[zen widow press release]
April 22, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mississippi Studios and Various Artists
present
ZEN WIDOW
Gianni Gebbia: Saxophones-Flute (Sicily)
Matthew Goodheart: Piano (Bay Area)
Garth Powell: Percussion (Bay Area)
plus: John Gross|Doug Theriault|Tim DuRoche (Portland)
Sunday, May 9, 8 pm
Mississippi Studios (3939 North Mississippi in
Portland)
Admission: $10
Mississippi Studios and Various Artists are pleased to present a fantastic evening of improvised music on SUNDAY, MAY 9 at 8 pm at Mississippi Studios (3939 North Mississippi in Portland), featuring ZEN WIDOW, an allstar ensemble made up of one of Europe's great free music players GIANNI GEBBIA from Sicily and Bay Area innovators MATTHEW GOODHEART and GARTH POWELL-on tour to support their first CD Zen Widow for the Bay Area-based Evander Music label.
Opening the evening will be a Portland-based summit meeting of three distinct, compelling improvisers: powerhouse saxophonist JOHN GROSS, experimental guitarist DOUG THERIAULT, and ragtime-to-no-time drummer TIM DuROCHE, all in all an exceptional sampling of some the Left Coast's most wide-ranging creative musicians in the lush environs of one of Portland's best sounding venues.
ZEN WIDOW-Background
"The Zen Widow Trio of Gianni Gebbia (saxophones),
Matthew Goodheart (piano), and Garth Powell
(percussion) is a marvelous construct. Blessed with
real character and always just the next moment away
from creating more delicious riddles. They marshal an
incredible diversity of sounds, both real and implied,
into tightly focused gems which are never less than
fascinating and strangely perfect. Possessed of a
natural fire and remarkable sense of intuition they
are a testament to the virtues of deep listening and
the practice of instant composition when in the able
care of three master improvising musicians." -Brad
Winter (Creative Music Guild)
GIANNI GEBBIA (Alto, C-Melody, Sopranino Saxophones-Flutes) Born in Palermo, Italy, where he still resides, Gebbia is perhaps best known for his circular-breathing technique developed through his studies of Sardinian folk music and the Sardinian bagpipe. An extremely versatile musician with a prominent international reputation, he frequently finds himself in a great variety of collaborations including traditional jazz players, free improvisers, DJ's, Butoh dancers. In addition to touring extensively in Europe, North America, and Asia, he also has an extensive list of CDs to his credit.
MATTHEW GOODHEART (Piano-Prepared Piano -Percussion) A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Goodheart explores a variety of forms and processes as solo performer, collaborative artist, and composer. He has toured extensively in North America and Europe, and was a featured artist at the 2003 International Conference/Festival of Spectral Music in Istanbul. In addition, the last seven years have seen a great variety of projects from Goodheart. He's performed at a variety of festivals, including Fire in the Valley, Garden of Memory Festival of New Music, Illuminations New Music & Arts Festival, and the Glenn Spearman Festival. He has toured the US and Canada, recorded several CDs, including projects with Wadada Leo Smith and Dominic Duval, all of which have received high critical praise, including critic's picks among "the year's 10 best" in Cadence, Coda, JazzIz, and JazzTimes magazines. He has also continued performing contemporary piano works, including Maggi Payne's Minutia, José Maceda's Music for Four Winds and Two Pianos, Morton Feldman's Atlantis and For Bunita Marcus, and Glenn Spearman's Untitled Work for Solo Piano, a massive four movement piece written specifically for Goodheart. One recent group, the Goodheart-Allen-Powell Trio, has toured the US, played several festivals including the Glenn Spearman Festival, Berkeley Arts Festival and the Olympia Experimental Music Festival, and released their first disc I Can Climb a Tree, I Can Tie a Knot, I Can Have a Conversation. Goodheart also teaches both privately and at a variety of institutions, including Mills College, the University of California at Berkeley, and the East Bay Center for Performing Arts.
GARTH POWELL (Drums-Percussion-Musical Saws) For a Percussionist-Composer, time, rhythm, and pulse are undeniable, non-negotiable components of the craft. Yet, the sonic domain remains for many, a peripheral concern. Timbre is not only of equal importance; it is an integral part of the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic construct. All four exist in the parallel sub-division of frequencies and waves. This relationship demands understanding, discipline, and mastery. In Powell's music, these elements are meticulously combined, creating a transcendent force enveloping the listener. Ultimately, we are drawn into the ecstatic, and the inexplicable. He has performed throughout North America and Europe, and was featured at the Copenhagen Jazz festival, Curva Minore Festival, San Francisco Alternative Music Festival, Olympia Improvised Music festival among others, and is currently a Rastascan, Roadcone, Leo, Evander, and 9 Winds recording artist.
