Improvisation Summit of Portland Archive of Events
Jonah Parzen-Johnson
Bio
Jonah Parzen-Johnson makes music for baritone saxophone & flute that challenges listeners with experimental textures & forms while embracing them with warm approachable melodies. A Chicago native and longtime Brooklyn resident, Jonah has performed solo in more than a dozen countries across four continents. Jonah has brought his music to festivals in Berlin & Helsinki, concert halls in Istanbul & Bruges, rock clubs in Rotterdam & Montreal, and Jazz clubs in New York & Chicago. His solo performances are a deeply intimate experience, as he endeavors to share who he is, how he sees our world, and the temporary moments of community that we can all embrace together.
“Autechre-esque pings, burbles and boings swirl together in the backs as Parzen-Johnson takes deep, chest rattling sax solos that scale the same ecstatic heights as Mats Gustafson but in a much more disciplined and mantra-like manner.”
– The Wire Magazine
“Parzen-Johnson’s vaguely alien compositions split the difference between the organic and the synthetic with a far-reaching, expressive sound that carries an indefinable beauty.”
– LA Times
“Jonah Parzen-Johnson drifts away from his jazz background toward a less defined terrain that suggests Brian Eno, film soundtracks, and the spaces between.”
– The New Yorker
Links
Website – https://jonahpj.com
Bandcamp – https://jonahpj.bandcamp.com
Youtube – https://youtube.com/jonahpj
Substack – https://jonahpj.substack.com
Instagram – https://instagram.com/jonahbaritone
Long Drive Theatre is a performance group led by Kaitlyn Petrik (director, text) in close collaboration with Richie Greene (music). Their first work, Six Monologues, was developed with Kate Kilbourne and Andy Raybourne and had its premiere in August 2021. Since then, they have been performing as a trio (Petrik, Greene, Kilbourne) bringing experimental performance to bars, bookstores, backyards, and other non-traditional venues.
@longdrivetheatre
@katalun
@richiegreene
Pacific Ambient Collective aka PAC is an electro acoustic ensemble consisting of core members Brandon Warren, Alex Arnold, and Timmy Barnett. They seek to stop time via stream-of-conscious improvisation, creating soundscapes that invoke the expansiveness of the Pacific Ocean.
Here’s a streaming link:
Sun 10.16
1905
830 N Shaver St
4pm Jack Radsliff’s Jam Session
7pm & 9pm
Miles Okazaki/ Dan Weiss Duo (NY)
Tix:
Mon 10.17 7pm
Blue Butler Studios
2400 SE Holgate Blvd
EXPERIMENTAL DISCUSSION
Building Community
w/ Honest Jams
& Roman Norfleet and The Be Present Art Group
Tues10.18 8pm
No Fun
1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Noah Simpson/ Domo Branch/ Mike Gamble
Space Jammerz
Wed 10.19 7pm
Speck’s
8216 N Denver Ave
Max Kutner (NYC)
Casual Decay
Lorin Benedict (SF)
Thursday 10.20 8pm
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St
and/Or you
meroitic
Lorin Benedict / Machado Mijiga
Friday 10.21 8pm
Leaven Community
5431 NE 20th Ave
David Torn / John Niekrasz / Mike Gamble
Alexis Mahler / Lindsay Dreyer
Mike Lockwood’s Safe Travels
Late night
1905
830 N Shaver St
11:30 pm
Carpe Diem w/ Machado Mijiga/ Garrett Baxter/Matt Sazima and Special Guest Lorin Benedict
Saturday 10.22
Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave
David Torn + Corzi și Arcuri “Tall Tales (direct translations from the lost tongue)”
(NYC)
viola
Michelle Alany
Isabel Damman
Chibia
Alexis mahler
Cello
Harlan Silverman
Guitar
Mike Gamble
Alex Callenberger
Ryan Miller
TIX:
Late night 11:30pm
1905
830 N Shaver St
GOOSH w/ Machado Mijiga / Milo Fultz / Dario Lapoma special guest Lorin Benedict
Sunday 10.23 8pm
Fixin to
8218 N Lombard St
Round Robin Hosted by Machado Mijiga
w/ Haley Heynderickx
Denzel Mendoza
