired tunes.  

In 2014, looking for new avenues to distribute their music, Hunter and Amendola released four  5-track EPs, each focusing on the music of a particular artist or act. From the standards of  Ellington and Cole Porter to the country hits of Hank Williams and seminal new wave tunes of  The Cars, the duo transformed everything they encountered with their groove-centric sensibility.  

As a sideman, Amendola has performed and recorded with a vast, stylistically varied roster of  artists, including Bill Frisell, Regina Carter, John Zorn, Mike Patton, Mondo Cane, John Scofield,  Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, Cibo Matto, David Torn, Michael Manring, Deerhoof’s John  Dieterich, Wadada Leo Smith, Bruce Cockburn, Madeleine Peyroux, Cris Williamson, Joan  Osborne, Jacky Terrasson, Shweta Jhaveri, Phil Lesh, Sex Mob, Kelly Joe Phelps, Larry Klein,  Carla Bozulich, Wayne Horvitz, Johnny Griffin, Julian Priester, Sonny Simmons, Pat Martino,  Jim Campilongo, Bobby Black, Larry Goldings, Paul McCandless, Rebecca Pidgeon, and the  Joe Goode Dance Group.  

Born and raised in the New Jersey suburb of Tenafly, just a stone’s throw from New York City,  Amendola displayed an aptitude for rhythm almost from the moment he could walk. His  grandfather, Tony Gottuso, was a highly respected guitarist who performed with jazz luminaries  such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Nat “King” Cole. A member of the  original Tonight Show Band under Steve Allen, he offered plenty of support when Amendola  began to get interested in jazz. “We used to play together a lot when I was a teenager,”  Amendola says. “It had a huge impact on me to play with someone who was around when a lot  of the standards that musicians like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Keith Jarrett play were  written.”  

His passion for music only deepened during his four years at Boston’s venerable Berklee  College of Music, where it wasn’t unusual for him to practice for 12 hours a day. Drawing  inspiration from fellow students such as Jorge Rossi, Jim Black, Jay Bellerose, Danilo Perez,  Chris Cheek, and Mark Turner, and studying with the likes of Joe Hunt, and Tommy Campbell, 

Amendola found his own voice rather than modeling himself after established drummers. Since  2014, Scott has served as Associate Professor at the University of California – Berkeley’s Jazz  Program. His teaching in jazz percussion focuses on private instruction.  

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Amendola has forged deep ties across the  country, and throughout the world. As an ambitious composer, savvy bandleader, electronics  explorer, first-call accompanist, and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most  inventive musicians, Amendola applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of  settings. He’s never more than one degree away from a powerful musical hook-up. 

Dana Reason is a Canadian-born composer, pianist and sonic artist.  

Reason recently co-produced Cinema’s First Nasty Women Compilation Soundtrack Vol. 1 (Kino Lorber, Aug. 2023) with Grammy award winning musician,  founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of  Jazz and Gender Justice, Terri Lyne Carrington. This soundtrack  features 18+  diverse female composers written for the 4DVD (Cinema’s First Nasty Women) of 99 archival films (2022). Reason was also the arranger for the award winning Reconstruction: America After the Civil War Series, produced by Henry Louis Gates (PBS, 2019).  Reason has written music for  two feature length archival films including: Back to God’s Country (Kino)  and The Snowbird (Kino) as well as music for several shorts produced by Kino Lorber. She has recorded  over 20 commercially released music projects for labels including: Mode Records, Red Toucan, Deep Listening, 482 Music, Circumvention, and Kino Lorber, and more. Performing and Recording highlights include: Joëlle Léandre,  Joe McPhee, Cecil Taylor, Marco Eneidi, Lori Goldston, Peter Valsamis, Yves Charuest, George E. Lewis, Kyle Bruckmann, Mark Dresser, Roscoe Mitchell, Lori Freedman, John Heward, Shahzad Ismaily, Matt Brubeck, Mary Oliver, Catherine Lee, Pauline Oliveros, Gabby Fluke Mogul, Todd Sickafoose, Kevin Patton, Nicolas Caloia, Paul Miller, Mike Gamble, John Savage, Philip Gelb, Barre Phillips, and Andrew Drury.

In addition to composing, music supervising and performing, Reason writes about creative intercultural music practices, feminist improvisatory and sound studies practices, and  has either published or been reviewed by the following: Routledge, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Jazz Studies Online, University of Chicago Press, National Geographic, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Wesleyan University Press, Downbeat, Jazziz, All Music, and Musicworks.  Reason is currently an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music at Oregon State University.

