Center for New Music
55 Taylor St SF
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Brandon Seabrook (NYC) SOLO + Jason Hoopes Ensemble

Brandon Seabrook, solo guitar and banjo

Jason Hoopes Ensemble
Jason Hoopes, electric bass
Nava Dunkelman, percussion
Jeanie-Aprille Tang, electronics
Bill Baird, electric bass/electronics

Shredding NYC improvising guitarist and banjo player Brandon Seabrook visits the Bay Area for a special solo concert bridging the sonic realms of extreme rock, improvised music and the classical avant-garde. Recognized by the New York Times as “a man apparently hellbent on earning the title of World’s Least Rustic Banjo Player,” Seabrook aggressively appropriates the four-stringed banjo with blistering punk attitude balanced with art music dexterity and precision. Bay Area bassist and composer Jason Hoopes assembles the first meeting of an electro-acoustic improvising ensemble that will navigate a series of his original “song-scores.”

New York-based banjo player/guitarist Brandon Seabrook, named “NYC’s Best Guitarist of 2012″ by the Village Voice, has been profiled by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Fret Board Journal, and Wire Magazine. Seabrook works as a sideperson in a broad range of contemporary underground music, dealing in everything from avant-jazz with Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host and trumpeter Peter Evans’ groups, to klezmer with Naftule’s Dream, and collaborations with heroes of the music like Anthony Braxton and Elliott Sharp.


Jason Hoopes is a self taught bassist living in Oakland. As bassist, he has worked in a broad range of styles and ensembles including Jack O’ The Clock, Annie Lewandowski’s powerdove, the bass/drum grind metal duo Satya Sena, the progressive pop of Dominique Leone, and his own dark-pop band Perfect Loss among several others. Further musical associations include Fred Frith, ROVA sax quartet, the improvising trio Eat The Sun, John Ettinger, Sarah Wilson, Aaron Novik, Ellen Fullman, Agnes Szelag, Ava Mendoza, Lotte Anker, Nate Wooley, Johanna Borchert, Gino Robair, Zachary James Watkins, choreographers Molissa Fenley and Peiling Kao, among numerous others. Jason studied composition and improvisation at Mills College in Oakland, CA where he earned an MA in composition and MFA in performance & literature.

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