SIMM Series @ The Musicians Union Hall
116 9th St @ Mission SF
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7:30 pm The Actual Trio
John Schott - guitar, Dan Seamans - double bass, John Hanes - drums
8:30 pm Trouble Ensemble
Ernest Larkins, voice, Mia Bella D'Augelli, violin
Rent Romus and Joshua Marshall, saxophones, Jakob Pek, guitar
Andrew Jamieson, piano, Tim DeCillis, drums

Formed in 2011 to play a monthly gig at the Actual Café in Oakland, California, this deeply bonded trio exercises virtuoso listening, and brings Schott’s compositions to vivid life. “I feel very fortunate to have John and Dan as partners,” says Schott. “Together, we are committed to the joys of swinging, playing what you hear, being in the moment, and sharing with audiences.”
John Schott graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, where he studied with Gary Peacock and Julian Priester. In 1992, he and Ben Goldberg formed Junk Genius, which released records on Knitting Factory and Songlines, as well as in other combinations on Tzadik, Nuscope, and Victo. Schott was also, with Charlie Hunter, Will Bernard, and Scott Amendola, a member of the jazz/funk band T.J. Kirk, whose second album If Four Was One (Warner Bros.) received a 1997 Grammy nomination. Schott's CD Shuffle Play: Elegies for the Recording Angel (New World Recordings) featuring his 16-piece Ensemble Diglossia in a 70-minute composition, was named one of the best records of 2002 by The Wire magazine. Schott can also be heard on records by John Zorn, Tom Waits, The Baguette Quartette, and Steven Bernstein.


"Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water"
Throughout their history, the spirituals have illuminated the spiritual force that “troubles” the “waters” of injustice and oppression, using the power of African and African American music and spirituality. Originally, songs of black American slaves, they are rooted in song, dance and drumming of West Africa, the experience of oppression of an uprooted people, and the teachings of a transformative faith. They “troubled” the oppressive teachings of their society, and their message and tradition continue to “trouble” unjust systems today.

Looking to the tradition of composers and experimenters like Sun Ra, Charles Ives and Pauline Oliveros, contemporary musicians “trouble” the musical establishment and its conventions as they envisioned radical new ways of making and listening to sound. Their traditions are a separate musical “voice” from African American spirituality and the two voices cannot merge into one. They can, however, have a conversation in a musical setting. Trouble Ensemble will creates large group conversation. We perform arrangements of spirituals, where we present a melody, rhythm and text derived from the tradition, along with jagged harmonies, unusual timbres and free improvising.
On this set, we will be featuring brand new arrangements in preparation for our first album, coming next year.


Cost: $10-$15 sliding scale