Peter Valsamis is a Los Angeles-based drummer/percussionist/composer/sound designer. His unique approach to drumming synthesizes a variety of musical styles into his own unique sound. He has performed with Trance Mission, Emeline Michel, Martine St. Clair, Mitsou, Cecil Taylor, Don Preston, Walter Aziz, Dana Reason, Steve Lacy, and many others. Peter is also an accomplished composer and sound designer, working on titles such as Transformers, Star Trek, Battleship, The Price is Right, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune. Peter received his M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College.

Alex Callenberger – Guitar 

Portland, OR based guitarist, synth wizard and cinematic expressionist, Alex Callenberger creates soundscapes to dream and swim through. Calling on the powers of electric guitar, live looping, electronic and experimental instruments, he casts sonic spells that straddle and bind the genres of ambient, down-tempo, experimental, psych and folk-minimalism. Alex has performed with Michael Gamble, David Torn, Ryan Albert Miller and others in the Avant/Experimental realm. 

Bernstein, Callenberger, Miller & Warren – A group of sonic expressionists, bending the aural walls of the unknown universe. Ambient avant drone spectacles with splashes of chaos and symmetry. Experimental, delicate, diabolical and always unpredictable. 

Noah Bernstein – Saxophone 

Alex Callenberger – Guitar 

Ryan Albert Miller – Guitar 

Brandon Warren – Drum

OCEANS AND
Tim Berne’s work is characterized by
tireless artistic dedication and creativity. His newly
formed trio with accordionist
and multi-instrumentalist Aurora
Nealand and cellist Hank
Roberts takes the listener on a
sonically adventurous jour-
ney on Oceans And and delights with
much imagination and
amazing musical diversity. The
pieces are penned by Tim
Berne and all open doors to infinite
interpretation and de-
velopment. “The breathtaking music,
created by Tim Berne,
Aurora Nealand, and Hank Roberts
can be deservedly and
on all accounts deemed: profound,
probing, intriguing, dis-
tinct, intricate, raw, courageous,
mysterious, and thoughtful.
The group’s concerted effort to
achieve a cohesive blend is a
refreshing relief. An honest crusade
of in-depth imagination,
this music is a beacon of light in an
unsettling world,” writes
Baikida Carroll in the liner notes and
adds: “It stimulates the
brain, animates the imagination, and
charms the heart.”

TIM BERNE is a composer, saxophonist, band-leader and

educator specializing in jazz and improvised music. A tour de

force on this scene, he has been performing internationally since

1982 with various ensembles including, most recently, Snakeoil

and Sun Of Goldfinger. He has made over 50 recordings as a

leader for labels such as Soul Note,Sony,JMT, ECM and Intakt,

while simultaneously running his own independent label

Screwgun Records. He has taught extensively since the late 90s

and given workshops around the world and is the recipient of

many international awards and residencies.

AURORA NEALAND is a sound artist and multi-instrumentalist

(saxophones, accordion, voice) Since moving to New Orleans in

2004 she has become a prominent force in both the traditional

and non-traditional music scene working in bands such as The

Royal Roses, The Monocle Ensemble, Redrawblak Trio, and the

Instigation Orchestra. She is equally at home on the stages of

concert halls and festivals around the world, playing music in the

streets and clubs of New Orleans, or touring in crammed vans to

squat houses. She is also an educator, and has been awarded

several residencies across the US.

Over his nearly four-decade career, HANK ROBERTS has forged

a compelling original voice as a cellist and composer,

encompassing jazz influences, abstract improvisation, soulful folk

melodies, intricate new-music compositions and vigorous rock

songs. Initially making his name on New York’s downtown scene

in the 80s alongside such frequent collaborators as Bill Frisell,

Tim Berne, Marc Ribot and John Zorn, he is now considered a

major innovator as a cellist, and band-leader and recording artist

in his own right. Currently he is a member of Bill Frisell’s

Harmony group and performs regularly with his own sextet.

