The Illuninated Cooridor &
Outsound.org Presents...
The 2005 Edgetone New Music SummitNight 4 - The Inner Groove
10:15 pm
Jim Ryan TRIO
9:30 pm THOLLEM/RIVERA
8:45 pm JASON ROBINSON
8:00 pm BOB MARSH/
David MichalakJim Ryan's FORWARD ENERGY
"...Forceful, immediate, inventive." - Signal to Noise
Poet, writer, philosopher and musician,
Jim Ryan is an original member of the exploratory family of artists of the 20th century. His powerful playing style and truly original voice permeates the San Francisco Bay Area with vibrant spirit.
Jim Ryan was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and began listening to bebop at age 15. In 1958 after obtaining a degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Jim was drafted into the army and sent to Europe. After serving for 21 months, Jim found himself attending the Sorbonne in Paris France. After a short time he discovered he was infected with the writing bug and became involved with the beat poet community that was blossoming in France and throughout the world, rubbing elbows with such poets as Boroughs, and Ginsberg. Nearing his mid-30's it became more difficult to make a living writing and he found many of his former-writing friends were becoming involved in painting and other artistic endeavors. In 1968 Jim was given a wooden flute and shortly thereafter acquired a c-melody sax. At the same time many of the American new music musicians, Sonny Murray, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM were given funding by the US Government and settled in Europe including France. Jim was in the right place at the right time and found himself jamming and performing with these rebels of creative music. As the migration of cutting edge American artists continued more straight ahead artists like Johnny Griffith and Steve Lacy began to arrive to take advantage of the European scene. In the early 70's Jim participated in a yearlong workshop organized and led by Steve Lacy while continuing to develop his writing. In 1975 Jim formed the Free Music Formation, a group which performed in Paris and other European cities.
In 1975 he returned to the United States in search of a fresh start and settled in Washington, D.C. where he formed the Art Performance Group performing throughout the area. In 1987 he moved California and lived in Marin County until 1993 when he moved to Oakland and became part of the San Francisco Bay Area improv and jazz scene.
After a long hiatus, in 1997, he launched one of his current groups Forward Energy featuring stellar artists like trumpet
player Eddie Gale and drummer Donald Robinson. Jim also performed with Marco Eneidi's "American Jungle Orchestra," and Eddie Gale's "Orchestra for World Peace." In 1998 he became the editor and publisher of Outside, an underground art and music zine in Oakland, which featured such artists as Positive Knowledge, Marco Emeidi, as well as many artists of Bay Area improv scene. For two years beginning in 1999 Jim was the booker for the Luggage Store Gallery Series in San
Francisco. At that same time he was also booking for the Starry Plow new music series in Berkeley, 2310 Telegraph Gallery in Oakland, and he currently curates shows occasionally at 21Grand Gallery in Oakland.
In the spring of 2000, he founded the Electro/Acoustic Sextet of Oakland, which was a melding of free jazz and avant academic styles. The group performed in Oakland and at the Big Sur Experimental Music Festival in May 2000. In the spring of 2000 he performed in the 401 Festival at Theater Artaud in composer Matthew Burtner's piece for nine tenor saxophones, "Portals of Distortion." You can hear this pivotal Bay Area saxophonist presently with Forward Energy and the Left Coast Improv Group.
THOLLEM/RIVERA
Thollem Mcdonas piano, voice
San Francisco Bay Area composer/pianist/vocalist, has enjoyed success in a wide variety of musical situations and his travels as a performer have covered much of the North American Continent and some in Europe. He has performed extensively as a soloist as well with groups. He is a founding member of several innovative ensembles including: ‘The Hundredth Monkey Generation’, ‘Monk and Cage’, and ‘Asterisk* Movement and Sound’. He was commissioned by ‘The Limon Dance Company’ for a large scale composition in commemoration of their 50th year anniversary. He is responsible, in full or in part, for many albums of original music. Currently he is performing as a soloist, with the duo Thollem/Rivera, developing a participatory sound experience called the MakeSoundArium, And scoring a play about Pavel Florensky, an influential Communist era russian scientist and the gulag where he was eventually executed.
