Both
William Winant and Joe Lasqo trained as South Indian drummers,
William Winant with Trichy Sankaran, and Joe Lasqo in India with V. Nagabhushanachar, so the result is a compelling interplay of cuttingedge modernism and the world's most virtuosic rhythmic tradition.
William Winant and Joe Lasqo use and extend these South Indian rhythmic concepts in the context today's cutting-edge electronic and avant-garde music where they become part of a varied and eclectic toolkit for radical musical exploration. Enriched by the avant experience and virtuosity that have made
William Winant's recordings of Cage and other modernist percussion composers win critical acclaim, tāla becomes meta-tāla in his hands.
Joe Lasqo remaps the rhythms into the piano used as percussion instrument, adding the type of abstract, post-modernist, electronic realization of the Indian rhythm component pioneered by Walter Durand on Other MInds' ground-breaking recording of Cage's Song Books, Vol 1: Solo For Voice #58: 18 Microtonal Rāgas.
2014 Grammy nominated percussionist
William Winant has performed with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, Frank Zappa, Keith Jarrett, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, James Tenney, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Steve Reich and Musicians, Nexus, Charles Wuorinen, Jean-Philippe Collard, Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, Marc Ribot, Keith Rowe, Joey Barron, Bill Frisell, Yo-Yo Ma, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and the Kronos String Quartet. His own groups include ROOM (w/Chris Brown & Larry Ochs), CHALLENGE (w/Anthony Braxton & David Rosenboom), WAKE (w/Frank Gratkowski & Chris Brown), and the
William Winant PERCUSSION GROUP.
He's principal percussionist with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, he's been closely associated with NYC composern John Zorn, and has made numerous recordings, and performed in many projects throughout the world with, the composer. Starting in 1995 he's been the percussionist with the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle, has made two recordings (Disco Volante and California on Warner Brothers), and has toured throughout the world with this group. For many years he had worked with composer Lou Harrison, recording and premiering many of his works, and in March of 1997 he participated in the world premiere of Lou Harrison's quintet Rhymes With Silver featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has toured the piece throughout the United States and Great Britain. In the fall of 2011, he joined Mike Patton's Italian pop music project Mondo Cane which features a 12 piece band + string orchestra, and have recently completed tours of South America and Australia.
In the fall of 2003, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company,
William Winant, along with composers Takehisa Kosugi and Christian Wolff, created music for a series of eight special "Events" staged by Merce Cunningham and Dancers at London's Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Since then he has continued to tour throughout Europe and the United States with the company. He's made over 200 recordings, covering a wide variety of genres, including music by Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Butch Morris, James Newton, Frank Gratkowski, Pauline Oliveros, Luc Ferrari, Karlheinz Stockhausen,Danny Elfman (Batman Returns), Siouxse & the Banshees, Secret Chiefs 3, ICP, Han Bennik, The Ex, White Out with Jim O’Rourke, Lou Reed, Thurston Moore, and Mike Patton. His recording of Lou Harrison's La Koro Sutro was the New York Times Critic's Choice for best contemporary recording of 1988. In 1999 he produced a recording of music by 20th-century avant-garde composers with the influential rock band Sonic Youth:Goodbye 20th-Century (SYR4), which was hailed by both The LA Times and Village Voice as one of the best compendiums of this type of music ever recorded. More recently his recording with cellist Joan Jeanrenaud of her CD Strange Toys was nominated for a grammy in 2009. Also he along with guitarists Henry Kaiser and David Lindley, created special music for Werner Herzog's 2009 Oscar nominated documentary Encounters At The End Of The World.
William Winant has premiered many new works written specifically for him, by such noted composers as John Cage, Christian Wolff, Lou Harrison, John Zorn, Zeena Parkins, Bun- Ching Lam, Barbara Monk Feldman, Hi-Kyung Kim, Roscoe Mitchell, Wendy Reid, Ralph Shapey, Peter Garland, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher, Alvin Curran, Chris Brown, David Rosenboom, Larry Polansky, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Somei Satoh, and Wadada Leo Smith.
Pianist / laptopist Joe Lasqo studied classical music in India; computer/electronic music at MIT, Columbia, Berkeley/CNMAT; has been a long-time performing modern & avant jazz musician; & has lived, played and listened in several Asian and European countries (now in San Francisco). He's keen on the application of artificial intelligence techniques to improvisation and the meeting of traditional Asian musics with the 21st century.
Joe had a weekly residency for 3½ years+ in at Viracocha in SF, and has appeared recently with Bruce Ackley and Steve Adams of ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Aaron Bennett's Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra, Phillip Greenlief's Orchesperry, synthesist Thomas Dimuzio, clarinetist/vocalist Beth Custer, pianist Thollem McDonas, percussionist Suki O'Kane, sound artists Joe Snape (UK) & Lucie Vítková (Czech Rep.), technodivas / electronic musicians Pamela Z & Viv Corringham (NYC/London) as well as his own Renga-kai, Mukaiji-kai, & Fushigi Kenkyūkai ensembles.
AU QUOTIDIEN, a new album with German-Swedish saxist/flautist Biggi Vinkeloe, Donald Robinson, Joe Lasqo, and Teddy Rankin-Parker is in production for release later in 2015.
Joe Lasqo performing in double trios with Thollem McDonas (piano), Steve Adams and Bruce Ackley of ROVA Sax Quartet (saxes) and Cheryl Leonard & Nava Dunkelman (percussion / meta-percussion), Center for New Music, San Francisco, 15 Jan 2014:
www.youtube.com/watch
William Winant performing Angel City with Roscoe Mitchell and James Fei at the San Francisco Exploratorium Resonance Series:
www.youtube.com/watch
Cost: FREE