[NewMusic] Gig Spam, my apologies, but couldn't get it onto Transbay?! Funny Internet connection/email on my part!

[Charity Chan]

Sorry everyone...

Exceptional circumstance? My email and internet have been very  
strange, and so I couldn't get it onto Transbay...?!  My fault (I'm  
sure, dreadful with a computer), and so please accept my truly  
sincere apologies and promises that this  will not happen again.

However, I did want everyone to know, that I a very good friend of  
mine is joining me and several other musicians on tour this week and  
next, and he will be playing in oakland.  He's an exceptional  
improviser, a wonderful person, and so I thought it would be good to  
give everyone a heads up!

There will be a concert taking place at 1510 8th Street this Thursday  
(Dec. 7th) at 8:00pm.  It's the second evening of the Ostitis Mediya  
Tour of the Pacific Northwest.  Tix are $5-10 sliding scale.  The  
description... (long one) is included below!

Merci for understanding!

Charity

An evening of improvised and contemporary new music, featuring:

Gino Robair
Damon Smith
Charity Chan
Scott Thomson (guest artist from AIM Toronto)
Jordan Glenn
Noah Phillips
Corey Wright
Aram Shelton
Andy Strain

This is the second evening of the Ostitis Mediya Tour of the Pacific  
Northwest (The Three Pipes: Noah Phillips, Jordan Glenn, Charity Chan  
w/ guest Scott Thomson of AIM Toronto)

Charity Chan:
While Charity's creative work concentrates itself in the area of  
contemporary improvisation (extended piano), she has also worked and  
studied extensively in the classical and contemporary classical idioms.
Having earned a Bachelor of Music degree (piano) from McGill  
University (Montreal, QC), she is currently working on a Master of  
Fine Arts from Mills College in contemporary improvisation.  There,  
her primary instructors are Fred Frith and Joelle Leandre.  At  
McGill, she worked primarily with Lori Freedman, Tom Plaunt, and Sara  
Laimon.  Prior to that, she studied with Jesse Stewart, Heather  
Toews, and the Penderecki String Quartet. She has also participated  
in workshops/masterclasses with: Jean Derome, Malcolm Goldstein, The  
Sun Ra Arkestra, Joe McPhee, and John Heward.
She has performed in Canada (Montreal, Toronto, and Guelph), and in  
California (USA).  Charity has performed/played with: Kris Covlin,  
Remy Belanger de Beauport, Gordon Allen, Scott Thompson,  Philemon  
Girouard, Sam Shalabi, and John Heward.  As well, she was the  
organizer for the inaugural "Free Improvisation Series" at McGill  
University (2005-06) and her constructed interdisciplinary  
improvisation "The Global Warming Project" (created in collaboration  
with Kris Covlin), will be performed in Montreal in 2007.   As a  
member of the trio Fenaison (Charity Chan, Remy Belanger de Beauport,  
Kris Covlin), she is an Ambiance Magnetiques recording artist and is  
also the recipient of a Canada Council Grant.
Charity's live performances focus on the evocation of alternative  
timbres from the piano and the combination of these sounds with more  
traditional performance techniques. Her improvisations are also  
informed by the immediacy of physical gesture in live performance.
Her academic research currently focuses on physical gesture,  
embodiment, and cultural memory in improvisation.  The majority of  
her research approaches music from a socio-cultural perspective.   
Charity is a member of the International Society of Improvising  
Musicians and the American Musicological Society.  Her academic work  
has been presented at the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium (University  
of Guelph) and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dec. 2006).

Scott Thomson: (visiting artist)
“Scott Thomson's trombone at moments practically lifted me out of my  
body.”
Carl Wilson, zoilus.com

Trombonist Scott Thomson is a key member of a new generation of  
improvising musicians living and working in Toronto.  He is a self- 
taught instrumentalist with a broad, colourful tone and a vast  
instrumental vocabulary that is indebted to, among other sources, the  
great Ellingtonian trombonists, American avant-traditionalist Roswell  
Rudd, classic European free improvising trombonists like Paul  
Rutherford and Günter Christmann, and wind traditions from around the  
world.  In tune with these complementary legacies, Scott’s music is  
both traditional and forward-looking, and his commitment to  
collaboration and improvisation impels him to seek new contexts in  
which and new people with whom to make music.

Though he plays in several working ensembles which delve into jazz- 
based composition (Ken Aldcroft Convergence Ensemble, Geordie Haley  
Trio), collective improvisation (JOUST with John Oswald, Ronda  
Rindone’s Quorum, The Open with Kyle Brenders, Lori Freedman/Scott  
Thomson, PST with Nilan Perera & Joe Sorbara, The Woodchopper’s  
Association), and pop and rock (Friendly Rich & The Lollipop People,  
Silent Five), Scott makes ad hoc improvising ensembles a priority.   
For this reason, he has taken advantage of the opportunity to play  
with many exceptional musicians locally, nationally, and  
internationally.