Lie Very Still 

(John C. Savage-flutes & saxophones, Mike Gamble-guitar, Shao Way Wu-bass,  Ken Ollis-drums) 

The Portland-based flutist and saxophonist, John C. Savage, has corralled some  of Portland’s most adventurous improvisers and created Lie Very Still. Featuring  Mike Gamble on guitar, Shao Way Wu on bass, and Ken Ollis on the drums, the quartet masterfully blends jazz, avant-garde, and world music sounds. Their new  album, Nova Pangaea, is a stunning testament to both the beauty of our planet  and the gravity of the climate crisis. Evoking the chaos and tumult of a  worsening disaster with a vibe that is as much Ornette Coleman as it is John  Zorn, Nova Pangaea, manages to convey the interconnectedness of our global  community and the urgent need for collective action. 

https://pjce.bandcamp.com/album/nova-pangaea

https://www.facebook.com/lieverystill/

http://www.johncsavage.com/ 

“…Savage is a badass, knock-down-drag-out force to be reckoned with….”   —Willamette Week 

“John Savage’s flute, which emulates Japanese shakuhachi, suggests shadows  and mists.”—The Washington Post 

“From the harsh sound of Ian Anderson to the beautiful tone of Herbie Mann….”  —The Oregonian 

“Savage’s yearning flute sound, with the band closing around him like shadows  in moonlight, is exquisite on [Andrew Hill’s] Faded Beauty.” —The Guardian 

“Jan Garbarek-esque saxophone.” —The Jazz Scene (Jazz Society of Oregon)

mononymously named, maximiliano, is an experimental artist exploring the intersection of spirituality & technology through the lens of Black Nihilist Futurism. 

maximiliano.info 

ig: @thulsa_moon

otolithia

An experimental, ambient, and improvisational duo featuring Tatiana Muzica and Josh Faber-Hammond. Their music is a unique combination of Japanese koto, multiple flutes, ethereal vocals, and electronics. The name is a fusion of the words ‘otolith’, referring to a calcium carbonate structure in the inner ear of vertebrates used to maintain equilibrium, and ‘lithia’, or lithium-containing water, which has been shown to reduce depression and stabilize moods for those who drink it regularly.

otolithia.bandcamp.com

meroitic is a sound & movement based project of black interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary artist & composer jamondria harris. Their work uses words, sounds, wires, theremin, synthesizers,instruments, textiles & what falls into their hands to engage with blackness, desire, spirit/source,narratology/folklore, & ontologies of liberation & embodiment.Their sound art emerges from deep-listening fluidity between rhythm & source, engendering sonic cartographies woven from samples, feedback, the electromagnetic field of bodies & rooms and both digital and analog synthesizer soundscapes.Their albums are available on Fallen Moon Recordings.

TWANS

Welded from the fruits of their own labors, TWANS set out to dispel current myths, question ideologies and sardonically allude to artistic nuances one would commonly dismiss. Between the three entities that are Mike Lockwood (drums), Andrew Jones (bass), and Mike Gamble (gtr) there exists an unyielding desire to connect in another dimension and utilize that interplay to heighten the worth of their songs.

https://twansmusic.bandcamp.com/

James Powers Quintet

Convention is something to be learned from, but not restrained by. This ethos comes across in the music of Portland based trombonist, guitarist, and composer James Powers. Largely self taught, and always in search of new methods of communication, James, a third generation musician, has been interested in non-literal expression since his first concert at 8 days old. As such, he jumps at new experiences; a practice which has seen him making a home in styles of music as varied as classical, ska, funk, and free improvisation, and performing with acts as renowned and diverse as Aceyalone, Blue Cranes, Jello Biafra, Chuck Isreals, Gordon Lee, Christopher Worth, and PJCE. More regularly, he can be heard leading his sludge jazz trio JP-3, rock trio REACTOR, and as a member of March Fourth, Buddy Jay’s Jamaican Jazz Band, and The Frank Irwin Quintet. 

On this outing James’ trombone will be joined by the boisterous, sympathetic and adventurous playing of saxophonist Wyck Malloy, keyboardist Akila Fields, Bassist Liam Hathaway, and Drummer Rivkah Ross.

Negative Concord is Portland’s emergent electronic and ambient jazz duo. With Richard Moore playing the ondes martenot and Patrick McCulley on saxophone, Negative Concord seeks to measure opposing temporal and linguistic realities with sonic frameworks, flexible timbres, and nebulous rhythms. 

https://www.instagram.com/negativeconcordband/

Adri Trio
The Adri Trio combines Jazz driven compositions and new age electric sounds. This project tends to stray towards the free side of sound and improvisation with a dedication to the melodic story-telling each piece has to offer.

