Tuesday October 14th
No Fun
$15-30
8pm
Ches Smith Mike Gamble Todd Sickafoose
Blak Lively
Christopher/Bee/Nolan
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Ches Smith (drums), Mike Gamble (guitar), and Todd Sickafoose (bass) tear through genre lines with raw energy and fearless improvisation. In the tight quarters of No Fun, expect explosive drumming, jagged guitar textures, and deep, driving bass that blurs the line between free jazz, noise, and avant-rock. These are three heavyweights from the experimental scene—veterans of underground clubs and international stages alike—bringing wild dynamics and spontaneous chemistry to a space built for intensity. No setlist, no safety net—just three minds colliding in real time
Ches Smith (drums)
Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, David Torn, John Tchicai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn, Terry Riley, Kris Davis, Dave Holland, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Good for Cows, Theory of Ruin, and Mr. Bungle, among others.
He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade.
Mike Gamble (guitar)
Mike Gamble is an adventurous guitarist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work with improvisation and new technology predominantly inform his practice. Gamble has spent the last 20 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 the Pacific Northwest. He has had the pleasure of recording over 50 albums and has been touring the states, Canada, and Europe with his critically-acclaimed guitar trio The Inbetweens, Mike Gamble Solo, and alongside doom-metal originators Earth. His more recent collaborators include Bobby Previte, Todd Sickafoose, Nels Cline, Wayne Horvitz, Matt Chamberlain and Lori Goldston.
Since relocating to Portland, Mike Gamble has dived into the jazz and experimental, Pop, Indie Rock, and electronic/modular scene and gigs in several groups including Neighbors, TWANS, 2uo, and GAMSIM. He currently holds a position as a Contemporary Music Industry instructor at Oregon State University, and as a guitar teacher at Reed College. He has been the Artistic Director of Portland’s long standing experimental music organization, The Creative Music Guild since 2016.
Todd Sickafoose is a Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader and double bassist. He makes richly moving, imaginative music which has been called “thoroughly original, endlessly creative” by Jazz Times and “stunningly brilliant” by Bassplayer. He has performed on hundreds of recordings, toured internationally, appeared at music venues and festivals from Carnegie Hall to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Known as a musical cross-breeder who stretches across genres, Sickafoose has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration”. In 2004, Sickafoose began performing and recording in a duo format with folk poet, activist and cultural icon Ani DiFranco. Their relationship has developed for two decades – together they have made 10 albums, two concert DVDs, and performed thousands of shows. In 2007, Sickafoose began working on Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera, Hadestown, wearing many hats including arranger/orchestrator and music producer. After years of development and regional productions, the show opened at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway in 2019 and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Orchestrations for Sickafoose and collaborator Michael Chorney. Sickafoose produced the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast Recording which won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Recording. Hadestown recently celebrated 5 years on Broadway while also continuing to perform as a North American Tour and an open-ended run at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End. Straddling the worlds of folk, indie rock, jazz and chamber music, Sickafoose’s own band Tiny Resistors has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival and been featured on many “Best-Of” lists including the Village Voice, DownBeat, and JazzTimes. Writing for Tiny Resistors, he recently composed and released BEAR PROOF, a long-form chamber jazz hybrid commissioned by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Blak Lively is the solo project/moniker of composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Dunston. Using mics, contact mics, transducers, battery powered amps, and various resonant objects, through Blak Lively, Dunston explores the moments of where sound, physicality, and performativity coalesce.
Christopher/Bee/Nolan
Christopher Adams, guitar – is a multimedia artist who has played guitar in the Phull Collums Ensemble and Amanda Berlind’s HAL The Musical band. He also makes comic books and poetry books and organizes and participates in conceptual reading events.
PCE performance https://vimeo.com/968446484?fl=pl&fe=shMother Foucault’s Poetry Festival 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLDzb__nY_Q
Bee Dunlap, percussion – (they/them) is an artist, musician, and community member from Portland, Oregon. Some of their notable recent work includes bombastic live performaces with dance group Fox Walker, as well as the April release of a folk-adjacent EP of hauntingly intimate originals under the name Benj.
https://noisebybenj.bandcamp.com/album/winter-24-25
https://www.instagram.com/foxwalkermusic?igsh=ZzNxanY0d3NmM2Zl
Nolan Plummer, percussion – is a local musician, failed magician.
links:
https://mireu.bandcamp.com/music
https://thetuners.bandcamp.com/
Monday October 13th
Holocene
$25
Ches Smith’s Clone Row w/ Mary Halvorson, Liberty Ellman and Nick Dunston
Noah Simpson
Cosmos Dark
On indigenous peoples day 2025, October 13, Holocene and the Creative Music Guild co-host the first night of the Improvisation Summit Of Portland, featuring Ches Smith’s Clone Row, Cosmos Dark, and Noah Simpson.
