Results for "Free Jazz"

Evan Palmer

Evan Palmer (they/them) is a bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn. They specialize in improvised music and jazz.

​Raised in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Palmer moved to Boston in 2018 to attend Berklee College of Music, where they studied with John Lockwood, Francisco Mela, Bob Gullotti, and Linda May Han Oh. They graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Music in Bass Performance.

​Palmer's music is a synthesis of many artistic influences, drawing from the jazz tradition, improvised musics from around the world, folk and country music, rock and roll, metal, and more

Sharada Shashidhar

Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer, and producer Sharada Shashidhar has a deep awareness of the cosmos. There’s a distinct tug-of-war in her music, an understanding that scanning the heavens to answer existential queries isn’t quite enough; there are internal depths to plumb as well. Shashidhar’s first album, 2020’s Rahu, found her voice billowing out of smoky, post-beat-scene soundscapes, meditating on the collective unconscious and the energy exchange between all living things. Her newest work, Soft Echoes, is a bold step forward, eschewing her previous work’s hip-hop tilt for expansive compositions that blend jazz and Indian classical influences into a swirling, spiritual whole.

Though she has an extensive resume as a collaborator in LA’s experimental jazz scene, notching work with the likes of Carlos Niño, Zeroh, and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Soft Echoes marks Shashidhar’s first outing as a bandleader. Gathering an ensemble that includes Anna Butters on bass, Julian Rodriguez on keys, Devin Daniels on saxophone, and Timothy Angulo on drums, Shashidhar sought to create a band that ostensibly functioned as an extension of herself. Her primary goals in writing these songs were to “let [her] body do what it wanted to do,” to trust her intuition, and “play without judgment.” Through that process, making Soft Echoes became a practice of presence and exploration, a chance to unlearn rigid structures and rediscover the joy of creating for oneself.

Recording took place over three brief, distinct sessions at Altamira Sound in Alhambra, California. Though the full band wasn’t ever present at the same time, Soft Echoes sounds like the work of a group in complete, mind-meld focus. Splashy drums nudge up against skronkingsaxophone on “Canyon Song,” while mushrooming synth tones stack up behind rippling Rhodes piano on “Luckiest.” Shashidhar’s elegant voice is the anchor for each of these tracks, sometimes gracefully stretching between instruments like a lithe dancer’s limbs, other times scattering through psychedelic delay.

She describes the album as having “two poles,” illustrated by the whimsical, buoyant opener “Soft Echoes” and the darker, more anxiety-ridden closer, “New Echoes.” The songs in between may come from different emotional spaces, but “it’s all really reflective,” she explains. The album can play like a loop, with Shashidhar entering a portal “into the endlessness” during “New Echoes,” only to be transported back to the beginning, full of gratitude and pondering “how strange it is to be alive.” On Soft Echoes, Shashidhar leads us on a journey through her mind, traversing its peaks and canyons in search of greater connection. “I want to take people places,” she says, pausing thoughtfully. “I can’t always guarantee that they’re good places, [but] hopefully you’ll feel something.”

Alex Dante

Born: May 12, 1983

Alexandros Dandoulakis (born 12th of May 1983), better known by his stage name Alex Dante is a Greek musician originally from the island of Crete. 

Since 2001 he lives and works as guitarist, music teacher, arranger and composer in Athens. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the National Technical University of Athens and Music at the University of West London which he graduated with the Licentiate of Teacher’s Diploma in electric guitar.

He has collaborated with many Greek artists and world class musicians like Bill Frisell, Alan Zavod (Zappa & the mothers), Monophonics and Jazz Soul Orchestra. His projects cover many music genres such as Jazz, Soul, Rock and Classical music.Alex Dante, with his electric guitar, redefines the aesthetics and sound over Frederic Chopin’s and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s pieces, describing a route from Wes Montgomerry and Joe Pass to Pat Metheny and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Patrick Golden

Born: July 4, 1975

Patrick Golden is an American drummer in the jazz, free jazz and free improvisation genres.He is well known for playing in New York City improv and experimental music scenes. Over the past decade, Patrick has had extensive shows in and around NYC as well as a number of Japanese tours. 

Anders Svanoe

Born: September 14, 1969

Playing mainly the baritone, but also the soprano, alto, tenor saxophones, Anders got his start in music taking piano lessons, singing in church choirs and playing saxophone in the public school band. In 1991 Anders graduated from Luther College and in 1994 he completed his Masters Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the mid 1990s Anders studied with Frank Morgan while Frank lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frank taught me everything about the saxophone, especially the importance of sound. Another key component to Anders’ post-graduate education was his meetings with multi-instrumentalist and composer Roscoe Mitchell. Since 2001 Anders has played and recorded with Roscoe in various contexts ranging from duos to large ensembles.