Alexander Thomas
Matthew Holmes
Logan Strosahl
David Berry
Lorin Benedict
TICKETS:
Monday 10.24 8pm
TurnTurnTurn
8 NE Killingsworth St
Halfbird
Maxx Katz
Touch System
Tues 10.25 8pm
NO FUN
1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Matt Mayhall’s Sift
Logan Strosahl’s New Normal
WED 10.26 8pm
XHURCH
4550 NE 20th Ave,
Aesthetic.Stalemate
Vern / Vo
Crystal Quartez
Sat 10.29 – 8pm
Discordance
Hosted by Caspar Sonnet
Leaven Community
5431 NE 20th Ave
Gabie Strong
Ian Wellman / Caspar Sonnet
Leather Jester
Cody Bryant
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20
Doors: 8pm
$15
PLEASE NOTE: For the safety of our customers, we will be requiring proof of full COVID vaccination to enter the venue, until further notice. More details at holocene.org/vaccine
Andrew Jones is a multifarious bassist, composer and songwriter who has recorded with folk and pop songwriters and modern jazz instrumentalists, performed with live hiphop and electronic bands and accompanied visiting experimentalists and theater productions via the Improvisation Summit of Portland and Time Based Art Festivals. Outside of town, Jones has had recurring work with artists from New York and Los Angeles- most recently a fourteen-month international touring stint with acclaimed songwriter/composer Julia Holter. However, among his closest musical compatriots he’s known mostly for his sometimes elusive solo-turned duo project The Crenshaw, whose full-length album features Jones singing poetic and sometimes tongue-in-cheek lyrics atop off kilter beats, warped synth samples and his own upright bass ostinatos. For his forthcoming record, Andrew is renaming that project ‘and/or you.’ Portland’s Creative Music Guild has invited him to assemble an expanded ensemble to bring his singular brand of dense and mysterious art pop to life for the 2022 Improvisation Summit of Portland, which will feature a rogue’s gallery of musicians:: Mike Lockwood (Drums), Max Kutner (NYC) (Guitar), Lily Breshears (Harp), Maxx Katz (Flute), Noah Bernstein (Alto Saxophone), Patrick McCulley (Tenor/other Saxophones).
meroitic is a sound & movement based project of black interdisciplinary artist & composer jamondria harris. Their work uses words, sounds, wires, instruments, textiles & what falls into their hands to engage with blackness, desire, spirit/source,narratology/folklore, & ontologies of liberation over& through sex, gender & embodiment.
Classically-trained, jazz-weathered, and eclectically inclined, Machado Mijiga left the proverbial creative “box” at a very early age, with access to many instruments and a diverse musical background brought about by an intercultural heritage.Mijiga is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few.
Lorin Benedict is an improvising vocalist (scat singer, essentially) who works in the areas of jazz and related music. He co-leads several small groups dedicated to playing highly structured music in a manifestly loose and playful way.
Visual art by Francis Wong: Francis Wong is a Chinese-American, multimedia alchemist based in Southeast Louisiana outside of New Orleans. His primary mediums include mixed media painting, photo/video, music and puppetry.
7pm John stowell, Matt Mayhall, Andrew Jones
8pm Miles Okazaki Solo Stream
9pm John stowell, Matt Mayhall, Andrew Jones
John Stowell
John is a unique jazz guitarist influenced as much by pianists and horn players as he is by guitarists. His original take on harmony, chords and improvisation sets him apart.
He has taught internationally for over 40 years in every educational setting.
His clinics are informal, hands-on and informative. In addition to music theory and guidelines for improvisation, John shares his professional experience with the business of music.