Rick Rivera drums
A native of Boston, MA, Rick Rivera began playing drums at the age of thirteen. Later, he joined his high school’s jazz band which provided him with various performance opportunities throughout the U.S.
After graduation, Rick went on to study music formally with Bob Gullotti. During his 5-year apprenticeship with Bob, Rick performed at the Willow Jazz Club, Wally’s and Berklee College of Music and was a first-call session drummer for some of Boston’s finest musician’s, including Jane Wang, John Aruda, Jeff Rorback and Russell Fortunato. After completing his studies with Bob, Rick went on to pursue jazz across two continents, teaching and performing in Boston, Hawaii, and Japan. While in Japan, Rick appeared at such notable venues as Body and Soul, Live Inn Pier and Shinjuku Pit Inn. He co-led the Monk Tribute Band, alongside Natori Toshihiko, and powered the Mineko Ogata Trio and Hisashi Nakajima Quartet with his traditional and experimental jazz drumming style. Now a resident of San Francisco, Rick continues his pursuit of jazz and experimental music with top musicians in the Bay Area.
JASON ROBINSON
Reedist/improviser/composer Jason Robinson leads a life of fractured multiplicity, dividing his time between a dynamic performance and recording career, teaching activities, organizing efforts, and ethno/musicological research. Robinson is an active member of the improvised and popular music scene(s) of the West Coast - leading his own "jazz" groups, collaborating in a variety of improvised and experimental contexts, and touring as a sideman with a number of groups. In 1998, Robinson founded Circumvention Music, an artist-run independent record label dedicated to the support and distribution of improvised musics. Robinson has performed/recorded with Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Lisle Ellis, Paul Plimley, Mei Han, Eugene Chadbourne, Earl Howard, Emily Hay, Jeff Kaiser, Eek a Mouse, Bertram Turetzky, Mel Graves, Marco Eneidi, Mike Wofford, Philip Gelb, J.D. Parran, Gerry Hemingway, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (at Pearl's, San Francisco), the La Jolla Symphony, SONOR (among others), as well as theater-oriented groups such as the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the New Pickle Circus. His compositions are featured on Trummerflora Collective Rubble 1 (Accretions/Circumvention) (Cosmologic Syntaxis (Circumvention), Jason Robinson Tandem (Accretions), Cosmologic Staring at the Sun (Circumvention), and Jason Robinson From the Sun (Circumvention). Robinson's 2002 release Tandem, which showcases collaborations with of number of influential musicians, including Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, and others, was selected as a "top 10" critic's pick in JazzTimes Magazine.
Robinson has performed and presented his work in Europe, Canada, Mexico, and throughout the United States at prominent venues and festivals. He is a founding member of the Trummerflora Collective, a musicians organization dedicated to the support of creative music. Robinson is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Music in the diverse and challenging Critical Studies and Experimental Practices program at the University of California, San Diego. His areas of focus include improvised musics, African-American music, popular music, and the relationship between musical expression and identity. Robinson teaches at Southwestern College in San Diego, and has taught in Music and African-American studies at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Irvine. He was Director of Education for the Creative Music Workshop at Spring Reverb 2003, sponsored by the Trummerflora Collective and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. He is also the current Curriculum Director for the UCSD Jazz Camp "Inside Out," which strives to emphasize the full spectrum of creative expression embodied in the jazz tradition.