"Powell plays in a deceptively serene manner, establishing an illusion of tranquility that is often shattered by his breakaway tactics. He is a mercurial performer who turns the direction of the performance around with his dynamic execution and just as easily reverts to pensive, pastoral _expression. Segments filled with tenderness and compassion often follows his most robust playing." Frank Rubolino, One Final Note
JOHN GROSS|DOUG THERIAULT|TIM DuROCHE-Background:
JOHN GROSS was born in Los Angeles in 1944, where he lived and worked until 1991. He adopted the saxophone at an early age, and by the age of seventeen he was playing with some of the great jazz players in the business, including: Harry James, Johnny Mathis, Stan Kenton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Don Ellis, and Shelly Manne. In 1983 John Gross went into retreat to reassess his musical goals, and re-emerged to specialize in ensemble and solo work. Gross now lives in Portland, Oregon and is leading his own groups: Threeplay w/Putter Smith, Larry Koonse, Saxophobia w/Warren Rand, George Mitchell, Charlie Doggett and playing as sideman/featured artist in the Alan Jones Sextet, with David Friesen, Rob Blakeslee, Gordon Lee, and in a duo with drummer Billy Mintz.
"ŠGross' uncanny ability to move in and out of key center, constructing off-centre phrases that are both logical and eerily lyrical, is beautifully in evidenceŠthe result is a single chorus of sheer beautyŠGross' brooding sound, warmed by an almost imperceptible vibrato is pervaded by a sense of loss, but there is not a trace of sentimental self-indulgence. This is mature music of quiet power that will get to you if you let it." -S. Chamberlain, LA Jazz
DOUG THERIAULT works in improvisational live peformance and has long been among the most distinctive and accomplished guitarists and improvisors in the Pacific Northwest. His idiosyncratic approach to the electric guitar and electronics is something to behold.He has presented his work all over the United States with a wide variety of musicians and in many festivals. All of his projects concern the use of Music Improvisation, in its many forms and contexts. His work is informed by Hugh Davies, Derek Bailey, Michel Waisaivz and Masayuki Takayanagi. He is mostly concerned with playing in ad hoc improvisational contexts. These have included a myriad of national and international artists including: Fred Lonberg-Holm, Saadet Turkoz, Gino Robair, Davey Williams, Ladonna smith, Ed Chang, Jeph Jerman, Wally Shoup, Jack Wright, Toshi Makihara, Tim Perkis, Paul Hession, Sean Meehan, Matthew Sperry, Minus, Mark Hosler (Negativland), Eric Ostrowski (noggin), Climax Golden Twins, Aiko Shimada, Jason Dumars and The Sun Ra Orchestra, to name a few. Doug's ongoing music projects are Office Products, with David Chandler, Dual, with Ed Chang, and ongoing collaborations with other musicians and artists.
"Theriault veers from Bailey-style subterfuge to big Van Halen licks and churning industrial fuzz. . ." -David Keenan, WIRE
"In the hand of experimental improviser Doug Theriault, this familiar instrument becomes a waterfall of cut-up sounds and mind bending loops. His work is especially intriguing live." -Tiffany Lee Brown, Willamette Week
TIM DUROCHE is a jazz drummer, conceptual artists, curator, and freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon. Over the last decade he's played all forms of jazz from dixieland and grindhouse to swing, bop and beyond. He began his career as musician in Minneapolis in the mid-1980s and or many years performed solely with a minimal combination of snare-hihat-brushes-developing a singular, trademark approach to sound, rhythm, swing, and space-and working both sides of the jazz continuum, from ragtime to no time. Over the last decade-plus, he's worked with Jon Jang/James Newton, pianist Butch Thompson, the late Cap'n Jack McDuff, blues legend Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, Douglas Ewart and Carei Thomas of the AACM, George Cartwright, poet Tracie Morris, James Samuel "Cornbread" Harris, Sr., and late performance artist Stuart Sherman. More recently, DuRoche's been working with a who's who of West Coast and European jazz innovators, including Wally Shoup, Perry Robinson, Jack Wright, Gust Burns, Bob Marsh, Ron Heglin, Frank Gratkowski, Bill Horist, John Gross, Michael Bisio, André St. James, Rob Blakeslee, Jerome Bryerton, Glen Moore, Jim Knodle, Rich Halley, Michael Vlatkovich, Doug Theriault, Torsten Müller, and Damon Smith. Additionally, he's created performances with choregraphers Linda Austin, Linda K. Johnson, and Elizabeth Ward and with poets David Abel and Robert Briggs. Currently (and notably) he's involved in an ongoing series of intermedia duo performances, recordings, and projects-installations with poet-conceptual artist Lisa Radon.
"DuRoche's inspired rhythms worked marvelously with the sax and bass, spurring each other on to some wicked outbursts...exciting and inspired. . .." -Cadence
For more information, contact us.