The 2007 EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMITPre-Concert Composer Q&A 8:30
Beat & Beyond, a night extending rhythm and soundLx Rudis,
Wobbly, Lance Grabmiller, Robert Anbian & the Unidentified Flying Quartet
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Lx Rudis is an interdisciplinary media artist based in San Francisco, California. He has been active in both commercial and underground sectors in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1980s. Early contact with groups such as Tuxedomoon, The Units and SRL led to media work ranging from radio shows on NPR with members of negativland to commercial work for ABC affiliate KGO-TV and various corporate entities. since 1988, Mr. Rudis' work has been concentrated in the field of interactive computer entertainment. He was a charter member of SF's Virtual Reality Group and has lectured at Cyberarts and performed at the first Digital Be-In. He has lectured at the Computer Game Developer's Conference and several universities in California. He has worked in all areas of video game production and is named in the credits of over 40 video games.
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Wobbly aka Jon Leidecker has been performing music under the name
Wobbly since 1990. Releases include the album 'Wild Why' for Tigerbeat6, 'Live 99>00' for Phthalo, and the 3" CDs "Regards" for Alku, and "Playlist" for Illegal Art. Past festival appearences include Sound Unseen / Plunderphonia in Minneapolis, Ether at Royal Festival Hall in London, and Sonar in Barcelona.
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Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1975, Lance Grabmiller Studied viola, cello, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and music composition (in that order) before putting all formal studies on hold with the discovery of his first four track tape recorder at the age of 14. Using various tapes, effects, objects, microphones, amplifiers, razor blades and any instruments that could be begged or borrowed, he created quite a din in the Midwest, most notably in his collaborations with Shannon Fields which included such bands as Alice's Offspring, Requiem (which included a revolving cast of dozens) and HSoA (with Martin Nieznanski), the last of which culminated in a gigantic performance noise nightmare that nearly destroyed the Gizmo in Galesburg, IL in 1994.
In 1998, after working on tape-wrecks and selling off every instrument he owned in his bedroom, he ventured to move his music concrete into the computer realm. It all went downhill from there. He worked as producer with various elements of the Midwest's dark-ambient and industrial scenes (including remixes and collaborations with Paved in Skin and C17H19N03) until his relocation to San Francisco in 2001.
In 2002, Lance's first CD was released. Titled "Anthropology" and assembled by John Bergin of various tracks completed between 1999 and 2001, hovering between the various influences of Pierre Henry, Morton Subotnik and the then dying "Glitch" and "Drum n Bass" factions of electronic music.
Currently producing and currating events throughout the Bay Area while trying to straddle the gap between the "avant-garde" and the "electronic". He has played in improvisational groups with Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Rent Romus, Philip Gelb, Joseph Zitt,
Lx Rudis, Dina Emerson and many more. He has also opened for such notable electronic acts as Kid606, Sagan,
Wobbly, Uprock and Meg Lee Chin among others.
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Robert Anbian & The Unidentified Flying Quartet
From the San Francisco poetry underground comes the voice of Robert Anbian, backed by electronic percussionist E. “Doc” Smith and Bay Area sax legend Charles Unger, plus keyboardist Sam Peoples and bassist Mike Shea. UFQ makes its own magic inspired by the music of Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Bobby Hutcherson, with infusions of Brian Eno, the Grateful Dead, and something else. Notes Anbian: “I call the post-fusion, world beat jazz these guys play ‘acid-bop’ – it’s got more possibilities for poetry than the typical verse-chorus cadences of popular music.”
Known for his lyrical-epic “WE” series, and such topical effronteries as “Haikus for the White House,” Anbian has been described by fellow poet Richard Hack as “a passionate virtuoso steeped in these times and deep with tradition” [whose] “poetry crackles with currency – hiply linguistic turns of natural originality, rhythmically brimming with a tempestuous taste of ecstasy, reason, and love.” Dusty Dog Reviews declared him “a genius or a Venusian.”
E. Doctor Smith, inventor of the Drummstick, (born December 2, 1956 in Naples, Italy), began his musical journey as a teenager playing percussion in the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra and in Maryland’s Montgomery County Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Miles Davis fusion bands of the mid-70s, he continued his studies with Paul Sears, drummer of the Muffins. His first group, Oranus Rey, featured guitarist Paul Bollenback, bassist Ed Howard, and saxophonist Tim Chambers.
In 1980 Smith moved to New York where he met fellow Music Building tenants Madonna (entertainer) and her co-writer, Stephen Bray. With Bray, Smith performed in the Breakfast Club (band) and The Same. The Same was produced by Brian Eno and featured keyboardist Carter Burwell, guitarist Chip Johannsen, singer Cloda Simmons, bassist Stanley Adler, and the motto "Semper Mutants." Now living in San Francisco, Smith performed at the Edgetone New Music Summit of 2006 with horn player Eric Dahlman. In March 2007, Smith will release a new Drummstick 2 CD, a long-distance collaboration with the original Drummstick band and other musical friends (and the re-release of his first Drummstick CD) on Edgetone Records.
Smith also produced and performed on an Edgetone release entitled Robert Anbian and UFQ: the Unidentified Flying Quartet. This timely and troubling work of jazz and poetry features poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, keyboardist Sam Peoples, and bassist Mike Shea
Charles Unger has performed for numerous years at Les Joulin's Jazz Bistro on Ellis, and the Rasselas Jazz Club on Fillmore, to the delight of regulars, tourists, purists and jazz aficionados alike. Unger first arrived in San Francisco in 1968, at the impressionable age of eighteen, and during the famed "Summer of Love." Unger stayed a week during that visit, and in 1969, he came back again, this time for a two week stay. According to "In Search of the City" writer Louis Martin, Unger "was hooked". "A year later he moved to San Francisco. He played mostly rock and R & B back then. He can't pinpoint exactly when he started playing jazz but says, "It's always been in the background. It's one of those things you grow up playing in school. In school bands they try to throw in a couple of jazz tunes."
Members of the group also include: Sam Peoples -acoustic & electric piano, samples & Mike Shea - acoustic & electric bass
A Project of UBU Inc.
Cost: $12/8