On Leap of Faith: "Alien yet familiar, bizarre yet completely fascinating. Expanding, contracting, erupting, settling down, always as one force..." - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
On Metal Chaos Ensemble: "... using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation." - Squidco website staff
Evil Clown
http://www.leslieross.net/
Leslie Ross, performer, sound-installation artist, bassoonist and instrument-maker, has been exploring and experimenting with sound for over 25 years. Very active in the New York downtown improv scene through the late 80s’ and 90s’, she played and toured with many musicians and groups. In gallery or street performance settings as well as in collaboration with choreographers she has created works for numerous constructed instruments and installations. In the past few years she has returned her focus to a detailed exploration and understanding of bassoon multiphonics, and this process of investigation has led to the creation of solo works that use an extensive system of micro-amplification: 15 microphones are placed at tone holes on the instrument and the signal from these microphones are directed to many speakers around a room. Ross’s pieces have evolved over the course of the past couple of years to fall increasingly into a minimalist mode –this entirely due to the demands of the material. She is also in the process of re-building another one of her ‘organ- bíkes’ along with a ‘music-box-bike’ (mobile mechanical pedaled instruments) and continues to build replicas of historical bassoons in her workshop on the Lower East Side of NYC.
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
Leslie Ross Bio:
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
Curt Newton Bio:
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
Taylor Ho Bynum Bio:
http://taylorhobynum.com/
Taylor Ho Bynum (b. 1975) is a composer, cornet player, bandleader and interdisciplinary collaborator. Critics have called him “a singular and thrilling artist” (All About Jazz), “a major force on the outward-bound side of the jazz continuum” (The Boston Globe) and “a provocateur in the guise of a consensus builder” (The New York Times). Bynum currently leads his Sextet and 7-tette, and works with many collective ensembles including a duo with drummer Tomas Fujiwara, the improv trio Book of Three, the UK/US collaborative Convergence Quartet, the dance/music interdisciplinary ensemble Quartet Collective, and the trans-idiomatic little big band Positive Catastrophe. His endeavors include his Acoustic Bicycle Tours (where he travels to concerts solely by bike across expansive regions like New England or the West Coast) and his stewardship of artist-driven non-profit organizations like Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Foundation. Bynum’s ongoing association with Braxton is recognized as one of the most fruitful partnerships of that iconic composer’s career, and his work with Bill Dixon produced some of the departed trumpet innovator’s late masterpieces. He has collaborated with other legendary figures including Cecil Taylor and Wadada Leo Smith and performs with many forward-thinking peers, and has toured throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recent awards include a 2013 Performing Arts Grant from Creative Capital and a 2013 Artist Fellowship in Music Composition from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.
http://bhobrainey.net/
Bhob Rainey is an award-winning composer / performer. He has a long and well-regarded history as an improviser, known for a masterful yet often understated technique that transforms the soprano saxophone into an electronic-like, textural, or percussive device. He is also known for his ongoing critique of improvisational practice, which has brought influential concepts and stylistic components into the practice as a whole. While Rainey has worked with numerous improvisers globally, he is best known for his solo work, Nmperign (with trumpeter Greg Kelley), and his direction of the improvising large ensemble, The BSC.
Rainey's work extends to the realm of electronic and algorithmic composition. A programmer from a young age, he has contributed a significant set of extensions to the SuperCollider language and has used contemporary computational techniques from fields like gaming and big data to trouble the formal content of his electronic works. His collaborations in this area are not only with algorithms and electrons, but also with regarded composers such as Ralf Wehowsky, Jason Lescalleet, and Chris Cooper.
In 2013, Rainey was awarded the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts for his work in these areas. In 2014, the American Composers Forum (Philadephia Chapter) awarded him a Subito grant for work on Axon Ladder.
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
B'hob Rainey Bio:
In 2008, Curt performed with the following:
the mi3 (w/ Pandelis Karayorgis, piano and Fender Rhodes; Nate McBride, bass)
The Blooming (w/ Tom Hall, tenor saxophone; Jeff Song, cello and bass)
Nate McBride Quartet (w/ Charlie Kohlhase, saxophones; Taylor Ho Bynum, brass; Nate McBride, bass)
blues trio Middlewest (w/ Paul Trunnell and Bill Boehm, guitars and vocals)
Dave Bryant Quartet
Kevin Frenette Quartet
Metal and Glass Ensemble
subbing for The Blue Ribbons
Prior work includes: a long association with Chicago saxophonist and composer Ken Vandermark, dating back to 1986 and including four CDs; several years and three CDs with Joe Morris; a duo for Korean kayagum and chang-go with Jeff Song; and performances with musicians like sOo-Jung Kae, Jim Hobbs, Hans Poppel, Eric Hofbauer, Greg Kelley, Jorrit Dijkstra, Gabe Birnbaum, Jody Blackwell, The Poppies, Inner Beauty ....
Percussion Performances
Curt has periodically developed a solo drumset repetoire, with original compositions, improvisations, and works for drumset by other composers. Select peformances include an all-drumset concert with master drummers Alan Dawson and Bob Gullotti (1992) world premiere of John Zorn's Hwang Chin Ee for two drumsets and narrator (New England Conservatory, 1996)
original transcription of Lutoslawski String Quartet for solo drumset (1997) activating Chen Zhen's sculpture Jue Chang (50 Strokes to Each) at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (2002)
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
B'hob Rainey Bio:
http://bhobrainey.net/
Bhob Rainey is an award-winning composer / performer. He has a long and well-regarded history as an improviser, known for a masterful yet often understated technique that transforms the soprano saxophone into an electronic-like, textural, or percussive device. He is also known for his ongoing critique of improvisational practice, which has brought influential concepts and stylistic components into the practice as a whole. While Rainey has worked with numerous improvisers globally, he is best known for his solo work, Nmperign (with trumpeter Greg Kelley), and his direction of the improvising large ensemble, The BSC.
Rainey's work extends to the realm of electronic and algorithmic composition. A programmer from a young age, he has contributed a significant set of extensions to the SuperCollider language and has used contemporary computational techniques from fields like gaming and big data to trouble the formal content of his electronic works. His collaborations in this area are not only with algorithms and electrons, but also with regarded composers such as Ralf Wehowsky, Jason Lescalleet, and Chris Cooper.
In 2013, Rainey was awarded the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts for his work in these areas. In 2014, the American Composers Forum (Philadephia Chapter) awarded him a Subito grant for work on Axon Ladder.
Leap of Faith Guest Bios
George Garzone Bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Garzone
http://www.georgegarzone.com/
George Garzone (born September 23, 1950) is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in Boston.
Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The group has released several albums. Garzone has appeared on over 20 recordings. He began on the tenor saxophone when he was six, played in a family band and attended music school in Boston. In addition Garzone has guested in many situations, touring Europe with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and performing with Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette, Rachel Z, Bob Weir and Ratdog and John Patitucci.