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David Slusser

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Biography:

David Slusser was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. He began playing tenor saxophone at age 10, around the same time he started experimenting with reel to reel tape recorders. Getting his first film sound job in 1975, he continued his career with a move to the San Francisco Bay area in 1977, where he joined Lucasfilm in 1984, and received an Emmy award for sound editing in 1993. He has worked often as a music editor for directors Francis Coppola, George Lucas and David Lynch, with whom he has co-composed music for his films. On his own he has composed for documentaries and public radio, as well as his jazz group Rubber City. His sound design is in the collections of both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contempory Art in Los Angeles, though far more people have heard it in some of the more imaginative commercials on television. He began an association with John Zorn in the mid eighties. Received two prizes in the 1999 Julius Hemphill Composition
Awards, including first for jazz orchestra.


Work-In-Progress:

Recent releases include John Zorn's "XU Feng" on the Tzadik label and "Blue Shadows In The Street", the lead track for John Zorn's tribute to Dave Brubeck. Titled "In His Own Sweet Way", the CD is on the Avant label. Currently collaborating with other noisemakers to create more sound compositions for a follow up CD to "Delight at the End of the Tunnel". 1999 -2000 was a year long study in Ellingtonia resulting in an ensemble called the "Strayhorns" which applied group improvisation to the famed band's cannon. Electronic Improvisation with SPL (Slusser, Paterson, Looney). New CD "Trouble In Tiretown" released on Jazz Excursion
label, brings rest of Rubber City material to light.


Upcoming Events:

Ivy Room

858 San Pablo Avenue

Monday, Feb 15 2010 9:00 PM

Ivy Room Improv/Experimental Hootenanny & Social Club featuring
Johnny Butler (NYC), Lisa Mezzacappa, Rent Romus, David Slusser, Strangelet

A musicians hangout and, for fans of the less than ordinary, a wet dream. Crazy music, shifting sounds, living room ambiance. The tiniest slice of Berlin right in the San Francisco east bay.

Each month consists of one featured act and three curated sets with five minute overlaps creating a seamless night of improvised outside music and spontaneous collaboration. Visual experimentation (projections, whatever etc) encouraged.

Some of the folks who have played: Ralph Carney, David Slusser, Dale Sophiea, Bruce Anderson, Ross Hammond, Scott Amendola, Phillip Greenleif, Lisa Mezzacappa, John Shiurba, Myles Boisen, John Hanes, Mark Growden, Chris Grady, Seth Ford-Young, Michaela Peterson, Weasel Walter, Laurie Amat, Amy X. Neuburg, Peter Conheim, Scrote, Motoko Honda, Emily Hay, Rent Romus, Lucio Menegon, Morgan Guberman, Pat Spurgeon, Jonathan Segel, Allen Whitman, Suki O'Kane, Lords of Outland, O-Type, Pluto, Dub, etc, etc

Rules of the road:

All music is improvised.

The feature act can be an existing group or collaboration.

Curated sets are new collaborations or untried solo experiments (Curators can arrange collaborators beforehand or engage musicians in the room to play with).

After the main sets are over, the stage is open to collaborations until 1am. This has pretty crazy. One late set had a DJ, a guy knocking out demented guitar/vocals, a sax and a guy on a bike w/ speakers, screaming. Another featured film projections and a clown making pet balloons and floating them around the room. Nuts.

comfy couches • delicious beverages • NEVER a cover • many musicians • total surprises • third mondays


CDs on which David Slusser appears:

ArtistTitleLabelNumber
David SlusserDelight at the End of the Tunnel Tzadik7024
David SlusserRubber CityBreath EarsBE01
Eyvind Kang7 NadesTzadik7013
John Zorn(Y)earbook V.2 (compilation)Rastascan RecordsBRD 009
John ZornElegyTzadik7302
Malcolm MooneyMalcolm Mooney & the 10th PlanetMRM7012
Mike PattonBurt Bacharach : Great Jewish MusicTzadik7114-2
Pluto(Y)earbook V.3 (compilation)Rastascan RecordsBRD 010
PlutoShoehorse EmergingRastascan RecordsBRD 014
Ron Anderson"does time affect memory?" (compilation)AmanitaAMA 49
Ron AndersonPak Small r Half InchRastascan RecordsBRD 020
Rova Saxophone QuartetLong On LogicSound AspectsSAS CD 037
Rubber CityTwin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me (Lynch soundtrack)Warner Brothers9 45019-2
Rubber CityWild At Heart (David Lynch soundtrack)Polydor845098-2
Secret Chiefs 3Smiling Pets (Beach Boys compilation)SonySRCS 325 (Japan)
Splatter TrioAnagramsRastascan RecordsBRD 007
Steve HorowitzThe CodeFOT Records
The MoleculesDown Under The Black LightMega007/TM003
Tim HeslaMarket Street Cafe DuNord CompilationDuNordCDNCD001
Voices In The WildernessDissenting Soundscapes and Songs of G.W.'s AmericaPax RecordingsPR90276
WarheadsWarheadsRadical HouseRH019