A Different Nature presents "Whizbang": Live Music Special!
A Different Nature is proud to host a spectacular line-up of experimental new music artists on December 7th, the last day of the Winter Membership Drive. This live music special starts at 8pm, and goes on until 11pm. Artists performing include:
Tale in the Telling: Douglas Detrick’s Tale in the Telling is a new band that digs deeply into the soils of America’s musical past, looking for old roots that still grow new fruits. With a core trio of trumpeter Douglas Detrick, guitarist Mike Gamble and drummer Barra Brown, they reinvent songs from the most diverse of sources—fiddle tunes, sea chantys, gospel, blues, ballads, work and play songs—to see what meaning they have for today’s audience.
Dana Reason: Dana Reason is a Canadian-born pianist, composer, improviser and musicologist. Reason was part of The Space Between trio with Pauline Oliveros and is documented on over 14 recordings. Her research is available on Wesleyan University Press and Columbia Jazz-Studies On-line. Reason holds a B.Mus (McGill University); MA in Composition (Mills College); and Ph.D in Music: Critical Studies/Experimental Practices from the University of California, San Diego. Her main teachers include: George E. Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Alcides Lanza, Alvin Curran, Steve Schick, Anthony Davis and Aleck Karis. She has had masterclasses/lessons with: Muhal Richard Abrams, Cecil Taylor, Frederic Rzewski, and Christian Wolff, among others. Reason currently teaches at Oregon State University.
AMANI: AMANI is a new ensemble featuring Noah Bernstein, Yafe Aros, and Dan Talmadge. They will be playing with Orchestra Becomes Radicalized at Holocene on December 8th.
Doug Theriault: Doug is a long time Portland based performer, composer and instrument inventor. His music has been presented all over the United States, Europe and Canada with a wide variety of musicians, choreographers, dancers and visual artists from around the world. Doug is mostly known for his highly idiosyncratic guitar work. He has scored original music for independent films, theatre, plays, dance and sound installations. He investigates the reciprocal contamination of creative means and sensibilities. He uses varied organic and electronic sound instrumentation, light gradients (sensors), space and performative movement in coordination with intuitive notation systems.
Juniana Lanning: Juniana Lanning began studying sound engineering and computer music composition in 1997 at Moorhead State University, an environment rich with "new music" performers and composers. Under the direction of composers Mary Lee Roberts, Henry Gwiazda, and James Harley, she became passionate about musique concrete and studio and computer-based composition. A fascination developed with the practice of hearing music as sound and sounds as music, leading her into the digital manipulation of found sounds.
Andre St. James: Bassist Andre St. James is a cornerstone of the rich, thriving Pacific Northwest jazz scene and works regularly with his own quintet, the Andre St. James/Roger Woods nonet, Mel Brown, Dan Balmer, Gordon Lee, Renato Caranto, Sandy Dennison, and Carlton Jackson among others. One of the best-known and most respected figures of Portland's jazz scene, St. James currently teaches at Portland's Northwest Academy and was a faculty member of the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz from 1989 to 2004. Over the last three decades, St. James has worked with an astonishing who's who of modern jazz including giants like Sonny Rollins, the Harold Land-Blue Mitchell Quintet, Andrew Hill trio and large bands, Bobby Hutcherson, Charlie Rouse, Pharoah Sanders, James Moody, Alan Shorter, Nancy King, and George Cables.
Demolition Duo is highly focused despite being entirely improvised. Ollis's remarkable dynamic control and lightning fast technique combine to create moments of highly controlled intensity which compliment Savage's mysterious and often pointillistic flute improvisations. The two musicians are highly tuned in to one another with effortless transitions, endings, and textural choices sounding almost as if they were planned in advance. The ambiance is more dramatic than tonal, though occasionally Savage knocks out a string of modal lines on alto sax or a suggests a mysterious harmonic passage on flute. Similarly, Ollis rarely breaks into a steady groove, instead tantalizing the listener with syncopated rhythms and fills which propel the music forward towards widely spaced moments of resolution. The overall effect is an unsettlingly deconstructed aesthetic reflecting the duo's name, with a sense of clear agreement and rapport between John and Ken, and a concise statement of their wide ranging tastes and experiences distilled into an unorthodox but propulsive and engaging duo session.
Mike Gamble: Mike Gamble is an adventurous guitarist and multi-instrumentalist whose work with electronic modes of composition are integrated endlessly into his setup. Gamble has spent the last 15 years immersed in the creative jazz, experimental rock and improvised music scene primarily in NYC, with close ties to New Orleans, Burlington, Boston, San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest. He has had the pleasure of recording over 20 albums and touring the states, Canada, and Europe with his critically-acclaimed guitar trio The Inbetweens, Counter Record’s Cougar, and alongside doom-metal originators Earth. His more recent collaborators have been prestigious drummer Bobby Previte, bassist Todd Sickafoose, guitar virtuoso Nels Cline, and PNW cellist Lori Goldston. Since relocating to Portland Mike has been running a monthly Audio/Visual series featuring local and touring artists, encouraging them to play rare solo, duo, and trio sets with his own audio-reactive projection setup. Among working on soundtracks, web-series, and branded content for small businesses, Gamble currently holds a position as an Audio Production instructor at Oregon State University.
Ken Ollis is a drummer and composer from Portland, OR. His latest release is entitled "Senses Sharpened", on the PJCE Records label. It is comprised of all Ollis' originals that draw upon influences, and techniques, borrowed from Messiaen, Webern and Tim Berne, along with several original techniques.
In addition to the Senses Sharpened trio, recent projects have included composing and performing two large scale suites of poetry settings (e.e. cummings, and Jane Hirshfield), playing solo concerts, and performing with The Demolition Duo. The Duo has a forthcoming album, also on PJCE Records, and recently received a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council to visit several Universities and give performance/lectures on free improvisation.Ken also regularly performs in collaboration with painters, poets, dancers, and cinematographers. His compositions are featured in the repertoire of the Paxselin Quartet, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, PDX Ensemble, The Chamber of Commerce, and in his own groups.
He currently teaches in the music department at Portland State University and George Fox University, and has taught a multitude of clinics throughout the country.Ken holds an M.M. in Jazz Performance.
- KBOO