Results for "Free improvisation"

Holman Alvarez

Born: February 3, 1981

Website

Holman Álvarez is a Colombian pianist and composer known for visiting some musical territories—including Colombian and Latin American traditions, jazz, classical, contemporary music, and free improvisation. Born in Barranquilla and raised in Cali, his work reflects a deep curiosity for exploring connections across genres and disciplines.

He studied piano and composition at Universidad del Valle, earned a master’s in composition from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, and pursued jazz piano at the Conservatorio Manuel de Falla in Buenos Aires.

La Otra Band

Active since: 2024

La Otra Band is an experimental ensemble born in Barcelona out of La Otra Jam, a long-running platform dedicated to free improvisation that brings together musicians, dancers, poets, and visual artists. The project represents the most developed musical expression of this collective experience, translating its spontaneous and multidisciplinary nature into a “produced improvisation” format.

The ensemble gathers a fluid lineup of international musicians from diverse backgrounds, including jazz, contemporary music, and electronic experimentation. Rather than working with fixed compositions, La Otra Band builds its sound through real-time interaction, where structure emerges organically from listening, tension, and collective intuition.

Simon Côté-Lapointe

Born: 1980

Simon Côté-Lapointe is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, videographer, and Ph.D. in information science with a specialization in archival science.

His professional career as a keyboardist and composer began with the contemporary music group Rouge Ciel around 1998. Between 2000 and 2003, during his studies in mixed composition at the Université de Montréal, he played and composed for several other projects such as Malarafe, the Virâj ensemble, and the Mouvement de Musique Présente, while also exploring electroacoustic music.

Between 2003 and 2009, Simon collaborated with a plethora of musicians, either as a composer, arranger, or performer. Notable collaborations include L’agence du swing by Claude Vendette, drummer Namori Cissé, and the rock band Madcaps. Between 2005 and 2010, he composed and produced four albums: “Conjuration” (electronic music), “Suite extatique” (contemporary music), “Artsuohtaraz” (for jazz quintet), and an eponymous double album (contemporary jazz and mixed music). From 2019 onwards, Simon has played and composed for several projects: Trio Lapointe-Hébert-Gagné (jazz), Taxon Lazare (organ trio), Chanteuse (jazz-post-funk), and Horizons (sax/piano duo, with Erik Hove). In 2020, he released three solo piano albums. A fourth improvisation album was released in 2023. In 2024, he completed Topochronies, a fresco of progressive music exploring Quebec’s collective subconscious through sound archives, created in collaboration with drummer Magella Cormier. In May 2025, during a four-week creative residency at the Centre d’expérimentation musicale (CEM) in Chicoutimi, he composed and realized Préhensions des strates de sédimentation historique saguenéennes, a mixed music performance for eight musicians and sequences with archives exploring Chicoutimi’s history through oral and historical archives. In January 2026, he launched an ambitious six-album solo piano cycle: three double albums titled Hapax (volumes 1 and 2), Ataraxie (volumes 1 and 2), and Animus/Anima (volumes 1 and 2), totaling nearly six hours of music ranging from medieval music to jazz, including baroque, classical, contemporary, and current repertoires.

Oscar Evans

Born: June 29

Oscar Evans is a jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist from Kingston, Ontario specializing in upright bass and trumpet. Blinded in his adolescence, Oscar has gravitated toward learning multiple instruments as a medium for understanding music theory and musicianship, and specializes in bass, drums, and trumpet.

Oscar pursued his passion for jazz at Humber College where he majored in trumpet. In 2025, Oscar released two albums of jazz standards—one featuring him on trumpet, titled Library Sessions, and the other featuring him on bass, titled Live at the Hotel Wolfe Island. His Gotta Start Somewhere EP featuring four original compositions was released in December 2025. Oscar consistently pushes his own boundaries to create interesting new music. His 2026 album Sound Permutations is a solo free jazz project on which Oscar plays bass, drums and trumpet. Forthcoming in 2027 is a full length album of original compositions titled Vibration Society which was recorded at the Bathouse Studio in Bath, Ontario with the support of a project recording grant from the Ontario Arts Council.

