Pittsburgh New Music Net

an evening of improvised electro-acoustic music and sounds at The Nerve with

Jack Wright and Bob Marsh (Easton, PA and Boulder, CO) performing on improvised reed instruments and cello/voice

http://www.springgardenmusic.com/

Michael Johnsen and Margaret Cox, home-built electronics, saw, magnetic cards, etc.

Steve Boyle and Edgar Um Bucholtz, improvised percussion/etc. and cornet/etc.

Josh Beyer, homemade guitar manipulations

admission begins at 6pm, $7 or so

The Nerve: an art and performance venue
500 Dargan Street (at Minerva St. next to the Bloomfield Bridge)
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

“Playing together since 1986, Jack Wright (alto & soprano saxophone, contra-alto clarinet) and Bob Marsh (cello, violin and processed voice) really convey how theirs is an “improvisational music that reflects and celebrates the mutual dependence of the players”, to quote the liner notes (of their Birds in the Hand CD release.) There’s an almost physical feel of strict interplay between the instruments, though in a realm of sonic cubism, with broken lines, abrupt changes and jigsaw dialogues; and the key word must be joy, the joy of creative jamming bewteen two long-time friends. Something clearly audible even if you’re not a jazz expert.” – Eugenio Maggi

Jack Wright bio:

Alto, soprano, tenor saxophones; piano
Born Pittsburgh PA in 1942 and grew up around Philadelphia and Chicago. He began playing saxophone in 1952, with private instruction; meanwhile also singing in groups large and small through 1964, after which he ceased playing music. Attended Lafayette College in Easton PA, where he studied European history and literature and graduated 1964; Johns Hopkins University, MA in European history, 1972; taught history at Temple U. 1968-72, after which he left the academic world. In this latter period he was involved in left politics, organizing on a community level.

In the late seventies he returned to music in earnest, and began playing free improvised music on the saxophone, and piano. He sought out partners in NY and the East Coast, then in 1983 began extensive tours in Europe, which continued until 1986. In the US his partners were Toshi Makihara, Jim Meneses, William Parker, Todd Whitman; in Europe he performed with Hannes Bauer, Joe Sachse, Wigald Boning, Lars Rudolph, Wittwulf Malik, Peter Hollinger, Bernhard Arndt, and Andreas Stehle, touring Germany, England, Switzerland and Italy. In 1984 he began touring the US, either as soloist or with his European partners, Roger Turner and Lars Rudolph, and an American dancer from Chicago, Bob Eisen. In this period of the eighties his music would be considered free jazz, very full and expressive. He was known for playing in places that had never been exposed to free improvisation, and encouraging young players everywhere, such that Davey Williams titled him the “Johnny Appleseed” of North American free improvisation. In 1988 he moved to Boulder CO and got involved in painting and writing, continuing his private study of European literature and philosophy. Yet he was still playing regularly, as a member of the local community of players, and touring the US regularly. In the late nineties there was a resurgence of interest in non-idiomatic free improvisation in the US, especially coming from Boston, but increasingly throughout the country. In 2000 Wright did an extensive tour of the West Coast with Boston soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey, and recorded with him in three different groups. His music became largely sound-oriented, using space, texture, and sustained tones, but always with a characteristic energy and musicality. He moved back to the East Coast in 2003 to be closer to his playing partners and now lives in Easton PA. Since then he has become closely involved with the New York scene.

He has presented his music at most of the new improv festivals in the US: four years at High Zero in Baltimore, The Seattle Improv Festival, the SFALT Festival in the Bay Area, California, the Autumn Uprising in Boston, and the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn. In 2005 he performed at the Museum of Modern Art in NY in a mini-festival, Relay, involving 13 American and European players. In Nov. 2007 he performed with Andrew Drury at the N.O. (not only) Jazz Festival in Zagreb Croatia, and in Sept. 2008 with Olivier Toulemonde and Agnes Palier, as well as others, at the ContemporaneaMente Festival in Lodi Italy.