Matt Mayhall
Matt Mayhall is a percussionist, composer, session musician and educator. Over the past twenty five years he has gigged, toured, and recorded with an eclectic range of world-renowned performers in jazz, improvised music, singer-songwriter, folk, indie rock, indie pop, American roots music and performance art. He has released two albums of his own compositions: Fanatics (2020) and Tropes (2016).
https://mattmayhall.bandcamp.com/
Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is an improviser, composer, and bassist in Portland. Since arriving in 2009, he’s been involved with the music community in a myriad of contexts: contributing compositions to jazz releases on the PJCE label, performing with rock, hip hop and folk groups and working with countless singer-songwriters. He’s also formed a long association with Portland’s experimental music community and Creative Music Guild, making multiple appearances at the Improvisation Summit of Portland and TBA performing with visiting musicians, collaborating with local dancers, accompanying theatre and presenting his own music. His main creative vehicle, The Crenshaw, is based on Andrew’s poetry, which he sets to electronic music. Those beat-pieces are then recreated with his warped synth samples, upright bass and a collaborator on drum set framing Jones’ voice. In 2019 he finished a fourteen-month international touring stint with acclaimed Los Angeles songwriter/composer Julia Holter. During the pandemic, Jones has turned to more session and audio production work; writing arrangements, contributing bass tracks, and mixing various new releases. In the coming year he plans to record The Crenshaw’s second full length album.
https://thecrenshaw.bandcamp.com/
Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.” His sideman experience over the last two decades covers a broad spectrum, from standards to experimental music (Kenny Barron, John Zorn, Stanley Turrentine, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Jonathan Finlayson, Jane Monheit, Amir ElSaffar, Darcy James Argue, and many others). He was seen prominently with Steve Coleman and Five Elements from 2009–2017. As a leader, Okazaki has released six albums of original compositions over the last 12 years, and is currently an artist on the Pi Recordings label. He has also released a six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar, published a book (Fundamentals of Guitar) with Mel Bay, taught guitar and rhythmic theory at the University of Michigan for five years, and holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School.
2408 SE 16th Ave, Portland, OR 97214
Hosted by Caspar Sonnet and featuring:
Loren Chasse
Francisco
Kale Nixon
Caspar Sonnet
Maddie Villano
TJ Thompson
Catherine Lee
Juninna Lanning
Caspar Sonnet (born 1976, Los Angeles, CA) is a composer/improviser currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He has been composing and performing improvisational music since 1996. Sonnet’s multi-instrumentalist abilities include lap steel & voice. His work mainly focuses on physical movement/location in effection to sound, just intonation, rhythmic juxtaposition, instrumental augmentation, extended technique, mimicry and the use of hourglass as a way to influence improvisation. He has collaborated with talented artists such as Drew Wesley, Chris Cogburn, Ignaz Schick, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mike Gamble, Linda Austin, Gabie Strong, Zach Rowden, Henry Birdsey, Tom Weeks, Kevin Murray, Allie Hankins, Jordan Dykstra, Andrew Jones, and Jean-Paul Jenkins in recording, performing and improvising of music. He has also toured throughout Europe and the US. He has also held residencies with MOCA & REDCAT Studio in Los Angeles, and CMG Improv Summit, TBA at Disjecta and currently High Desert Soundings in Joshua Tree, CA
https://andromacherecords.bandcamp.com/
10:15 Posture Culture
9:30 Cyrus Nabipoor
8:45 Ryan Miller / Grant Pierce
8pm Noise Concerns
Cyrus Nabipoor
Organizing sounds and telling stories. Trumpeter and composer Cyrus Nabipoor’s singularly unique voice speaks of honesty, humanity, and the tragic beauty of existence. Warm and lyrical, with a unique sense of phrasing, he balances focused clarity with daring exploration. In both composition and improvisation, melody reigns. Through his pairing of trumpet and electronics, Nabipoor bridges the conceived dichotomy of nature & technology and explores new tonal possibilities.