Dr Fred Cole

A classically trained pianist with a flair for blending genres, Dr Fred Cole crafts immersive soundscapes that journey through acoustic piano, ambient textures, experimental beats, jazz grooves, funk rhythms, and electronic vibes.  With years of experience both studying and performing, Fred’s music is a unique fusion that soundtracks life’s moments, whether introspective or energetic. Expect bold creativity, emotive melodies, and a fresh approach that defies categorisation.
 

Annette Maye

Annette Maye was born in Flensburg. After graduating from high school, she first completed a course in Eastern European history, musicology and Russian at the University of Freiburg. In 2000 she completed her contact studies in popular music (pop course) at the Hamburg University of Music. She then studied jazz clarinet and bass clarinet at the music academies in Cologne and Paris (2001-2005) with Frank Gratkowski, Claudio Puntin and Riccardo del Fra. She graduated from jazz in 2005 with a diploma.

Awards: In the year 2016 Annette Maye was awarded the NRW Female Prize by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with the WDR Jazz Prize. Before, he had won the SWR world music award “querBeet” with ensemble FisFüz in 1998, and in 2006 she had received the Torneo Internazionale di Musica (TIM) award in Rome in the jazz category.

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells

Born: October 13, 1958

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells (October 13, 1958) is an American free jazzbassist(bass guitar and electric upright bass), composer and conceptualist. Heis oneof the founding members of the improvising band Machine Gun whichfeatured Thomas Chapin. Resident in Stockholm, Sweden since 1985,he hasbeen active internationally as a promoter of improvised and experimentalmusic performing and recording extensively. He has collaborated withKarlBerger, Daniel Carter and Tony Scott among others.

Raised in southernGermany, Jair-Rohm moved to New York in 1978. After touring theUnitedStates for a year with a top forty band he attended Tulane University inNewOrleans. While at Tulane, he regularly performed with local jazz andrhythmand blues artists. He also performed as a member of Tulane University'sTulanians, met and studied with Richard Payne (the first person torecord withthe electric bass) and discovered the music of Harry Partch. He returnedtothe New York area in the fall of 1980 where he met and started workstudyunder saxophonist/composer Ken Simon. During this period Jair- Rohmalsomet Anthony Braxton and became involved in the study of his music. In1982Jair-Rohm founded his own experimental music/theater group GLASSTHOUGHT THEATER ENSEMBLE. Between 1982 and 1983 he wascomposer inresidence at the New York Theater Ensemble (New York, N.Y.) wherehe wroteand produced a trilogy of progressive”operas”. He received a MEET THECOMPOSER grant in 1983. From 1984 - 1985 he was resident in NewJerseywhere he continued composing and playing the bass. He was a foundingmember of the New Brunswick Jazz Musician's Collective (NewBrunswick,N.J.) for which he composed and performed many significant works forvarious ensembles.

Eero Savela

Born: January 31, 1977

• Eero Savela is a Finnish trumpeter known for a versatile career in music and performing arts since around 2000. He often engages in interdisciplinary collaborations that blend sound with dance, circus, theater, and other creative expressions.

• His musical roots are in free improvisation, jazz, world music, and a wide array of rhythmic styles. He performs both as a soloist and a member of wind sections

Marco Vanoppen

Marco Vanoppen is a Belgian musician/deconstructivist.

His field of work includes avant-garde music, improvisation, industrial music, experimental music, ... . He is/was a (founding) member of multiple bands and/or music projects. 

Marco was born in Hasselt, Limburg and is also known as Spurck.

Glass Key Trio

The Glass Key Trio

Based in Santa Fe, NM and led by Jeremy Bleich’s eclectic guitar and compositional style,

The Glass Key Trio produces and explores compositions inspired by Americana, Balkan, Arabic

and contemporary classical music and film noir.  Each composition is a vehicle for spirited dialogue between the players ushering the listener into a narrative exploration of musical landscapes. 

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GKT has been nominated for two 2023 New Mexico Music Awards including Best Jazz Album and