Jenna Leigh, 28, originally from New Bedford, MA, and have lived in PDX for 9 years. 

I own a bakery in PDX and love love love music! I’ve been singing since I was a child, I started teaching myself guitar when I was 13, and started picking up other instruments as time went on. My whole life I’ve been exposed to music by family and extended family, every family gathering we were singing tunes and playing piano & guitar together. 

Just a couple years ago I started really focusing on playing, writing, and recording my own music…teaching myself basic drums, piano, and bass. Im currently learning music theory, which is exciting as I’ve always just played by ear mostly. I’m currently playing keys in !mindparade, finishing an LP of my own songs, and really enjoying playing music with others and exploring that creative part of myself!

Machado Mijiga 

Classically-trained, jazz-weathered, and eclectically inclined, multi-instrumentalist Mijiga left the proverbial creative “box” at a very early age, with access to many instruments and a diverse musical background brought about by an intercultural heritage.

A Portland native, Mijiga is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few.

Mijiga studied classical and jazz saxophones at University of Puget Sound from 2012-13 and Washington State University from 2013-2017, with elective studies in Percussion at UPS in 2012 and, ensemble experience at Whitman College from 2008-2012.

Mijiga has shared the stage and/or collaborated with the likes of Benny Golson, Terence Blanchard, Brian McKnight, Charlie Hunter, Mark Giuliana, Bill Watrous, Tamir Hendelman, John Clayton, Eddie Palmieri, Fareed Haque, Darrell Grant, George Colligan, Damian Erskine, Thomas Marriott, Joe Kye

Ora Cogan, PDX All Stars, and many more.

Festival highlights include (but not limited to): Pickathon, PDX Jazz Festival, Vanport Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, PaseoFest, Montavilla Jazz Festival, Taco Tapes Festival, Ghost Carrot Festival

Mijiga currently tours with GRAMMY winning band Portugal.The Man playing saxophone, drums, keyboards, and electronics, and has played world-famous festivals and venues, such as Red Rocks, Radio City Music Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Wonderbus, Edgefield, Triple Door, Metro, The Atlantis, Whalebone, Sherblues, and Racket NYC, as well as done virtual performances for KEXP and Taco Bell.

Mijiga serves as Artist-in-Residence at (Portland’s) Roosevelt High School, along with being a guest lecturer and workshop collaborator for Portland State University.

As a composer, Mijiga recently won the Portland Jazz “Composers Cook-Off” in 2020 and became one of Third Coast Percussion’s “Creative Currents” Partners in 2021.

As a producer and audio engineer, Mijiga currently has 12 records, 14 EPs, and 16 singles released under his name, with all but two of these releases self-produced. 

Mijiga has also served as a freelance producer and engineer for artists such as Rob Araujo, Darrell Grant, and more.

Authenticity and uniquity assume the locus of Mijiga’s artistic identity — self-expression is the prime directive, and the medium of choice changes like the weather.

Cam Haskins 

My name is Cam I’m from Chicago/ Southern Illinois and I’m a multi-percussionist / music producer. Currently attending PSU in the Sonic Arts program. My favorite thing in the world todo is listen intently to the black musical masters and creators that came before now and ones in the modern day like Jdilla, Herbie Hancock, 9th Wonder, Miles Davis, Mad-lib and so many more and connect their work to the overall African ancestral diaspora and to then draw inspiration from that. Whether when that’s I’m producing a new beat or when I’m performing live I try to channel that energy and be in the moment.

Pablo Riverola 

As a composer and as a trumpet player, Pablo commands a resonant, warm, encompassing sound that reaches beyond the aesthetic of jazz while still remaining deeply rooted in the tradition. He is an artist by its truest definition and music is his medium. To him, the listener’s emotional experience is the highest priority as he carefully curates each piece inviting the listener to feel, and to feel intensely. Through his work, he demonstrates an unwavering commitment to that artistic vision. From the first note he plays you are captivated by his warm, voice-like sound that takes the listener on a journey while still being reminiscent of his heroes, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown.

Bitter Camari

black trans enby rapper from the USA; based out of PDX. shoegazy, sometimes ambient trap/drill-esque vibes. cloud rap energy. been working since ~2014.

I was raised in NYC and absorbed New England and Caribbean culture from my parents; recently, this has turned my ear towards UK drill, Afrobeats, and music from all over the diaspora.

