SIMM Series @ The Musicians Union Hall
116 9th St @ Mission SF
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Edgetone Records 25th Anniversary Showcase
**Performances celebrating twenty five years of independent music from Edgetone Records**
Thollem McDonas, Jazz On the Line, Keith Kelly Ensemble, Rent Romus' Lords of Outland
Featuring: Rent Romus, Anna Kristina, Stefano DeZerega, Ben Leinbach, Ravi Abcarian, Keith Kelly, Tony Obr, Nathan Hubbard, Brett Reed, Collette McCaslin, Ray Scheaffer, Philip Everett

7:00 pm Keith Kelly Ensemble
Keith Kelly - woodwinds Tony Obr - modular synth Nathan Hubbard - drums and cymbals, electronics, vibraphone Brett Reed - drums and cymbals, electronics, vibraphone
The Keith Kelly Ensemble plays improvised music, blending electronic and acoustic sounds. The members share a love of jazz, contemporary classical, noise, and dance music – all of which provide fertile soil to till.
Keith Kelly is an improviser, composer, and educator who plays saxophones, flute, and clarinets. Originally from the SF Bay Area, he now lives in Phoenix, where he teaches at Paradise Valley Community College and is the Director of Education at The Nash. He performs regularly with Running From Bears, Static Announcements, and The Scorpion Decides. His has released three records on Edgetone, The People Who Left and A Grand Apparatus, Discarded, and the newest recordings Slender Loris duo with Tony Obr.

7:45 pm Jazz On the Line
Rent Romus - alto saxophone, Anna Kristina - vocals,
Stefano DeZerega - piano, Ben Leinbach - drums,
Ravi Abcarian - double bass
(photo Nov 18, 1991 Kuumbwa Jazz Center Santa Cruz, Ca)


In the summer of 1984 Rent Romus founded the Jazz on the Line with co-founding members saxophonist/composer Michael Sidney Timpson, saxophonist Daniel Magay. In 1986 while attending the University of California at Santa Cruz, Rent Romus re-formed the group, which became the primary focus for his compositions and productions until 1993. The group began as an acoustic jazz sextet that later fused jazz, blues, gospel, and other popular styles into original compositions.
Romus and the group produced three albums in the late 1980's and 1990's for this group including his critically acclaimed "Jazz On the Line with Chico Freeman, In The Moment" on Edgetone Records (reissued in 2008 as Thundershine).
During that period Romus wrote over one hundred and fifty original compositions some of which have still not be performed or recorded.
In 2003 Romus wrote a series of scores for a screenplay. That recording "Strap" featured three players from the San Francisco Bay Area experimental music community with experience in the jazz world.
Currently the concept of Jazz On The Line lives on with Romus which he takes out from time to time...

8:45 pm Pianist Thollem McDonas was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, rigorously studying the standard classical piano repertoire, composing and improvising since he was a young child and absorbing the myriad of sounds of his culturally diverse upbringing. After dedicating his 20s and 30s to grassroots political activism, he's refocused his attention these last 10 years on a breadth of musics that incorporate his myriad experiences and curiosities. In this last decade alone, he has played well over 1,000 concerts throughout N. America and Europe as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of musicians, dancers, and filmmakers. As leader or co-leader, he has released almost 50 albums in that span on 19 different vanguard labels to international critical acclaim. “Thollem is an astounding pianist who understands the huge scope of the instrument” (Terry Riley) and who continues to delve into the furthest reaches and sub-genres of Post-Classical, Free Jazz, Noise, Punk, dance and film. A brief cross section of his many recent collaborators include William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Stefano Scodanibbio, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Martha Colburn and Matthew Barney. He is the founding director of Estamos Ensemble, a Mexican-American cross border ensemble for musical exchange as well as the lead singer of the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti. He's also a published author about art, politics and his travels in The Anthology of Essays On Deep Listening, Full Moon Magazine (Prague) and First American Art Magazine (New Mexico) and is presently working on a documentary about art and community from his experiences along his extensive travels and collaborations.

9:30 pm Rent Romus' Lords of Outland
Collette McCaslin - no-input pedals, Rent Romus - alto/soprano saxophone, Ray Scheaffer - electric bass, Philip Everett - drums/pecussion
Saxophonist, composer Rent Romus created the Lords of Outland in 1994 a collective of like-minded musicians focusing on exploring improvisation, melody, noise, and sound art while acknowledging their jazz, rock, and blues roots. The group has developed original music ranging in a series of recordings inspired by abstract socio-political themes as well as authors Frank Herbert, H.P. Lovecraft, Phil K. Dick.
Throughout the the groups rich history it's core roster has changed numerous times featuring guests Vinny Golia, John Tchicai, James Zitro, Kash Killion, and many others. Continuing to perform and record live shows up and down the West Coast through the latter half of the decade, Romus discovered the group had rattled into a realm known to some as "Free Jazz Metal" (or some variation thereof). This back alley sub-genre metamorphosed from the seeds of free jazz mixed with the fires of a new generation who were influenced by 60's and 70's rock as well as punk, metal and noise. This incubation and virulent growth of the sub-genre spurred The Lords’ releases “Culture of Pain” in 2005, “You can sleep when you're dead!” in 2007, and “The Pit “ in 2009. Also in 2009 Romus released "XV" to celebrate their a fifteen year anniversary, a silver box set of recordings many of which had never been released from 1994-2008 and a full length project recorded in 2009. In 2010 they released "Edge of Dark" featuring Vinny Golia a set of music inspired by the writings of Frank Herbert, Phil K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft. In 2012 they released The Couldknitter Suite and a joint release on Ninewinds/Edgetone entitled Thee Unhip.


Edgetone Records was founded by musician/producer, Rent Romus. The label took shape in 1991 to support his group’s original jazz recordings. After being on a long hiatus Rent re-opened Edgetone in January 2000 and expanded it to support avant-garde and experimental music and recordings crossing the genre boundaries specifically for D.I.Y. (do it yourself) artists looking for a ground base and community label identity. In 2016 the label now carries over 180 releases from artists across the United States and beyond.

Cost: $15 student/senior | $20 general

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