In recent years he has renewed his label, Spring Garden Music, which presents his own music and that of his partners. He continues to seek out new partners, and in 2002 and every year since he has returned to Europe to that end. Those partners living in Europe with whom he has been playing most consistently the past three years are Alberto Braida, piano, Milan; Sebastian Cirotteau, tpt, Toulouse France; Michel Doneda, sop. sax; Phil Durrant, computer, violin, London; Michael Griener, drums, Berlin; Grundik Kasyansky, electronics, London; Agnes Palier, voice, Rambouillet France; Sharif Sehnaoui, guitar, Paris; Christine Sehnaoui, sax, Paris; Fabrizio Spera, drums, Rome; Olivier Toulemonde, percussion, Brussels Belgium; Guillaume Viltard, bass, London; and Sabine Vogel, flute, Berlin. He has been increasingly active in bringing European, especially French musicians to tour in the US (see “The Paris Experiment” in the Phila. City Paper).

His most recent tours have been with trio of Guillaume Viltard, bassist, and Grundik Kasyansky, electronics, in France, the Netherlands and Belgium; with Michael Johnsen, midwest; with Fabrizio Spera and Gust Burns in the Northwest; with Andrea Neumann and Stephane Rives on the East Coast (the Snowball Tour, joining also with 11 other musicians); with Andrew Drury in the Balkans; with French soprano sax player Michel Doneda and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (From Between) in the US; with Agnes Palier and Olivier Toulemonde in Europe and the US East Coast; with Carol Genetti, vocalist, and Jon Mueller, perc. (NomTom) in France and the US; with Pittsburgh electronicist Michael Johnsen and Sebastien Cirotteau of Toulouse, in Europe and the US; with Ben Wright, bassist, in the US; with the From Between Trio in Japan, France and the US (30 performances); ,with cellist Bob Marsh of the Bay area; in Europe with Nate Wooley, trumpet, of NY; a cross-country tour with Michael Griener percussion and Sabine Vogel flute of Berlin; US tours with Reuben Radding; with Phil Durrant ;and with Tom Djll from Oakland and soprano sax player Bhob Rainey.

Wright has partners in most major cities of the US, with whom he plays on his tours, over sixty musicians with whom he is developing music. Among those of the past three years are: Ricardo Arias, balloons, now in Bogata; Alban Bailly, guitar, accordion, Phila; Jon Barrios, bass, Philadelphia; John Bennett, poet, Columbus OH; John Berndt, saxes and elect., Baltimore; Mike Bullock, bass, Boston; Gust Burns, piano, Seattle WA; John Dikeman, tenor sax, Budapest; Tom Djll, tpt, Oakland CA; Andrew Drury, percussion, NYC; ; Bob Falesch, computer elect., keyboard, Chicago; Carol Genetti, voice, Chicago; Morgan Guberman, bass, voice, Oakland; Andy Hayleck, bowed cymbals, electronics, Baltimore; Katt Hernandez, violin, Philadelphia; Kurt Heyl, tbn, Brooklyn NY; Michael Johnsen, electronics, Pittsburgh; Bonnie Jones, electronics, Baltimore; Andrew Lafkas, bass, NYC; Evan Lipson, bass, Phila.; Toshi Makihara, dr, Phila.; Denman Maroney, piano, Monsey NY; Bob Marsh, cello, voice, violin, Richmond CA; Matt Moran, vibraphone, NY; Jon Mueller, perc., Milwaukee WI; Tatsuya Nakatani, dr, Easton PA; Paul Neidhardt, percussion, Baltimore; Andrea Neumann, inside piano, Berlin; Mike Pride, dr, Brooklyn; Reuben Radding, bass, NYC; Vic Rawlings, cello, elect., Boston; Stephan Rives, soprano sax, Beirut Lebanon; Brandon Seabrook, banjo, NY; Wally Shoup, sax, Seattle; Phila.; Matt Weston, perc, Easthampton, MA; Nate Wooley, tpt, Jersey City; Ben Wright, bass, Questa NM

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