BOB MARSH/
David MichalakBob Marsh
A well seasoned improviser whose work has involved shaping sounds words images ideas, Bob Marsh originally from Detroit, arrived in the Bay Area in 2000 after ten years in Chicago where he played with most of the avant improvisers in that rich and varied scene. Since his arrival on the west coast, multi-instrumentalist and composer Marsh has been busy with several projects. He currently leads or directs String Theory, a string ensemble focusing on textures and microtonics; the Che Guevarra Memorial Marching (and Stationary) Accordion Band, structured and free improv for six to fifteen accordions; Robot Martians, electronics and processed voice; the Out of the Blue Chamber Ensemble, a mixture of reeds and strings; Opera Viva, voiced physical theater; the Quintessentials, a quintet specializing in interpreting graphic compositions based on alterations to the Michelin Road Guide to France; and the Illuminated Orchestra, structured improves for large ensemble. Additionally Marsh is a member of Romus/Diaz-Infante’s Abstractions,
Jim Ryan’s Left Coast Improv Group, Moe! Staiano’s Moe!chestra and Tom Bickley's Cornelius Cardew Choir. Bob Marsh tours frequently with his long term partner saxophonist Jack Wright. Bob has recently been presenting a solo work involving violin, voice and tap shoes. Marsh's educational background includes a BFA in sculpture and an MA in humanistic clinical psychology. He has studied classical piano, classical guitar and vibraphone and has taught himself various other instruments. He currently is active with cello, accordion, violin, voice, vibraphone and electronics.
Plays Well With Others Jim Baker, John Berndt, Tom Bickley, Jeb Bishop, Kyle Bruckmann, Gust Burns, Gene Coleman, George Cremaschi, Matt Davingon, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Dina Emerson, Bryan Eubanks, R. Albert Falesch, John Finkbeiner, Tara Flandreau, Stephen Flinn, Jonathon Fretheim, Carol Genetti, Greg Goodman, Morgan Guberman, Greg Hamilton, Chris Heenan, Ron Heglin, Jeff Hobbs, Matt Ingalls, Kurt Johnson, Aurora Josephson, Andrew Lafkas, Adam Lane, Eric Leonardson, Jacob Lindsay, Fred Longberg-Holm, Toshi Makihara, Tatsuya Nakatani, Tom Nunn, Suki O’Kane, Garth Powell, Bhob Rainey, Hal Rammell, Rent Romus, Scott Rosenberg,
Jim Ryan, Joe Sabella, Jonathon Segel, John Shiurba, Blaise Siwula, David Slusser, Damon Smith, Adam Sonderberg, Karen Stackpole, Grant Strombeck, Tom Swafford, Ken Vandermark, Matt Weston, Sue Wolf, Theresa Wong, Michael Zelner, Michael Zerang.
David MichalakSince 1971
David Michalak has made over 50 films with original soundtracks In 1978 he moved to San Francisco and started his own mail-order record business called EARWAX to produce 16mm films. Dreamlife, his first 16mm film was premiered at the landmark Castro Theatre in S.F. in 1982. A soundtrack Picture Disc Lp of original music was released later in that year. A two-part Retrospective of his work was held in S.F. from 1992 - 1993.
Part 1, When Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth, was held at The No Nothing, and
Part 2 Eye-Full Films Revisited at the Cinematheque.
In 1996 he completed Inside-Out, which featured The Kate Foley Dance Company and a score written with Nik Phelps and performed by the Club Foot Orchestra. The film had it's premiere with the orchestra playing live, at The Victoria Theatre in S.F. as part of his 2nd Retrospective called 25 Years Of Eye-Full Films. In 1999, after 10 years of work, he premiered When The Spirit Moves, a mystical fairy-tale featuring (Joe Goode) dancer Vong Phrommala and silent-movie style actress Billie-Marie Gross, at The Film Arts Festival. After nearly 30 years of filmmaking and over 50 completed films a soundtrack trio was formed to play live scores for his movies. The trio, called Reel Change, features Andrew Voigt (woodwinds), Joe Sabella (samples) and the filmmaker (singing guitar). Reel Change recently performed a live score for the 1928 silent film, Fall Of The House Of Usher, at Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, somArts and The Exploratorium. The band is working on a soundtrack CD to be released later this year.
David has performed with live or on soundtracks artists includeing:
J.A. Deane, Bruce Ackley, Carla Kihlstedt, Matt Brubeck, Dean Santomeiri, Beth Custer, Club Foot Orchestra, Damon Smith, Doug Carroll, Jim Heron, Myles Boisen, George Cremaschi, Monday Night Music and Tom Nunn, and Nik Phelp's Sprocket Ensemble.
Cost: Sen/Stu/Artists $10, Gen $12