Sat Oct 18th 

Blue Butler Studios
$15-30 
8pm

Oleo Trio

Featuring Christian San Nicolas & Rodolfo Lopez

Celebrating the release of their debut bandcamp release, “First Impressions”, the Oleo Trio is exploring new ground at this year’s Improvisation Summit. Featuring Rodolfo Lopez on bass, Christian San Nicholas on sax w/ FX, and Joshua Phillips on percussion, guitar, and sax, with the theme of gravity. Using acoustic instruments, loops & delays, and harmonic effects, listen as these musicians communicate, echoing voices of their diverse heritage, through soul-reaching melodies. 

Force Field, with Alan Cook on drums and percussion and Mike Murray on guitar and electronics, explore the world of improvisation and spontaneous composition from a unique perspective. Both players bring decades of experience to create dynamic musical tapestries full of color, texture, creativity and deep listening.

Alan Cook

Born in Ayr, Scotland, Alan Cook brings a dynamic and multifaceted perspective to the creative exploration of the percussive arts, with over 50 years of diverse musical experience which includes performing with Nigerian master drummer Francis Awe's Talking Drum Ensemble, competing to top international honors with the Misty Isle Pipe Band, ensembles large and small covering music in a wide range of genres, as well as extended experience in solo accompaniment for modern dance and performance art. Originally self-taught, from his early twenties on he had been professionally active in the Southern California area, as well as nationally and internationally for several decades, studying and performing with renowned musicians such as Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Fred Katz, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, and others.

Since relocating to the Pacific NW in August of 2015, Alan has continued to be musically active on many fronts, most notably live performances in Seattle at The Chapel Performance Space and on air performances on the long running radio series Sonarchy, produced by engineer extraordinaire Doug Haire. In the Portland area, Alan has been actively involved with the Creative Music Guild, the Portland Story Theater, experimental film maker Pamela Chipman, singer/songwriter Noah Kite, and freelance work in jazz settings with a wide range of artists such as Nancy King, Paul K Ward, Harrison Richter, John Stowell, Ryan Meagher, Rich Halley, Noah Bernstein, legendary bassist Andre St. James, Andrew Jones, among many others. He is currently working on original creative improvised music, either spontaneously produced or compositionally directed, with SAMadhi, a quartet that features Noah Bernstein on alto sax, Mike Murray on guitar, Shao Way Wu on bass, and himself on drums and percussion.

Since August of 2021, Alan has been the creative director of the ongoing Thursday’s the new Friday jazz series at Roland Wines in Longview, WA.


Mike Murray

Elements of jazz, rock, noise, microtonal and world traditions have all made their way into the music of Mike Murray. Whether involved in original composition, free improvisation, electronics, the great American songbook or somewhere in between, the guitarist is always pushing to explore new territory.

Mike is a Berklee grad who has also received a masters degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory having studied with Jon Damien, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell and Mick Goodrick. He has performed and/or recorded with CT free improv masters Paul Flaherty and Randall Colbourne, the late Thomas Chapin, Royal Hartigan, Scott Thornton, Matt Moran, Rich McGhee, Steve Marien and many others in and around the New England and New York areas. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest exploring creative music with some of the areas finest improvisers.