Light A Fire: Blow It Out
1.
Thomas HeltonTH: solo bass
Thomas Helton is a composer and bassist who writes and performs music in both solo and ensemble settings. As a composer Mr. Helton was awarded a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 2007 for the commission and premiere of a new work for fifteen-piece ensemble, the Torture Chamber Ensemble. He was awarded an artist residency for the commission and premiere of Pride from DiverseWorks ArtSpace in Houston in October 2004, a work for ten-piece ensemble and video projection created in collaboration with video artist Maria del Carmen Montoya. Other new music commissions include 5 works for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble. Desesperados (2005), a suite of tangos, is featured on Houston Public Radio’s CD The Best of the Front Row. Black Rain (2005), a work for saxophone, guitar, string bass, percussion and dancers, was chosen to be performed as part of FotoFest’s 2006 Biennial dedicated to the themes of The Earth and Artists Responding to Violence. As a bassist, Thomas Helton performs with his own ensemble, The Core Trio, as well as with many celebrated jazz and free improv artists including Tim Hagans, Milt Jackson, Daniel Carter, Monty Alexander, Frank Gratowski and Ernie Watts. He recently performed the music of Tim Hagans as a guest artist with Sweden’s Norrbotten Big Band. He was also featured at the 2009 ISB Bass Convention curated by Mark Dresser. Thomas has released three CD’s: Doublebass; Experimentations in Minimalism; and Saga. All three have received positive reviews in the press in both in the U.S. and Europe.
He is currently attending the Takt Artist Residency in Berlin and planning a west coast tour in the US.
2.
Karl Evangelista TrioKE: guitar
Cory Wright: baritone saxophone
Jordan Glenn: drums
Karl Evangelista ranks among a new wave of creative musicians emerging out of the Bay Area music scene that draw on both jazz and a tradition of 20th century musical experimentation. Born in Van Nuys, California to two Filipino immigrants, Evangelista brings a timely cultural perspective to the Bay Area music community, exploring the place of multiculturalism and ethnic co-existence in an increasingly post-cultural, trans-idiomatic cultural space. The trio, featuring baritone heavyweight Cory Wright and percussion dynamo Jordan Glenn, amalgamates free improv textures with jazz garage-y groove and heady eclecticism: creative music stew.
3. Mutual Aid Project
Marshall Trammell: drums
Tracy Hui: guitar
Nick Obando: saxophone
Stunning, challenging free improv by some very articulate local lights.
Cost: Donation