Noise Concerns
Dan Sasaki (percussion) and Stephanie Lavon Trotter (electro-acoustic voice) create out-of-this-world sonic landscapes through free-improvisation and open scores bringing together their shared experiences in experimental noise, free-improv, Opera, and performance art
https://noiseconcerns.bandcamp.com/releases
Ryan Miller
Portland, Oregon’s Ryan Albert Miller is a forward-thinking guitarist, composer and improviser with a captivating new sound. An active member of Portland’s thriving creative music scene, Ryan uniquely fuses through-composition and nonlinear rock with avant garde leanings. Ryan has released 10 albums over the last 15 years in either full band collaboration or solo format. Active and past collaborations include U SCO, Teton, With Eyes Abstract, & Embedded Star Ensemble.
https://tentremors.bandcamp.com/album/held-radiant
Grant Pierce
Grant Pierce is a drummer and singer/songwriter living in Portland, OR. He is a member of the free jazz squall, Halfbird, and the heavy-psych band, Young Hunter.
https://grantpierce.bandcamp.com/
Alex Callenberger
Guitarist, synth wizard and cinematic expressionist Alex Callenberger creates soundscapes to dream to and swim through. Calling on the powers of acoustic, electronic and experimental instruments, he casts sonic spells that straddle and bind the genres of post-rock, ambient-techno, avant-garde, noise and folk-minimalism.
https://alexcallenbergermusic.bandcamp.com/album/redetermination
Brandon Warren
Brandon Warren is a drummer and producer based in Portland OR. He combines analog synths, virtual instruments , found sounds and drums to build ambient and meditative sound scapes. Posture Culture is a duo featuring he and guitarist/synthesist Alex Callenberger.
9:30 Machado Mijiga / Noah Simpson
8:45 Shao Way Wu / Andrew Jones
8pm Aurora Jepherson / Dana Reason
Noah Simpson
Energetic, dynamic, and attentive describe Noah Simpson’s approach to trumpet playing. Simpson is a celebrated performer, educator, composer, and forward-thinking improviser who has worked with artists such as Bernard Purdie, George Benson, and Ron Artis II.
Machado Mijiga
Multi-instrumentalist and Portland native Machado Mijiga wears many hats, both literally and metaphorically. Classically-trained, jazz-weathered, and eclectically inclined, Mijiga left the proverbial creative “box” at a very early age, with access to many instruments and a diverse musical background brought about by an intercultural heritage. Mijiga is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few. Authenticity and uniquity assume the locus of Mijiga’s artistic identity. Self-expression is the prime directive, and the medium of choice changes like the weather.”
https://machadomijiga.bandcamp.com/
Dana Reason
Dana Reason is a Canadian-born composer, performing and recording artist, music supervisor, educator, and musicologist. She was part of The Space Between trio with American electronic arts pioneer, Pauline Oliveros (Guggenheim recipient); and is documented on 17 commercially released recordings. Reason is part of the ReSoundings trio with Dr. Catherine Lee and Dr. John Savage. They performed the 2020 NEA Jazz Master, Roscoe Mitchell’s seminal work: Nonaah Trio at the Park Avenue Armory (curated by Jason Moran) in NYC, 2019. Their recording of Nonaah Trio (Widehive Records, 2020), has received high praise. Reason was one of the four artists commissioned by the Oregon Cultural Foundation for the award winning Exhibition at the High Desert Museum series: “Desert Reflections: Water Shapes the West (2019). As a film composer, and performer, Reason arranged Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ 4 part PBS series: “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” (2019), (which received the duPont Award, Columbia, 2020), and served as both lead composer and music supervisor for the Alice Guy Blachet Vol.2 (Kino Lorber, 2020) film collection, which was nominated as one of the top 20 blu ray collections of 2020 by the British Film Institute (BFI). ”Additionally, Reason composed the feature-length film score for Nell Shipman’s: “Back to God’s Country” (released by Kino-Lorber), which premiered with a live performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in 2018. Reason is currently the Vice-President of the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM); and is a 2021-2022 OSU Humanities Research Fellow. She is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music at Oregon State University.