I’m a major fan of dub, ambient, sleep, tea, being alone, and spending time in-person with my close ones.

I was around when cloud rap was coming into prominence with Lil B, Xaiver Wulf, and Yung Lean; I fell in love with the sound and its been a major influence on my approach to music and writing since. I love writing. much of my focus falls there when making work.

graphic design, videography, producing, songwriting, and journaling are some of my passions. i’m a lover of anticolonial literature and work.

feel free to contact me at bittercamari@gmail.com or on instagram at @bittercamari

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 Roman Norfleet 

Roman Norfleet (1988 n. American born) is an interdisciplinary cultural producer, healer and mystic that uses sculpture, music composition, performance and social organizing as instruments in exploring his committed interest in spiritual and social development.

Originally hailing from Lockport, Illinois, Roman’s formative years were spent immersed in the vernacular traditions of the Baptist Church where his parents Mose Ella and Rev. Robert Norfleet attended and provided Roman the foundation to seek spiritual enlightenment on his own. His development journey led him to Los Angeles where he lived in an Gaudiya Vaishnava Ashram and studied Hindu/ Vedic Philosophies of Swamini Turiyasangitanada (Alice Coltrane) with her students. These years of deep immersion into his spiritual practices greatly influenced the way Norfleet approaches music and provided expansive insight into the sacred power of sound.

Norfleet has been surrounded by and involved in music and the arts since a child in his hometown, but has been further artistically cultivated by the visual art and music scenes of Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, the DMV area and Portland, OR.

As Founder and creative director of “Be Present Art Group” Norfleet believes deeply in the power perception and persistence has on elevating one’s consciousness. He is currently devising a curriculum workbook that translates these teachings into practical applications and preparing to release an album with BPAG as bandleader.

From devotional recordings, to an instrumental beat tape, to an experimental album, he has released a range of expressive projects that address his ever evolving approaches to honoring the divinity of creation. Roman seeks to continue that artistic, expressive expansion by continuing to incorporate visual and performance art elements that challenges the status quo, encourages spiritual expansion and calls for audiences to be present in the now moment.

(Bio edited by Viktor Le Givens)

James Powers 

Convention is something to be learned from, but not restrained by. This ethos comes across in the music of Portland based trombonist, guitarist, and composer James Powers. Largely self taught, and always in search of new methods of communication, James, a third generation musician, has been interested in non-literal expression since his first concert at 8 days old. As such, he jumps at new experiences; a practice which has seen him making a home in styles of music as varied as classical, ska, funk, and free improvisation, and performing with acts as renowned and diverse as Aceyalone, Blue Cranes, Jello Biafra, Chuck Isreals, Gordon Lee, Christopher Worth, and PJCE. More regularly, he can be heard leading his sludge jazz trio JP-3, rock trio REACTOR, and as a member of March Fourth, Buddy Jay’s Jamaican Jazz Band, and The Frank Irwin Quintet.

Dae Bryant 

I’m an artist and love this music, and form of being. I’m from Harlem, NYC and have been playing music all my life, whether it was in the church, where I realized the true power of music as a medium of energy and love . The non attachment to an idea of one state of being but all states of art and existence. Love, transcendence , being. Grateful.

The collective résumés of guitarist Mike Gamble, bassist Andrew Jones, and drummer Matt Mayhall — the three Portland, Oregon artists that make up the new ensemble the Sound Creation Trio — read like an expertly curated playlist of the past six decades of adventurous music: Charlie Haden, Aimee Mann, Shahzad Ismaily, Jeff Parker, Laura Veirs, Earth, Julia Holter.  In and around their sideman work, these men have been responsible for some daring original music of their own that stretches from free jazz to post-rock to Americana to art pop and back again. Nothing is off limits to these hyper-talented instrumentalists whether in the studio or on stage.  That’s what makes their new collaboration such an exciting prospect. The name is deceptively understated. Don’t all musicians simply create sound? True, but few are willing to combine genres and sonic elements as freely and spiritedly as this trio. Their shared language is exploration and a desire to push their abilities as composers and players to their absolute limits. The members of the Sound Creation Trio may have decades of experience and knowledge at their disposal, but they are still students of their chosen craft. As they continue to expand and create fresh sound, they refuse to be defined by ill-fitting genre tags or easy branding. In an age of social media-driven nonsense and cheap YouTube covers, their combined efforts are increasingly rare and always electrifying.