Sam Norris

Born: August 25, 1998

Hailing from Cambridge, award-winning alto saxophonist and composer Sam Norris's love of jazz was ignited when he heard Coltrane's A Love Supreme aged 12.

Since then he has been fascinated with luminaries of improvised music such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Lee Konitz, combined with an equal interest in contemporary classical and hip-hop music. This melting pot of influences has led him to develop a distinctive musical language, at once forward-thinking and grounded in tradition. Sam moved to London in 2018 to study with a scholarship on the prestigious jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Kit Downes, Stan Sulzmann and Iain Ballamy. 

Stefano Pisu

Born: August 4, 1974

European drummer, composer, sound designer and producer, deals mainly with Free Jazz, Modal jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Post Bop.

His style is characterized on the one side by a highly experimental approach especially as a composer and through unusual everyday electric tools played as musical instruments (demolition hammer, tig welder, ect) and with a component of electronic and noise music, on the other side the approach of a traditional jazz performance, free jazz, hard bop and avant-garde,  as a musician with drums.

Serra Bilgincan

Born: February 10, 1998

Born in Istanbul in 1998, I attended high school at Üsküdar American Academy, and completed my undergraduate education in architecture at the University of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins.

In my dissertation titled “Space and Sapiens: A Comparison of Philosophical Approaches to the New Cognitive Approaches to Space,”  I compared philosophical propositions regarding the
human-environment relationship with the findings of cognitive sciences. I explored how the combination of the two disciplines could lead to a more
human-centered design.

Since 2020, I have been working as an independent designer and artist. In my work, I follow emotionally provoked intellectual interests—ranging from the origins of life, ancient lives of Homo sapiens, evolution, and the first land settlements, to the agricultural and industrial revolutions, and the inner landscapes of modern humans. My intention is often to weave poetic dialogues between science, philosophy, anthropology.

Tristan Voitcu

Born: December 4, 2001

Tristan Voitcu is a New Jersey based Jazz Saxophonist currently attending Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where he is studying with Ralph Bowen. Tristan began studying the saxophone at age 14, with a wide variety of influences, including Gustav Holst, Sigurd Rascher, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and especially Ronnie Cuber. At age 16, he began studying with Saxophonist and Historian Paul Cohen, with whom he developed a love for contemporary, improvised, and avant-garde music. During Highschool, he attended the West Milford Jazz Academy, where he studied with Ronnie Cuber and Jim Saltzman. During his first semester at college, he performed the Philip Glass Concerto for Saxophone Quartet with the Scarlet Quartet and Rutgers Symphonic Winds. He auditioned and won the Rutgers Chamber music concert 5 times, both with the Scarlet Quartet, and with his Avant-Garde Duo. During his time at Mason Gross, he has also performed with the Rutgers Wind Ensemble, Rutgers Symphonic Winds, Rutgers Lab Band, Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, Mingus Ensemble, Avant Garde Ensemble, and the Jazz Afro-World Ensemble. He as studied with Abraham Burton, Robby Ameen, Victor Lewis, Anthony Branker, Conrad Herwig, Paul Cohen, Kraig Williams, Todd Nichols, and Ronnie Cuber. Today he is an active performer of popular music in north and central Jersey with the VTX Collective, the Rock in Soul Band, and the Cope Aesthetic. As a band leader he performs regularly at the Tavern on George Street and Friends Cafe. As a sideman, he is a regular member of the Justin Farquhar Jazz orchestra, taking the Baritone sax seat, and has performed with the Mathuin Smith Jazz Orchestra, Sam Wilson Quartet and Logan Bogdan Quartet. He also was a sideman on Hip Hop artist Doitall’s album “Alma”. His newest project and passion is the “Mingus Legacy Collective” co-led by drummer Logan Bogdan, a group of young musicians dedicated learning and authentically performing the music of Charles Mingus in a small ensemble setting.

Ulrich Mitzlaff

Born: June 19, 1956

ULRICH MITZLAFF

Violoncello player (acoustic and electric) & composer

Web-Site: https://ulrichmitzlaff.bandcamp.com/; https://www.facebook.com/ulrich.mitzlaff

ULRICH MITZLAFF completed his cello studies in the seventies at Tübingen (Germany) with Professor Stefan Zarnescú. Since 1996 he lives at Lisbon, Portugal, where he works as cellist and composer of contemporary and experimental music, improvisation, free-jazz, conceptual composition and sound-art. He collaborates with various artists in multidisciplinary and electro-acoustic projects including music creations for dance and theatre. He was member of the art-association “granular”.