Sunday,
November 2 at 8pm
Ars
Nova Workshop in Residence
Joe McPhee Trio X + Mikolaj Trzaska
with
Joe McPhee, saxophone
+ pocket trumpet, Dominic
Duval, double-bass, Jay
Rozen, drums, Mikolaj
Trzaska, saxophone + bass clarinet
Since
his emergence on the creative jazz and new
music scene in the late 1960s, Joe
McPhee has been a deeply emotional
composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist,
as well as a thoughtful conceptualist and
theoretician. Born on November 3, 1939, in
Miami, McPhee first began playing the trumpet
at age eight. He continued on that instrument
through high school and then in a U.S. Army
band stationed in Germany; during his Army
stint, he was first introduced to traditional
jazz. Clifford Thornton’s Freedom
and Unity, recorded in 1967 and released
in 1969, became the first recording on which
McPhee appears. In 1968, he began playing
the saxophone and since has investigated a
wide range of instruments (including pocket
trumpet, clarinet, valve trombone, and piano),
with active involvement in both acoustic and
electronic music.
As
the 1990s drew to a close, McPhee discovered
two like-minded improvisers in bassist Dominic
Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The trio premiered
at the Vision Jazz Festival, but the concert
went unnoticed by the press; McPhee, Duval
and Rosen therefore decided that an apt title
for the group would be Trio X.
Mikolaj Trzaska is
a saxophonist, bass clarinetist and composer.
He is one of the founders of the yass scene
in Poland (yass is an improvised avant-garde
of jazz music). He works together with many
recognized musicians and plays in different
line-ups, and his solo career is an unceasing
journey. Thanks to cooperation with Peter
Friis Nielsen, Peter Ole Jorgensen and and
Peeter Uuskyla he feels close musically to
Scandinavia. To date, Trzaska has collaborated
with Lester Bowie, Peter Brotzmann, Tomasz
Stanko, John Tchicai, Noel Akchote, Clementine
Gasser, Jan Luc Cappozzo and Adam Pieronczyk.
He has recorded more than 30 albums.
For tickets and more information
on Ars Nova Workshop in Residence concerts,
visit arsnovaworkshop.com.
