Results for "Free improvisation"

Dorian Wallace

Born: November 17, 1985

Dorian Wallace is a renowned composer, pianist, and music therapist known for his impressive improvisational skills, versatile style, and unyielding commitment to sociopolitical causes. He has collaborated with numerous artists such as Paul Pinto, Bonita Oliver, John Sanborn, Nicholas Finch, Charlotte Mundy, Pamela Z, and Frank London. Dorian has also provided his musical services to political figures like Jarvis Tyner, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Gerald Horne, Blade Nzimande, and Sing In Solidarity.

Apart from his work in composition and performance, Dorian has also served as a music therapist and mindfulness teacher at Rikers Island

Aaron Dolman

Born: January 26, 1995

Aaron Dolman (he/him) is a drummer, composer and bandleader born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal who has emerged as a distinct and imaginative voice in the city's creative music scene.

Aaron leads the unique trio, Aaron Dolman's Here to Help, in which he is joined by two vocalists: Sarah Rossy and Eugénie Jobin. The group's first album, Are You Here to Help?, was released in March of 2022 and premiered with a concert at the OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal for which the group won the François-Marcaurelle Award. The album is a journey into the primordially evocative quality of drums and the human voice—brought into sharp focus by the group’s strikingly minimalistic instrumentation.  Aaron’s compositions and lyrics blur the line between notated and improvised music, and probe the expressive power of giving and taking Space. In his own words: “This is music about Space. The space between each note, each word, each breath. Between what was, what is, and what could be. The gentle potency of silence. This is music about the spaces that hold the ones we love and that are left empty when they are lost.” LISTEN to the album or WATCH the album trailer to learn more about the project. The group's EPK can be found HERE.

Black Spirituals

Multi-Aesthetic

The Quash Wagon Reclusion

CIA Popes

Sonia Hammond

Born: April 8, 2010

Latest album with Charlie Beresford Circle Inside the Folds was released in the spring of 2019.

Sonia was classically trained at Birmingham school of Music and Royal College of Music cellist and has since forged an eclectic freelance career. She has recorded with Chloe Goodchild, Barb Jungr, Babysnakes and Ennui and played in venues ranging from the rooftops of Timbuktu to the Camphill Communities of UK and Europe. She is currently principal ‘cellist of both the Brecknock and St Woolos Sinfonia's also playing regularly with her Castalia and Peregrine String Quartets and the Radnor Improvisers

Robin Nitram

Born in Chamonix (Fr), raised in Normandie (Fr) and now living in Paris, Robin Nitram plays the guitar since he is a child. From high school rock band to jazz, music has always been part of his life. After graduated from the International Music Educators of Paris he is now playing, composing and teaching in Paris.

William Soovik

Born: April 16, 1989

I was born in 1989, in a city south of Gothenburg called Mölndal. My father has been a professional musician during my whole life, and he inspired me to play music when I was young. I've seen photos of myself, as a small child, hitting my mothers pots and pans with wooden spoons in the kitchen, but it wasn't until my father showed me a video tape of the legendary jazz-drummer Buddy Rich that I knew I wanted to play the drums. Despite my fascination with the drums, I was very ambivalent when I was about start taking music lessons and got to choose what instrument to play. I struggled, for quite some time, deciding between the saxophone and the drums. At last, I choose the drums, and I've had a sort of turbulent relationship with all kinds of percussion instruments ever since.

Akiko Horii

Born: November 11, 1981

Born and raised in Kobe, Japanese-French jazz percussionist Akiko Horii was never afraid of bold moves growing up: after leaving her native Japan alone at the age of fifteen to attend high school on Long Island, she made a radical shift from studying classical piano to devoting herself to West African music and dance in college (CalArts), with a particular focus on the djembe and Ewe drumming from Ghana. She later spent several months in Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Mali, learning from masters and performing for local ceremonies. Her deep sense of rhythm and graceful abstractions notably brought her into the spotlight with several performances on Congahead

Jim Funnell

Born: April 3, 1984

Anglo-French pianist and composer Jim Funnell started leading his own band in his early teens, performing at jazz clubs by the time he was in high school. Dedicating himself to the study of both classical and jazz piano, he was awarded a full tuition scholarship from Berklee College of Music, where he was exposed to a diversity of styles and cultures. Jim then decided to travel to Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, soaking up Latin America’s folklore and Afro-Latin rhythms.

Since then, he has launched a prolific recording career: five albums as a leader/co-leader of both his own group “Word Out” (modern jazz combo with groove and world tinges) and AfuriKo (African infused jazz duo with percussionist Akiko Horii) have already been released to this day. Jim’s colorful and well-rounded compositional style earned him the Composition Prize in 2011 at the “Trophées du Sunside” in Paris. In 2017, Jazz Magazine (France) featured Woandering, a duo record with saxophonist Philippe Lopes de Sa, as a “Révélation !” and included Jim’s arrangement of She’s Out of My Life (Michael Jackson) on the editorial board’s playlist.

Tomi Pekkola

Born: April 5, 1982

Tomi Pekkola is an avant-garde-guitarist-composer from Hamina Finland. Along the years he has played in various types of groups with progressive or avant-garde ethos. Pekkola is a guitarist with a respect to the classics but his work is best described as a combination of contemporary classical & free improvisation with an attitude towards both meditative & explosive expression. Pekkola's main area in composition is at the time with his The Bull In a China Shop Quartet, a group on Bruce's Fingers label, but his work as a composer includes pieces for orchestra, chamber opera, chamber music vocal music & musics for different genres.