Richard Gilman-Opalsky

Richard Gilman-Opalsky was born in Connecticut in 1973. He spent ten years living in NYC playing drums in various experimental music and freejazz groups, before moving to Springfield, Illinois where he continues to perform, organizes a freejazz and creative music forum, and co-runs Fire&Flux Recordings.

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I started playing the drums between 8 and 10 years of age. My parents bought me my first kit, a toy drumset with an "Animal" motif from Jim Henson's Muppet Show. Soon thereafter I enrolled for drum lessons with an older man in town, a professional jazz drummer whose first name was Joe and whose last name I may never have known. Joe had a jazz kit in his basement that I always wanted to play, but he kept me mostly far away from it, practicing triplets and rolls on a drum pad. He taught me how to read music and provided me with practice routines. In between the ages of 13 and 15, I acquired a used Slingerland drumset at a garage sale. I played around with other instruments (mainly the bass guitar and my own voice) on and off throughout high school and college, and in 1997 returned to the drums in the context of an experimental/improvisational trio called Countdown to Putsch. Since then, I have focused increasingly on drumming, working hard to develop and expand my improvisational repertoire. My most intensive study of drums and percussion since childhood has been an informal self-study based on a lot of listening and practicing. My bag of sticks, which I think of more as a "bag of tricks" contains many hand-made percussion objects, different sticks, some shakers, bells, and other noise-makers from around the world. One of my interests is in a method I call "transitive resonance." With transitive resonance, the idea is to send vibrations from one part of the drumset through another part by laying a drum stick or other implement on the drums. Using this technique, I aim to resonate as many sounds as possible off of the drumset at one time. Other times, the idea is to generate sounds that are not normally acoustically produced with drums, such as horn-like sounds through scraping techniques. I am most centrally influenced by the great freejazz drum pioneers who managed to liberate the drummer from the stringent role of time-keeper within ensemble playing. I consider myself almost entirely self-taught but I will never consider the learning process complete. Improvisation, for me, is the most vital and living way to approach music, to engage other players with attentive listening and creative, sensible, responses. The ideals of freedom, communication, and provocation are in the forefront of my music and musical thinking.

For 8 years I played in NYC in a freejazz duo with alto saxophonist, Benjamin Kates, who now lives in Portland, OR. The duo was called "Fire&Flux." Today, we co-run Fire&Flux Recordings, a small press-run label designed mainly to support our current musical endeavors. In New York, we performed regularly at colleges and universities, experimental music and freejazz venues, cafes, art galleries, and artist lofts. Visit the Fire&Flux website linked above to find more information about me, the Fire&Flux duo, and the recording label. I have performed and recorded with NYC saxophonist Blaise Siwula, Japanese pianist Katsuyuki Itakura, and have split bills with Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe, and Daniel Carter. Today, I live in Springfield, IL and perform in a new freejazz trio with Frank Trompeter on alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones, and Mark Schwartz on prepared guitar and bass. The group, END TIMES TRIO, is the only performing freejazz ensemble in Springfield, IL, and performs regularly in nearby towns and cities, including Champaign-Urbana, Jacksonville, and St. Louis. The trio also hosts the monthly "Springfield Freejazz and Creative Music Forum," where we and other local or touring improvising musicians perfom. Show less