Brandon Seabrook is a NYC-based guitarist and banjoist. His music fuses a wide range of traditions: punk rock, jazz, pop, and metal. As a guitarist his work feeds off tactile sensations; rapid tremolo picking, contorted clusters, and extreme physicality. He has released nine albums of original material and has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America.

https://brandonseabrook.bandcamp.com

Andy Clausen is a Brooklyn-based trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator. Best known as a founding member of genre-bending brass quartet The Westerlies, Andy is also a frequent collaborator with a wide range of artists including Fleet Foxes, Aoife O’Donovan, Haley Heynderickx, Conrad Tao, Nico Muhly, and Dave Douglas, and a prolific composer for visual media, audio storytelling, and concert music. 2024 marks the debut of Andy’s solo project “Few Ill Words: Solo Trombone at The TANK,” recorded in the profound reverberation of an abandoned railroad water silo in rural Colorado. More info at: andyclausen.com.

“A melody from Andy Clausen is pure moonlight. It’s lovely and magical, full of warmth, and it can brighten up the room. But moonlight also is a source of mystery, with ominous overtones and an electric tension” – Bandcamp Daily

“folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” – NPR

“Chamber music with bracing melodies and, crucially, an undeniable sense of fun” – L.A. Times

“an alluring, whimsical, and just-plain-cool mix of jazz, classical, and experimental music. Challenging music that doesn’t shy away from also being pretty.” – eMusic

“sleek, dynamic large-group jazz, a whirl of dark-hued harmony and billowing rhythm…The intelligent sheen of Mr. Clausen’s writing was as striking as the composure of his peers…It was impressive, and not just by the yardstick of their age.” – The New York Times

Schoenbeck/Horvitz

The Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz duo navigate through original tunes and improvisatory
soundscapes. With feet firmly planted in a genre-less zone, electronics and an ever-expanding textural
palate serve to deepen the feel of a shared melodic language.
Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz first met as improvising musicians at the 4 day, “company” style
“Time Flies” festival (Vancouver B.C.) in 2000. In 2004 Horvitz formed the Gravitas Quartet with
Schoenbeck, Ron Miles (Trumpet) and Peggy Lee (Cello). This quartet recorded two CDs and
performed throughout Europe and North America. In 2015 Horvitz fused his ensemble Sweeter Than
the Day with the Gravitas Quartet to create a septet performing compositions based on the poems of
Richard Hugo. “Some Places Are Forever Afternoon” resulted in a CD, touring throughout the US,
and an episode of NPR’s “Jazz Night in America”, hosted by Christian McBride. In addition,
Schoenbeck and Horvitz had performed in numerous improvised collectives, special projects, and the
occasional duo concert.
In 2018, the duo Schoenbeck/Horvitz was created, with subsequent concerts in NY, Vancouver,
Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, Sacramento, Northampton, Bellingham, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit. Their first CD, entitled “Cell Walk”, was released on the
Songlines label in May 2020. Since the pandemic the duo has presented concerts in the United States,
Canada, and Europe.

No Blood Relation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BTcHh84pIk

Link to Bandcamp:
https://battlehymnsandgardens.bandcamp.com/album/conversations-with-love-and-death
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/battle_hymns_and_gardens/

Battle Hymns & Gardens was originally formed in 2007 as a free-improvisation ensemble and
has evolved over time into one of the more compelling units on the Portland scene. Their
original compositions by Cunningham and Wallsmith are reminiscent of Don Cherry, Ornette
Coleman and Loft Jazz-era giants like Sam Rivers with spacious, lyrical landscapes, a la Paul
Motian and Roscoe Mitchell with a strong influence of folk-forms and a healthy dose of
conversational interplay and humor. Battle Hymns & Gardens have shared bills and/or
collaborated with Tim Young, Allison Miller, Lucian Ban, Mike Gamble, Elina Duni, The Tiptons,
and Elliott Sharp among others. Most recently, the group performed at the Seaside Jazz & Blues
Festival and at the 2024 Montavilla Jazz Festival. Their CMG performance will feature the
expanded sextet playing music from “Conversations with Love and Death,” their recently
recorded album, featuring trombonist James Powers and guitarist Dan Duval and exploring new
compositions by Cunningham and Wallsmith.
Lineup: Reed Wallsmith, alto saxophone and compositions; Joe Cunningham, tenor saxophone
and compositions; James Powers, trombone; Dan Duval, guitar; Jon Shaw, bass; Tim DuRoche,
drums & little instruments

Monday 10.28  Jack London Revue  Peter Epstein Sam Minaie & Matt Mayhall  $15 8pm

