Jenna Leigh, 28, originally from New Bedford, MA, and have lived in PDX for 9 years. 

I own a bakery in PDX and love love love music! I’ve been singing since I was a child, I started teaching myself guitar when I was 13, and started picking up other instruments as time went on. My whole life I’ve been exposed to music by family and extended family, every family gathering we were singing tunes and playing piano & guitar together. 

Just a couple years ago I started really focusing on playing, writing, and recording my own music…teaching myself basic drums, piano, and bass. Im currently learning music theory, which is exciting as I’ve always just played by ear mostly. I’m currently playing keys in !mindparade, finishing an LP of my own songs, and really enjoying playing music with others and exploring that creative part of myself!

Machado Mijiga 

Classically-trained, jazz-weathered, and eclectically inclined, multi-instrumentalist 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.

A Portland native, Mijiga is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few.

Mijiga studied classical and jazz saxophones at University of Puget Sound from 2012-13 and Washington State University from 2013-2017, with elective studies in Percussion at UPS in 2012 and, ensemble experience at Whitman College from 2008-2012.

Mijiga has shared the stage and/or collaborated with the likes of Benny Golson, Terence Blanchard, Brian McKnight, Charlie Hunter, Mark Giuliana, Bill Watrous, Tamir Hendelman, John Clayton, Eddie Palmieri, Fareed Haque, Darrell Grant, George Colligan, Damian Erskine, Thomas Marriott, Joe Kye

Ora Cogan, PDX All Stars, and many more.

Festival highlights include (but not limited to): Pickathon, PDX Jazz Festival, Vanport Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, PaseoFest, Montavilla Jazz Festival, Taco Tapes Festival, Ghost Carrot Festival

Mijiga currently tours with GRAMMY winning band Portugal.The Man playing saxophone, drums, keyboards, and electronics, and has played world-famous festivals and venues, such as Red Rocks, Radio City Music Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Wonderbus, Edgefield, Triple Door, Metro, The Atlantis, Whalebone, Sherblues, and Racket NYC, as well as done virtual performances for KEXP and Taco Bell.

Mijiga serves as Artist-in-Residence at (Portland’s) Roosevelt High School, along with being a guest lecturer and workshop collaborator for Portland State University.

As a composer, Mijiga recently won the Portland Jazz “Composers Cook-Off” in 2020 and became one of Third Coast Percussion’s “Creative Currents” Partners in 2021.

As a producer and audio engineer, Mijiga currently has 12 records, 14 EPs, and 16 singles released under his name, with all but two of these releases self-produced. 

Mijiga has also served as a freelance producer and engineer for artists such as Rob Araujo, Darrell Grant, and more.

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.

Cam Haskins 

My name is Cam I’m from Chicago/ Southern Illinois and I’m a multi-percussionist / music producer. Currently attending PSU in the Sonic Arts program. My favorite thing in the world todo is listen intently to the black musical masters and creators that came before now and ones in the modern day like Jdilla, Herbie Hancock, 9th Wonder, Miles Davis, Mad-lib and so many more and connect their work to the overall African ancestral diaspora and to then draw inspiration from that. Whether when that’s I’m producing a new beat or when I’m performing live I try to channel that energy and be in the moment.

Pablo Riverola 

As a composer and as a trumpet player, Pablo commands a resonant, warm, encompassing sound that reaches beyond the aesthetic of jazz while still remaining deeply rooted in the tradition. He is an artist by its truest definition and music is his medium. To him, the listener’s emotional experience is the highest priority as he carefully curates each piece inviting the listener to feel, and to feel intensely. Through his work, he demonstrates an unwavering commitment to that artistic vision. From the first note he plays you are captivated by his warm, voice-like sound that takes the listener on a journey while still being reminiscent of his heroes, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown.

Bitter Camari

black trans enby rapper from the USA; based out of PDX. shoegazy, sometimes ambient trap/drill-esque vibes. cloud rap energy. been working since ~2014.

I was raised in NYC and absorbed New England and Caribbean culture from my parents; recently, this has turned my ear towards UK drill, Afrobeats, and music from all over the diaspora.

I’m a major fan of dub, ambient, sleep, tea, being alone, and spending time in-person with my close ones.

