Results for "Improvised Music"

David Stackenäs

David Stackenäs was born in 1974 in Stockholm, Sweden. After finishing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm he has grown to become one of the mainstays of improvised and creative music in Sweden.

Stackenäs works in the field of contemporary jazz and free improvised music. Over the years he has developed a unique way of playing guitar – both prepared with different materials as well as conventional technique and a growing armada of pedals. With a wide range of sounds and techniques he creates music with great imagination and poetry. As a soloist he mainly focuses on acoustic guitars, using a lot of the organic sound- possibillities and timbres the instrument has to offer.

Thollem McDonas

Born: 1967

Thollem is a perpetually traveling pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher. He's spent most of his life living on the road throughout North America and Europe. His work is ever-changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. Thollem's known internationally as an acoustic piano player in the free jazz and post- classical worlds, as the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti and as an electronic keyboardist through a multitude of projects. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thollem began playing the piano, composing and improvising as a child, absorbing the sounds of his culturally diverse upbringing

Katarsis4

Guillaume Muller

Born: January 12, 1990

New York based guitarist, Guillaume Muller has been actively performing and recording since moving to the city in 2016. Guillaume released his debut album in the Fall 2019, entitled "Sketches of Sound". His original music draws influence from bebop and hard bop but with its own twist. More recently Guillaume released his second album, which is a solo guitar tribute to pianist and composer Horace Silver, entitled "Six Pieces of Horace" (2025).

Guillaume holds a bachelor’s in composition from Berklee College of Music (2016) and a master’s in Jazz Studies from NYU (2019)

The Beat Freaks

Active since: July 3

The Beat Freaks - a jazz quartet founded in Szczecin by guitarist Michał Starkiewicz in 2014. The musicians have many individual awards and achievements to their credit; they have collaborated and continue to collaborate with the cream of jazz musicians and beyond.

They have two studio albums to their name, "Leon" (2016) (Top Ten 2016 according to PolishJazzBlogspot journalists) and "Stay Calm" (2019). They also recorded music for the film "Zamoyski - Sculptor with a Camera," which was released digitally.

In 2018, the band made it to the top ten of "Electric Jazz Bands" as well as in the category of "New Jazz Band Hope" according to JazzForum readers. The musicians have performed on the most important jazz stages in Poland and abroad.

"The Mechanics of Nature" is the third studio album by The Beat Freaks, on which the musicians invited a special guest - American trumpeter Ralph Alessi.
 

Patrick Booth

Algorhythm

On the new album, the band performs as an electrified quartet, not like so far, as an acoustic quintet . The personal changes in the group were an inspiration to choose a new, unknown path, which generates the concept of a group as a multi-tasking, synergistic machine. In this way, "Termomix" outlines new boundaries on Polish jazz scene where jazz, electronics, improvised music, post-rock and mathcore become a common tool for building evolving and original sound. A wide range of instruments, various production techniques, elastic sound and finally communicative themes are just some of the features of the new Alpaka Records' title directed to an open-minded listener.

Victor Chorobik

Jimmy Bennington

Born: May 22, 1970

Jimmy Bennington (born May 22, 1970; Columbus, Ohio) is a self-taught artist who began playing professionally in Texas, 1990. Mentored by late John Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones during the last decade of his life, Bennington was eventually hired as Jones' band manager/drum tech, touring the world as part of the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine (2000-2002). Since then, Bennington lived on the West Coast for several years (1997-2006), and has made Chicago his home base (2006-Present). Jimmy has performed and recorded with artists such as Julian Priester, Perry Robinson, John Stowell, Ed Schuller, Bert Wilson, Ken Filiano, Steve Cohn, John Blum, John Gross, Daniel Carter, and French bassist Benjamin Duboc

Eric Pan

Born: January 13, 1994

Eric Pan creates novel and transportive experiences for audiences, incorporating musical performance, improvisation, collaboration, and immersive storytelling. This year, he releases a three-volume album titled Travel Poems. It's an unconventional debut. In the rainforests of Costa Rica, what began as a series of song-postcards based on stories of people and places soon blossomed a recording tour, leading to pianos across four continents. The resulting 30-track sonic kaleidoscope boasts solo, duo, and trio performances, threaded through soundscape narratives also curated from around the world. Live performances of Travel Poems feature its expansive repertoire, and additionally explore a complementary idea: how music is itself a means of travel