Most memorably, Scott performed at the 2005 Guelph Jazz Festival with  
the marvelous octogenarian saxophonist, Marshall Allen, a fifty-year  
member and current leader of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra.  During a  
summer 2006 tour of Britain, Scott worked extensively with  
percussionist Eddie Prévost, a founding member of the seminal  
improvising ensemble AMM.  He was also invited to perform with the  
London Improvisers Orchestra, which is convened by Steve Beresford  
and features the leading lights of British improvised music,  
including Evan Parker, John Butcher, Lol Coxhill, Paul Rutherford,  
and Phillip Wachsmann.  Furthermore, he performed in Yorkshire with  
electronics wizard Matt Wand (Stock, Hausen & Walkman) and with  
drummer Paul Hession and bassoonist Mick Beck (collaborators with,  
among many others, Tom “Squarepusher” Jenkinson).

Scott is a founding board member with the Association of Improvising  
Musicians Toronto (AIMToronto) and through the ongoing Interface  
Series – in which renowned visiting improvisers work with Toronto  
musicians during a three-night concert program – he has the chance to  
meet and work with numerous world-class musicians:  New York  
saxophonist and trumpeter Joe McPhee, Montréal saxophonist and  
flutist Jean Derome, Amsterdam bassist Wilbert de Joode, Köln  
clarinetist and saxophonist Frank Gratkowski, Vancouver drummer Dylan  
Van der Schyff, and many more.

As part of his organizing activities with AIMToronto, Scott conceived  
and programmed the hugely successful MUSIC(in)GALLERIES event in  
Toronto, which took place on a Saturday afternoon in July 2006.   
Fifteen Queen Street West art galleries hosted live, overlapping sets  
by small groups comprised of thirty-two AIMToronto musicians.  This  
generated a festive, gallery-crawl environment that provided a focal  
point for the burgeoning scene of creative improvising musicians in  
Toronto.  Local creative-music impresario and bon vivant, Ron Gaskin,  
gave the event “fifteen stars out of five – magnificent!”

Scott is fascinated by all facets of artistic communication, and has  
often worked with film-makers and dancers.  In particular, he has  
worked extensively with choreographer Julie Lebel's Ensemble  
Indépendant, and has made music for Lebel's “Cette Violente  
Franchise” in performance throughout Ontario and Québec.  The  
Ensemble's 2003 residency in the remote mining town of Fermont won  
the ROSEQ “New Publics” award for Arts and Community development in  
Eastern Québec.

Hand-in-hand with his work as a performer and organizer, Scott also  
writes about creative improvised music in popular and scholarly  
contexts.  He teaches and does research at the University of Guelph  
and Trent University, Peterborough, and has presented his research at  
the 2006 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, and at the 2006 National  
Graduate Conference in Ethnomusicology at the University of  
Cambridge, UK.


Noah Phillips:

“...[Noah Phillips] fashions moody thoughtful music that delivers  
unexpected warmth and familiarity...” --Rex Butters (All About Jazz  
Los Angeles)

Noah Phillips began playing guitar during his teenage years in Los  
Angeles.  During that period, his musical influences ranged from the  
music of the Hawaiian Islands, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, JimiHendrix  
and other popular guitar players from the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s.

He attended the University of Southern California, where he studied  
jazz guitar performance.  The most influential of his teachers at  
UCSC being Joe Diorio.  After graduation, Phillips became involved  
with the new and improvised music community of Los Angeles.  Since  
moving to Oakland, Phillips has started to experiment with and  
perform using prepared electric and acoustic guitar, analog  
electronics, Congolese Drumming, no-input feedback loops, and meager  
song writing.  Noah Phillips is currently studying guitar,  
composition, and electronic music with Fred Frith in pursuit of a MFA  
at Mills College.

He has toured throughout the United States, Amsterdam, the UK, and  
Iceland.  His playing has been described as eclectic, moody, and  
creative.  He has several recordings available with various  
ensembles.  Notable performances have been given with: Harris  
Eisenstadt, Jeremy Drake, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Vinny Golia, G.E.  
Stinson, J.D. Paron, Nathan Hubbard, Kris Tiner, Sara Schoenbeck,  
Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, Phillip Greenlief, Tony Malaby, Jeff  
Kaiser, Damon Smith, Tim Perkis, Jessica Catron, Gust Burns, Dan  
Clucas, Rich West, and Cory Wright.


Jordan Glenn:
Inspired by the popular music of the 1990's Jordan Glenn began  
playing drums at age 12.   During his formative artistic years Glenn  
began to explore the genres of jazz, various African percussion  
vocabularies, Indian Classical Music, North American Rock, and the  
composed music of the 20th century.   Jordan holds a Bachelor of  
Music Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon.  He as  
since taught and performed professionally in a variety of settings,  
including straight ahead jazz big bands/small groups, punk and rock  
bands, cartoon and circus groups, symphony orchestras, a traditional  
Irish group, and a Tex/Mex polka band that took him to Singapore, twice!

Glenn has performed or recored with Maria Schnieder,  John Zorn,  
Giancarlo Guerrero, and Conrad Herwigis.  He is currently attending  
Mills College where he is studying with Fred Frith and William Winant  
in pursuit of a Master of Fine Arts in Performance and Literature  
(Improvisation).


http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/4397
http://www.aimtoronto.org