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An Evening of Improvisational Music with The Joel Futterman New Alchemy Trio

Friday, October 12th, 2018

Doors open: 7:00pm
Event begins: 7:30pm

Event website: charleslestermusic.com

The New Alchemy Trio is dedicated to exploring new directions in the art of “in the moment” collectively composed and improvised music aspiring to contribute to redefining avant-garde jazz in the 21st Century. Their music is fully spontaneous, yet it is by no means free or random.  Instead, through intentionality of each musical phrase, deliberate use of space, tight transitions, and focused interaction their music achieves a remarkable purposeful direction and coherency. Their skilled musicianship, improvisational fluency, and creative courage moves their compositions through unexpected shifts often ranging from blistering up-tempo pieces to rich, often haunting lyrical ballads.  All the time they stretch and push the boundaries of conventional tonality, rhythm, and harmony.

Pianist Joel Futterman is known for his spirited, highly imaginative, and radical piano technique. He is internationally celebrated as a veteran pioneer into the frontiers of improvised music and considered one of the foremost inventive and adventurous artists shaping the progressive jazz scene today.  He performs regularly at jazz festivals and concert halls across the U.S., Canada, and Europe including several return bookings at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The Vision Festival in NYC, the Guelph Festival in Canada, the Tampere Festival in Finland, and the North Sea Festival in Denmark.  This will be only Futterman’s second appearance in Portland and first in nearly 10 years.   He has recorded and performed with numerous prominent jazz innovators including Edward “Kidd” Jordan, Alvin Fielder, Avreeayl Ra, Steve Swell, William Parker, Richard Davis, Joseph Jarman, Jimmy Lyons, and Fred Anderson to name a few.  With a discography of over 70 recordings, he is considered to be one of the more prolific and enigmatic progressive jazz artists.  joelfutterman.com 

Multi Reed player Ike Levin is known for his formidable tenor saxophone sound out of the Chicago school. He combines abstract tonalities and expressionism with elements of lyrical melodicism. Jazz Times described Levin’s improvisational talents as “possessing incredible musicality and expressiveness.” His impressive improvisational talents are rooted in a reverence for the blues, bebop, and contemporary chamber music. He studied with the legendary Chicago jazz saxophonist Joe Daley, as well as Fred Anderson, renowned co-founder of the Chicago based Association for The Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). He has been performing and recording with pianist Joel Futterman for the past 18 years, as well as with other noted jazz artists including Alvin Fielder, Ronnie Burrage, Oluyemi Thomas, Reggie Nicolson, Percy Scott, Donald Robinson, Kash Killion, Eddie Gale, Damon Smith, Smiley Winters, Michael Arnopol, and Yancy Taylor, among others in addition to leading his own small ensembles.  He has a discography of 15 recordings. Last year, Levin and Futterman co-composed the music sound track for the acclaimed documentary Birthright: A War Story.

Drummer, percussionist, and composer Tim DuRoche has traversed the musical continuum from ragtime to straight ahead jazz to avant-garde jazz to creating performances with Beijing Opera musicians, Russian circus clowns, silent film, spoken word, auctioneers, and with installation-performance artists. He has worked extensively with an array of U.S. and European avant-garde jazz innovators, including Burton Greene, Roscoe Mitchell, Thollem McDonas, Andre St. James, Eri Yamamoto, Dominic Duval, Matana Roberts, Paul Plimley-Lisle Ellis, Wally Shoup, Gust Burns, Bert Wilson, Urs Leimgruber, Jon Raskin, Perry Robinson, Phillip Greenlief, Damon Smith, Jack Wright, Doug Theriault, Marco Eneidi, Didier Petit, Sunjae Lee, and Frank Gratkowski, among others. He has also appeared as a soloist and featured performer at numerous music festivals, including the Seattle Improvised Music Festival, The Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, the Portland Jazz Festival, The Improvisation Summit of Portland, The Seattle International Dance Festival, San Francisco’s Edgetone New Music Summit, and the Olympia Experimental Music Festivals. timduroche.com

Tickets Non Refundable 

An Evening of Improvisational Music | The Joel Futterman New Alchemy Trio

Date / time Fri, October 12, 2018 Doors open: 7:00 pm Event begins: 7:30 pm Buy Tickets

Online tickets-sales for this show are closed.