Aurora Josephson
Aurora Josephson is a musician and visual artist who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Building on the foundation of operatic training and a BA and an MFA in Music Performance from Mills College, she has forged a bold vocal style that is uniquely her own. To unleash the limitless range of sonic possibilities in the voice, Josephson employs a variety of extended and unconventional techniques drawn from the worlds of contemporary composition, improvisation, and rock. She has performed and recorded with Alvin Curran, Gianni Gebbia, Henry Kaiser, Joelle Leandre and William Winant, and musical groups Big City Orchestrae, Flying Luttenbachers, The Molecules, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, T.D. Skatchitband and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Http://www.aurorajosephson.com
Shao Way Wu
Portland bassist.
Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is an improviser, composer, and bassist in Portland. Since arriving in 2009, he’s been involved with the music community in a myriad of contexts: contributing compositions to jazz releases on the PJCE label, performing with rock, hip hop and folk groups and working with countless singer-songwriters. He’s also formed a long association with Portland’s experimental music community and Creative Music Guild, making multiple appearances at the Improvisation Summit of Portland and TBA performing with visiting musicians, collaborating with local dancers, accompanying theatre and presenting his own music. His main creative vehicle, The Crenshaw, is based on Andrew’s poetry, which he sets to electronic music. Those beat-pieces are then recreated with his warped synth samples, upright bass and a collaborator on drum set framing Jones’ voice. In 2019 he finished a fourteen-month international touring stint with acclaimed Los Angeles songwriter/composer Julia Holter. During the pandemic, Jones has turned to more session and audio production work; writing arrangements, contributing bass tracks, and mixing various new releases. In the coming year he plans to record The Crenshaw’s second full length album.
https://thecrenshaw.bandcamp.com/
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13 Doors: | 8pm // Show: | 9pm $15 Holocene
PLEASE NOTE: For the safety of our customers, we will be requiring proof of full COVID vaccination to enter the venue, until further notice. More details at holocene.org/vaccine
Holocene is excited to partner with Creative Music Guild (as part of their annual festival, the Improvisation Summit of Portland) to present a line up of three visionary local artists: Methods Body, MSHR, and Patricia Wolf.
METHODS BODY (Portland, OR, USA) creates original sound art and music using custom tuning systems, involuted polyrhythms, and the cadences of language. John Niekrasz (Ecstatic Peace, ESP-Disk’) and Luke Wyland (The Leaf Label, Hometapes, Crammed Records) use bespoke live-sampling technologies and meta-cognitive compositions to inhabit waves of subliminal melody and deep, uncanny grooves.
Methods Body builds on the non-traditional tunings of Terry Riley, the experimental energy of Éliane Radigue and Silver Apples, and the refracted electronics of Aphex Twin to create a sonic language completely their own. Together, Wyland and Niekrasz have been pushing the bounds of rhythm and melody for more than a dozen years. Their duos, AU and Why I Must Be Careful, were lauded as groundbreaking and breathtaking. Both Niekrasz and Wyland are idiosyncratic innovators on their instruments and use performance as an arena for legitimate connection and energetic exchange. Methods Body’s first full-length album (released in 2020) is born from long-term composing and recording sessions held in old-growth forests and remote deserts.
MSHR is an art collective that builds and explores sculptural electronic systems. Their practice is a self-transforming entity with its outputs patched into its inputs, expressing its form through interactive installations, immersive performances and audiovisual compositions. MSHR was established in 2011 by Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper. Their name is a modular acronym, designed to hold varied ideas over time.
Patricia Wolf is a musician, sound designer, and curator residing in Portland, Oregon. Wolf uses electronics, voice, and field recordings to produce non-linear compositions that draw listeners to a hypnotic inner world. Her use of melody and repetition manipulate the listeners’ perception of time, conjuring vivid textures, and atmospheres.
Tonight’s set from Patricia Wolf will feature animation by Jeremy Rotsztain.
