ARS EX NIHILO is a performance series showcasing experimental local artists. Our goal is to stimulate creative growth in the East Bay Area, instigating the production of new works and fostering community interaction, discussion, and collaboration.
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tria: Jazz in the 21st Century
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Amber McZeal
"Primordial Improvisations"
Personnel:
Amber McZeal
Alexander Brown
The collaborative piece is an exploration of projected presence. Future is a tense implying eternal presence, continuation unquestioned. A holistic response to the question of "the future of jazz in the 21st century" is the reflection on life in the 22nd century. Jazz is movement; never meant to be encapsulated my structures and masteries of sound.
Jazz has always existed.
Improvisation is the essence of somatic brilliance;
the idea of air entering lungs;
extrinsic intelligence of breath.
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Ryan Pate
"Cultural Strife"
Personnel:
Aram Shelton - Saxophone
Ryan Pate - Guitar
Eli Wallace - Piano
Max Judelson - Bass
Britt Ciampa - Drums
1. Cultural Strife
2. Future Reconstruction
3. Social Static
4. Hermetical
5. Times, No Changes
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Bill Baird
"Against Innovation"
The American market's insatiable need for change, for something new to purchase, inevitably leads to "the baby getting tossed out with the bathwater." Something that doesn't necessarily need to be "innovated" gets redefined/repurposed/remade, simply to satiate the demands of the market. Jazz has fallen victim to this, with its endless innovations painting itself into a corner. The American market ridicules those who maintain traditional forms as being "old fashioned" or "out of touch."
My piece explores this idea, but obliquely. The premise: a deranged former jazz critic has taken over a public access television and wishes to show the plight of this great American artform through his own warped lens.