DANIEL JAMES BURKE
(with ALEXANDRA BUSCHMAN-ROMÁN +
Kyle Bruckmann +
Kanoko Nishi-Smith)
STICKLERPHONICS
(
Raffi Garabedian + DANNY LUBIN-LADEN +
Scott Amendola)
DANIEL JAMES BURKE an improviser/composer/performer from Chicago using strings, piano, extended techniques, field recordings, synthesizer, & electronics performs with local musicians ALEXANDRA BUSCHMAN-ROMÁN (voice/electronics),
Kyle Bruckmann (oboe/electronics) and
Kanoko Nishi-Smith (koto) -- a first time configuration for this quartet presenting improvisation with minimal preconceptions.
Burke has been making music since 1983 as Illusion of Safety & has recorded and performed with Jim O'Rourke, Thomas Dimuzio, Jon Mueller, Olivia Block, Kevin Drumm, CHEER-ACCIDENT, & others. Recently he has started performing original music in singer-songwriter mode, and has initiated free improvisation sessions with Chicago-based improvisors Erik Sowa (drums) and Jeb Bishop (trombone & electronics). Seeing musical tools & traditions as borders to cross and boundaries to play with, his interest in making challenging, exploratory music is now augmented by a desire to also create music as beautiful and enigmatic as possible. Through interaction, environment, intention, & spontaneity, his intention is to connect space, performers & audience, believing sound can be a catalyst in reaching states beyond normal consciousness.
Scott Amendola, the drummer, composer and bandleader who’s been a creative force on the Bay Area jazz scene (and far beyond) for the past three decades, knows all about the power of subtraction. His new stripped-down trio STICKLERPHONICS brings together long-time collaborators
Raffi Garabedian on tenor saxophone and trombonist DANNY LUBIN-LADEN, NewYork-seasoned improvisers who’ve worked together since their formative years in the vaunted Berkeley High Jazz Band, circa 2003. The trio has plunged into the unmediated terrain that opens up in the absence of the usual guidelines, “a situation where there’s no bass and no chords,” Amendola said. “The sound is ever evolving. We’re really settling in, but there’s also the feeling like there are places to go. We’ve been adding my electronics and Danny bringing in a little looper. We’re just getting started.”
With all three players contributing original compositions, SticklerPhonics is a volatile combo that can draw on a vast continuum of jazz practices, from traditional jazz polyphony and ambient soundscapes to funk and free jazz. Amendola, who first gained national attention in the Grammy-nominated three-guitar and drums band T.J.Kirk, has a deep well of experience in unusual instrumental settings.His long-running duo with Hammond B-3organist Wil Blades got its start when they developed an impressively detailed version of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s late masterpiece Far East Suite. There aren’t many models to follow for SticklerPhonics, though Barondown with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and trombonist Steve Swell is a major source of inspiration. “Scott hipped me to that group,” said Garabedian. “It’s fun to be in this almost uncomfortable situation. You need melody, rhythm,and harmony, and the challenge is how can you successfully get all that with what you’re working with.”
Cost: $10-$25 sliding scale
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
The premiere, at the 2013 Outsound New Music Summit, of Wrack ...Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire (made possible by the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning program).