10:15pm Crystal Quartez
9:30pm Jan Julius and Blue McCall
8:45pm Saroon
8pm Amenta Abioto, Darian Patrick, and Mike Gamble
FACEBOOK EVENT
https://www.facebook.com/events/235207188560967?active_tab=about
Darian Anthony Patrick
Darian Anthony Patrick is a multi-instrumentalist based in Portland focusing on percussion, with training in classical and jazz voice as well as electric and bass guitar. Darian performs a broad range of musical styles with specialization in African diasporic traditions, including Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian styles.
https://darianpatrickmusic.com/
Amenta Abioto
Amenta Abioto is a singer, songwriter, producer, performance artist from Memphis, TN. In her one-woman show, she builds vocal and instrumental loops from kalimba, synthesizer, drum machine, and guitar creating atmospheric textures. Weaved into syncopated rhythms and dichotomies of comedic proportions, Amenta surprises and tantalizes audiences with mind bending ideas while skipping vocally from soul-shaking gospel to smooth jazz. Boldly mystical and soul-fired, and her raw live performances invoke elements of both theatrical surprise and magic through ancient African diasporic sounds and stories. Amenta studied drama and was familiarized with the stage. Amenta moved to Portland, OR in 2010 with her family (mother & 4 sisters). There she began her musical chapter. After many jams and the forming of band, dopebeds, Her solo project made debut in at house show in Spring of 2012. Since then, Amenta has released three projects and toured with The Blow, Secret Drum Band, Typhoon, and The Ghost Ease. In 2020 she plans to release her third record. Amenta is involved with projects KILEO and NOMADR.
https://amentavera.bandcamp.com/
Mike Gamble
Mike Gamble is an adventurous guitarist and multi-instrumentalist whose work with electronic modes of composition are integrated endlessly into his setup. Gamble has spent the last 15 years immersed in the creative jazz, experimental rock and improvised music scene primarily in NYC, with close ties to New Orleans, Burlington, Boston, San Francisco and now in Portland OR, where he currently lives
https://mikegamble.bandcamp.com/
Saroon
With a belief that genuine expression of vulnerability has the power to resonate others towards actualization, Saroon’s intimate and existential approach to sharing music has transformed into deeply personal performances, albums, and tours around the world. Varying between albums, Saroon’s sound transcends through acoustic compositions and illustrious harmonies and blooms into a hypnotic and energizing electronic psychedelia.
Jan Julius and Blue McCall
Jan Julius and Blue McCall are Portland-based nonbinary artists whose is work concerned with power play, queer fantasy, and life under/against capitalism. Blue McCall’s interdisciplinary practice includes work in textile, soft sculpture, poetry, and choreography, and Jan Julius is a hyperpop singer and producer. Their collaborative relationship began with a radio broadcast for International Workers Day, a reading of McCall’s in-progress novella Factory Erotica with sound design by Julius. Following that, McCall choreographed and danced with Julius in a livestream to accompany the release of their debut album, Meat Shot Idyllic. They are very excited to present their ongoing collaboration at the CMG Improvisation Summit.
https://noumenalloom.bandcamp.com/album/meat-shot-idyllic
Crystal Quartez
Crystal Quartez is a sound, installation artist & creative technologist based out of Portland Oregon. She is also a professor of Creative Coding & Sonic Arts at Portland Community College. As someone who never saw herself represented in computer music or creative tech her work focuses on the empowerment of underserved populations gaining access and knowledge around technology. In 2019 she co founded whateverSpace, a maker space offering free and sliding scale workshops and technology rentals with priority going to the BIPOC community. Under her performance moniker Crystal Quartez, she transforms field recordings, uses synthesis, audio programming, data sonification, and 3D sound spatialization to produce sonic realms for reflection and release. Her practice has recently involved the development of interactive sculptural interfaces and wearable technology that monitor movement and other corporeal methods to liberate the performer from their interfaces. Her art has been shown at NIME, PNCA, Disjecta, PICA, Navel (LA) and more
https://crystalquartez.bandcamp.com/
