« June 12, 2007 | Home | June 14, 2007 »

06/13 Wednesday

8:00 PM Kevin Harris

Jazz pianist Kevin Harris plays a distinctive combination of traditional and contemporary music. The 31-year-old native Kentuckian's music ranges from explosive polyrhythmic pieces to introspective ballads. In the Boston area, Harris has performed at the Wang Theatre, Ryles Jazz Club, Jordan Hall, Berklee Performance Center, Bob the Chef's, Les Zygomates and Wally's jazz club. His music contains the varied influences of Marcus Roberts, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Danilo Perez

10:30 PM Erik Zinman/Jason Zappa/Lawrence Cook

'The older jazz is like representational painting where you paint a portrait of a person or a thing. Thats playing on a song and its chords. The new music is like modern painting, Action Painting. You concern yourself with the surface of the canvas, with the brushstrokes, the texture of the paint, the total two dimensional surface, concern myself with the way the drum stick strikes the cymbal, the surface of the drum heads.'

Jason Zappa Tenor saxophone

Stanley Jason Zappa studied music (primarily) with Bill Dixon at
Bennington College and later with Clifford Waits in Portland, Oregon.
Fond memories of music involve Rashid Bakr, Marco Eneidi, Laurence
Cook, John Blum, Jackson Krall, Eric Zinman, Matt Heyner, Sabir
Mateen, Cooper Moore, Nick Skrowaczewski, Mark Leonard, Leopanar
Whitlarge and Jacob Hall. Memorable events include the Stork
festival, performances under the auspices of the Improvisers
Collective, the 30th Anniversary of the October Revolution, the Marco
Eneidi Going Away Party, and hand full of gigs at The Knitting Factory
and the new and old Zeitgeist.

Nick Skrowaczewski vibraphone and percussion

Nick Skrowaczewski studied at Bennington College with Bill Dixon and Milford Graves, also enjoying informal collaborations with Marco Eneidi and participating in concerts with guest faculty Reggie Workman, Raphe Malik, Dennis Warren, William Parker, and Charles Gayle. Other interesting musical experiences include study of Latin percussion at Harbor Conservatory in New York City and exposure to Javanese and Balinese Gamelan ensemble playing. Long-term musical associations with Stanley Zappa, Mark Leonard, and John Blum, and looking forward to more.

Jane Wang bass

Jane Wang, composer/musician, was born in Oxford, England and is a dual citizen. She has performed and/or recorded with The Balvanyos Ensemble of Hungary, Mark Harvey'’ Aadvark Orchestra, F. Vattel Cherry, Butch Morris's Phantomstation and Band Big! Conductions, the hip-hop ANW sextet led by Angelamia Bachemin, Daddio's Big Band led by Keith Papa, the NY Big Band Clinic, composer/clarinetist James Falzone, the Takumi Seino Group with whom she toured Japan in 1997, Carolyn Castellano, Tony Owens Maasai, Chieko Hayashi, Sabir Mateen, Stan Strickland, Allan Chase, Andrew D’Angelo, Oscar Noriega, Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamara, Hakim Law, Frank Wilkins, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jorrit Dijkstra, Dominique Eade,Tom Hall, Beat Science leader Brian Carpenter, Daniel Carter, Kenta Nagai, Naoko Ono, Warren Smith, Syd Smart, Glynis Lomon, Raphe Malik, Raymond King, Ravish Momin, Roger Miller, Saturnalia, Grant Smith, Tatsuya Nakatani, A La Modal, Cast of Characters, Amarcord, Nikola Radan’s Balmus Ensemble, James Coleman, Charlie Kohlhase, Jed Speare, Haitian Singer/Songwriter Gifrants, Mexican Singer/Songwriter/Dancer Veronica Robles and a salsa/merengue group led by Julio Bare.

Eric Zinman piano, euphonium

At the forefront of creative music for more than 20 years, Eric Zinman's piano playing has been described by Bob Rusch as a "fleet and appealing touch," rooted in the language of his teachers Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley, Lowell Davidson and many others. His style is marked by his relation to the trap set drums, varying densities of sound masses and melodies spanning the whole keyboard with a surprising variety of touches, dynamics, phrasing, silence and an arresting balance between the pedaled and unpedaled sounds.

Eric Zinman has played with Craig Schildhauer, Raqib Hassan, Toshi Makihara, Sabir Mateen, Marco Eneidi, Lisle Ellis, Peter Valsamis, Tatsuya Nakatani, Glynis Lomon and Blaise Siwula, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Jan Roder, Thomas Rehnert, Mario Rechtern, Benjamin Duboc, Didier Lasserre, John Voigt and Laurence Cook. Mr Zinman has also composed music for dance and theatre using verbal directives as well as graphic scores.

Laurence Cook drums and percussion

Laurence Cook studied painting at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and later learned to play piano, vibraphone, and drums. He has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde since the 1960's on twenty-two recordings, including Revenge, and Dual Unity with Paul Bley; Skillfullnes with Alan Silva,Ritti with Joe Morris; "Fuzzagainst Junk" from Vision 1997 Festival with Thurston Moore; Triplet and Fire in the Valley with Jemeel Moondoc; Divine Mad Love with Sabir Mateen; November 1981, Thoughts, and Son of Sisyphus with Bill Dixon. He has worked with Sam Rivers, Alan Silva, The Brecker Brothers, Robin Kenyatta, Mark Whitecage, and Barre Phillips among many others.