Blue Lighters

Join us for a celebration of Stan Wood’s life as an artist and musician and his singular contribution to free and improvised music.

Playing the Vibra-Band (a small strip of rubber of his invention), Stan started to push musical boundaries in the 1970s, and encouraged many ‘free’ players in Portland and beyond to explore improvised music without fear. (Stan was also a founding  and long-time member of Upepo)

Stan left this earth on August1st, and the remaining members of The Blue Lighter, his project band of the past ten years, will honor his unique music in performance.  Sitting in for Stan we are honored to have Nicole Glover on tenor saxophone.

Sam Boshnack Quintet

Prolific composer/trumpeter Samantha Boshnack is based in Seattle, where she leads three ensembles of her own music, including the Sam Boshnack Quintet, which features piano, clarinets, trumpet, bass & drums. This performance features Sam Boshnack on trumpet, Beth Fleenor  on clarinets & voice, Dawn Clement on piano & keyboards, Isaac Castillo on bass, and Max Wood on drums. In March 2014, the Sam Boshnack Quintet released the critically-claimed “Exploding Syndrome.” Boshnack earned a BA in Music Composition from Bard College in 2003. While at Bard, she studied classical composition with Joan Tower and jazz composition with Erica Lindsay. She has receive support and commissioning funds from New Music USA, Meet The Composer, 4Culture, Artist Trust, Jack Straw Productions, ASCAPlus, Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation of the Arts, and Earshot Jazz. Boshnack has toured Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada, and extensively in the US. These tours have included international festivals, colleges, grade schools, concerts, theaters, studio, and club performances. She has performed or recorded with artists such as Butch Morris, Eyvind Kang, Oliver Lake, Los Campesinos, Bobby Previte, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Stuart Dempster, Skerik, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Jherek Bischoff, Tom Varner, Sumi Tonooka, Jessica Lurie, Amy Denio, Joshua Kohl, Paul Kikuchi, Evan Flory Barnes, Paul Rucker, Orkestar Zirkonium, among others. (http://samanthaboshnack.wordpress.com)