A decades-long musical relationship born in Reno, NV culminates with the music on Corduroy – drummer Matt Mayhall’s third album as a leader and his first for PJCE
Records since relocating to Portland from Los Angeles – has the urgency of a first meeting, and
indeed serves as a document of the first time Mayhall, saxophonist Peter Epstein and bassist
Sam Minaie convened in a studio as a trio.
The chemistry of the trio is evident throughout. The tunes are varied in their approach, but the
depth in the level of communication between the three master musicians remains constant.
Epstein, Minaie, and Mayhall are all adept at improvisational music that floats and flows like it
does on the opener, “Waltz” and their unique interpretation of Ellington’s classic, “Come
Sunday.” But they also display a knack for grooving as they do on numbers like the
easy-swingin’ “Petrichor” and the hypnotic “Dumb Melody.” The musicians push and pull together in such a way that it is clear the rapport and shared musical language on Corduroy
has been in the making for quite some time.
Mayhall and Minaie have been based on opposite coasts for most of their careers, but they
were both raised in Reno, NV and spent their formative years as a package deal rhythm team.
The two were students in music at the University Of Nevada Reno in 2001 when they took a
summer trip together to New York City to attend an intensive workshop hosted by The School
for Improvisational Music. There they met Epstein, a founding member and instructor at SIM. A
year later, Epstein found himself in Reno as the new instructor of jazz saxophone at UNR after a
whirlwind 10 years on the Brooklyn scene.
Epstein began his career in 1984 in Portland, where he apprenticed with many of the region’s
top jazz artists until relocating to Los Angeles to study at California Institute Of The Arts and
eventually landing in Brooklyn, NY. Epstein is known for his work with artists like Brad Shepik,
Ralph Alessi, Bobby Previte, James Carney, Joao Paulo, Jim Black, Scott Colley, Ravi Coltrane,
Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Peter Erskine, and many others. He has recorded eight critically
acclaimed albums as a leader/collaborator.
With Epstein as their mentor, Mayhall and Minaie were introduced to a brand of improvising and
on-the-bandstand training most would assume could only be found at an East Coast
conservatory. Inspired by Epstein and the rich musical landscape he inhabited, Mayhall and
Minaie were eventually accepted into the renowned MFA program in Jazz Studies at Cal Arts
founded by the legendary bassist Charlie Haden. Each have since gone on to play and record
with some of the most revered figures in improvised music.
Matt Mayhall has been characterized by Modern Drummer Magazine as an artist who “rolls his
diverse skills into one, untidy, rumbling package.” He has performed and/or recorded with an
eclectic range of world-renowned artists, including Jeff Parker, Chris Speed, Aimee Mann, Ethan
Iverson, Ted Leo, Fred Armisen, and Charlie Haden. He now calls Portland home after nearly 20
years of work in Los Angeles.
Sam Minaie is based in New York City. He has toured and recorded with Tigran Hamasyan,
Kneebody, Donny McCaslin, Dhafer Youssef, Jeff Ballard, Nate Wood, Mark Guiliana, Patti
Austin, Melody Gardot, Tootie Heath, Jean-Michel Pilc, Ari Hoenig, Shai Maestro, Ben Wendel
and numerous others. As a producer and post production engineer, Sam has mixed and
mastered dozens of records and is the founder of birdFood Studio in NYC.
After talking about making a record for almost twenty years, these three old friends finally came
together for two sessions over two days in New York at Minaie’s home studio, and the result is
an album each player considers among their best work to date.

Sunday 10.27 Fixin To Chris Corsano  Mike Watt Joe Baiza / Ilyas Ahmed $20 8pm 

A new trio to deliver a mix of free improvisation and punk, all of it wild-eyed and fierce as hell. Guitarist Joe Baiza (Saccharine  Trust, Universal Congress Of) and bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen,  fIREHOSE, Stooges) both need no introduction, but if you insist:  they’re defining figures of the 1980’s California hardcore/post-punk scene and did as much as anyone to expand the music into something beyond categorization, pulling things in from all over the imaginary genre-map, including free jazz’s improvisation and exploratory fervor. Drummer Chris Corsano (Rangda, Björk, Bill Orcutt) came up in a world heavily indebted to Baiza and Watt, fully embracing the ethos of “Punk is whatever we made it to be.” He’s brought that approach to free improvisation/experimental/etc. since he came on the scene in the late ’90s. Flash forward to late 2023 when the trio first met out in the Mojave Desert. They cut an album for Yucca Alta records (due out in September), followed by a pair of SoCal shows. Now they’re embarking on a West Coast tour.Or, as Watt puts it: “this is mike watt’s reckoning of what this is: late last year drummer chris corsano was put w/me for a gig in the joshua tree desert parts(by derek monypeny) and his first suggest was to get joe baiza which I was way into. we did that gig: totally improvised instrumental music. we did it sitting down: chris sitting down, me and joe baiza are sitting down. for me, it’s was a very interesting conversation to be involved in and I got big time fuckin excited.”

https://corsanobaizawatttrio.bandcamp.com/album/corsano-baiza-watt-trio

Ilyas Ahmed has been releasing records as a solo & collaborative artist for almost 20 years. His most recent solo album A Dream of Another was released in 2023. He is also a member of the experimental rock band Grails whose last record Anches En Maat was released in 2023 as well. Records forthcoming on all fronts in the next year. Ilyas lives and works in Portland Oregon.

https://ilyasahmed.bandcamp.com