Improvisation Summit of Portland 2015 Performers:
Roscoe Mitchell
One of the top saxophonists to come out of Chicago’s AACM movement of the mid-’60s, Roscoe Mitchell is a particularly strong and consistently adventurous improviser long associated with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. After getting out of the military, Mitchell led a hard bop sextet in Chicago (1961) which gradually became much freer.
He was a member of Muhal Richard Abrams’s Experimental Band and a founding member of the AACM in 1965. Mitchell’s monumental Sound album (1966) introduced a new way of freely improvising, utilizing silence as well as high energy and “little instruments” as well as conventional horns. Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors were on that date and Mitchell’s 1967 follow-up Old/Quartet.
With the addition of Joseph Jarman and Philip Wilson (who was later succeeded by Famoudou Don Moye), the Art Ensemble of Chicago was born. The colorful unit was one of the most popular groups in the jazz avant-garde and Mitchell was an integral part of the band. Roscoe Mitchell (who, in addition to his main horns, plays clarinet, flute, piccolo, oboe, baritone and bass saxophones) also was involved in individual projects through the years and has recorded as a leader for Delmark, Nessa, Sackville, Moers Music, 1750 Arch, Black Saint, Cecma and Silkheart in settings ranging from large ensembles to unaccompanied solo concerts. — Scott Yanow, All-Music Guide (http://www.artensembleofchicago.com/roscoe.html)
Jonah Parzen-Johnson
“A folk music for a new tribe of people, one that has access to new technologies and uses them as opposed to being used by them.”
– All About Jazz
Jonah Parzen-Johnson is a saxophonist from Chicago, IL living in Brooklyn, NY. He writes lofi music for solo saxophone and analog synthesizer. Imagine the raw energy of an Appalachian Folk choir, tempered by a lofi, minimal aesthetic inspired by the music of Bill Callahan. His carefully assembled analog synthesizer breathes with his saxophone, building independent melodic layers to support his sound, or soaring above his extended technique driven saxophone playing. All performed live, without any looping or recorded samples.
A Chicago native, Jonah’s circular breathing, multi-phonics and impossibly nimble vocalization owes a debt to the Chicago saxophone legacy, but his devotion to a quirky almost vocal style places him in new territory for the solo saxophone. He has meticulously constructed a world of warm memories remembered in a cold present, as he melds the evocative nature of folk music with the chilling power of experimentalism. In addition to relentlessly touring as a solo saxophonist, Jonah is a co-leader of the nationally touring afrobeat ensemble, Zongo Junction, and an active part of Brooklyn’s ever-expanding independent music community. His latest recording, Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow, will be released on June 2, 2015 by Primary Records.
http://www.creativemusicguild.org/isp-2015/
Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham
Reed Wallsmith (alto saxophone) and Joe Cunningham (tenor saxophone) perform with Blue Cranes and Battle Hymns and Gardens. In addition to composing and improvising in these groups, they have scored music for film and dance. Wallsmith and Cunningham have collaborated together and separately with AU, Wayne Horvitz, Laura Gibson, Eyvind Kang, Ethan Rose, and Laura Veirs. Their fourth full length album with Blue Cranes, Swim, produced by The Decemberists’ Nate Query, is available on colored vinyl and CD through the Washington, D.C.-based Cuneiform Records.
CATFISH
Melancholy instrumental trio CATFISH formed in Portland, Oregon in 2013, led by saxophonist Joe Cunningham (Blue Cranes, Battle Hymns & Gardens). After enlisting Portland veterans, guitarist Dan Duval (The Ocular Concern, PJCE Sextet, Gunga Galunga) and drummer Ken Ollis (Ken Ollis Group, The Demolition Duo, Paxselin Quartet), Cunningham formed CATFISH, a vehicle for open improvisations in the vein of Dirty Three, Paul Motian Trio, and early Cat Power.