The Improvisation Summit is a sonic laboratory—where seasoned improvisers and bold local musicians convene to explore the fluid boundary between composition and spontaneity. From large-scale ensemble experiments to intimate duets and trio performances, the Summit reflects the dynamic, intergenerational, and community-driven spirit of Portland’s avant-garde music scene and merges it with globally recognized improvisers.
Noah Simpson opens the evening, blending trumpet improvisation with electronic beats. His performance weaves melody and groove into radiant, with forward-leaning sonic textures, creating grooves that are at once playful, intricate, and immersive.
Next, Cosmos Dark (Vaughn Kimmons) takes the stage, weaving electronic atmospheres with voice and experimental textures. Her set moves between intimate, soulful passages and expansive, otherworldly soundscapes, guiding the audience through a journey of transformation and abstraction.
Closing the night is Ches Smith’s Clone Row, featuring Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman on guitars, Nick Dunston on bass, and Ches Smith on drums, vibraphone, and electronics. The ensemble thrives on tension and interplay, combining intricate compositions with spontaneous improvisation. Halvorson and Ellman’s guitar interplay is particularly noteworthy, offering a dynamic range from dissonant textures to melodic harmonies. Critics have praised the ensemble’s innovative approach, with one reviewer noting, “The delightful and gifted weirdness of Mary Halvorson’s playing is counterpointed, contrasted, unisoned with, played off, juxtaposed… with Liberty Ellman’s equally amazing sound palette, chops, and imagination.” Jazztrail.net
The Creative Music Guild invites Portland musicians and sound-makers to submit proposals for the Improvisation Summit of Portland, returning in October 2025. This annual festival celebrates risk, collaboration, and spontaneous creation—pairing local artists with nationally and internationally recognized improvisers across multiple venues. We’re seeking adventurous voices from every corner of the city’s music community: soloists, ensembles, and boundary-pushers working in any medium.
Some performances are already booked with visiting artists but the dates that are available are listed in the submission form. If you are applying, go ahead and select all that apply to you and your collaborators schedules.
Please note:
Submissions close Aug 29th at 11:59pm
If you choose to apply, you will be notified by Sep 5th.
Click on the link below to submit a project:
Bear in mind you must download the “google forms” app if you are using a mobile device. If not, any laptop or desktop should work. If it does not please email mike@creativemusicguild.org
CLICK HERE TO APPLY
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctnpZ5z1BQqJUgCgUrXgn2c65y6WBnXvKauyFT3YtDpUqRWQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=108412368719542276982
Best of luck!!!
CMG
On July 18th every year, artists, educators, and scientists of all ages and backgrounds around the world observe World Listening Day, a holiday dedicated to the awareness of sound and acoustic ecology. Join us this year to celebrate! On July 18th at 3pm, the Creative Music Guild will host an afternoon of music, open dialogue about sound, and conversation about experimental sonic design. Catch performances by LTD Time and Anthony J. Stillabower / Mike Gamble as well as prompted discussion by sound artist Isabella Febbroriello. We hope to see you there!
If you are interested in coming please email send mike@creativemusicguild.org for location. Keep in mind this event space does not have ADA access.
LTD Time is a sound collective featuring acclaimed Portland performers Allie Hankins (tape manipulation and voice), Shao Way Wu (upright bass), and John Niekrasz (percussion). LTD Time uses extended acoustic techniques, emancipatory structures, analog time-folding technology, and discursive play to construct a sense of elasticity in the present moment.
Isabella Febbroriello is a Boston-based multidisciplinary artist focused in sound, time, and sculptural technology. Their main themes of artistic intention provoke audiences to ground themselves or wallow in awareness of their bodies, minds, and spaces.
https://www.instagram.com/theresnothingbetterorgooder?igsh=MWR6MDJmOWowbWpkMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
https://youtube.com/@theresnothingbetterorgooder?si=QEoYzuiu0GzBp23q
Anthony J. Stillabower presents an improvisation shaped by voice, feedback percussion, and machine learning algorithms. Situated at the threshold of audibility, his approach to sound inhabits a terrain of friction and flow, where presence flickers between memory and material flux.
Guided by Annea Lockwood’s observation that ‘rivers create their sound by the way they interact with the materials in their banks through friction’, this performance asks: What is the source of a sound? Is something sounding now?
Listening becomes a percolation—of a music, an environment, a moment.
Playing becomes the sediment of what has been remembered—vitalizing manifold mixtures, toward a gust of something unlearned.
727 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97214
Energetic, attentive, and dynamic define Noah Simpson’s trumpet playing.
Rooted in the jazz tradition and heavily influenced by modern Black American music, Simpson takes a very modern approach to the trumpet. Noah has performed with such artists as Bernard Purdie, George Benson, George Colligan, Ron Artis II, and others.
$10 at the door Cash Only, 21+, 7PM Doors/8PM Music
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KLYPH
https://www.instagram.com/kkllyypphh
https://www.instagram.com/cliffhines
Mike Gamble
https://mikegamble.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/instagambz
Cyrus Nabipoor
https://cyrusnabipoor.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/cyrus.nabipoor
MLTZR
727 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97214
727 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97214
8218 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203