I was around when cloud rap was coming into prominence with Lil B, Xaiver Wulf, and Yung Lean; I fell in love with the sound and its been a major influence on my approach to music and writing since. I love writing. much of my focus falls there when making work.

graphic design, videography, producing, songwriting, and journaling are some of my passions. i’m a lover of anticolonial literature and work.

feel free to contact me at bittercamari@gmail.com or on instagram at @bittercamari

<3

 Roman Norfleet 

Roman Norfleet (1988 n. American born) is an interdisciplinary cultural producer, healer and mystic that uses sculpture, music composition, performance and social organizing as instruments in exploring his committed interest in spiritual and social development.

Originally hailing from Lockport, Illinois, Roman’s formative years were spent immersed in the vernacular traditions of the Baptist Church where his parents Mose Ella and Rev. Robert Norfleet attended and provided Roman the foundation to seek spiritual enlightenment on his own. His development journey led him to Los Angeles where he lived in an Gaudiya Vaishnava Ashram and studied Hindu/ Vedic Philosophies of Swamini Turiyasangitanada (Alice Coltrane) with her students. These years of deep immersion into his spiritual practices greatly influenced the way Norfleet approaches music and provided expansive insight into the sacred power of sound.

Norfleet has been surrounded by and involved in music and the arts since a child in his hometown, but has been further artistically cultivated by the visual art and music scenes of Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, the DMV area and Portland, OR.

As Founder and creative director of “Be Present Art Group” Norfleet believes deeply in the power perception and persistence has on elevating one’s consciousness. He is currently devising a curriculum workbook that translates these teachings into practical applications and preparing to release an album with BPAG as bandleader.

From devotional recordings, to an instrumental beat tape, to an experimental album, he has released a range of expressive projects that address his ever evolving approaches to honoring the divinity of creation. Roman seeks to continue that artistic, expressive expansion by continuing to incorporate visual and performance art elements that challenges the status quo, encourages spiritual expansion and calls for audiences to be present in the now moment.

(Bio edited by Viktor Le Givens)

James Powers 

Convention is something to be learned from, but not restrained by. This ethos comes across in the music of Portland based trombonist, guitarist, and composer James Powers. Largely self taught, and always in search of new methods of communication, James, a third generation musician, has been interested in non-literal expression since his first concert at 8 days old. As such, he jumps at new experiences; a practice which has seen him making a home in styles of music as varied as classical, ska, funk, and free improvisation, and performing with acts as renowned and diverse as Aceyalone, Blue Cranes, Jello Biafra, Chuck Isreals, Gordon Lee, Christopher Worth, and PJCE. More regularly, he can be heard leading his sludge jazz trio JP-3, rock trio REACTOR, and as a member of March Fourth, Buddy Jay’s Jamaican Jazz Band, and The Frank Irwin Quintet.

Dae Bryant 

I’m an artist and love this music, and form of being. I’m from Harlem, NYC and have been playing music all my life, whether it was in the church, where I realized the true power of music as a medium of energy and love . The non attachment to an idea of one state of being but all states of art and existence. Love, transcendence , being. Grateful.

The collective résumés of guitarist Mike Gamble, bassist Andrew Jones, and drummer Matt Mayhall — the three Portland, Oregon artists that make up the new ensemble the Sound Creation Trio — read like an expertly curated playlist of the past six decades of adventurous music: Charlie Haden, Aimee Mann, Shahzad Ismaily, Jeff Parker, Laura Veirs, Earth, Julia Holter.  In and around their sideman work, these men have been responsible for some daring original music of their own that stretches from free jazz to post-rock to Americana to art pop and back again. Nothing is off limits to these hyper-talented instrumentalists whether in the studio or on stage.  That’s what makes their new collaboration such an exciting prospect. The name is deceptively understated. Don’t all musicians simply create sound? True, but few are willing to combine genres and sonic elements as freely and spiritedly as this trio. Their shared language is exploration and a desire to push their abilities as composers and players to their absolute limits. The members of the Sound Creation Trio may have decades of experience and knowledge at their disposal, but they are still students of their chosen craft. As they continue to expand and create fresh sound, they refuse to be defined by ill-fitting genre tags or easy branding. In an age of social media-driven nonsense and cheap YouTube covers, their combined efforts are increasingly rare and always electrifying.

CMG is proud to have Discordance wrap up this years 2023 Improv Summit! This will also mark Caspar Sonnet’s last run hosting the series, passing the torch on to the next curator. This performance will feature amazing local noise artists: CBSM (Cody Bra nt/Shane Mcdonell), Valarie 23, Slava Tannic and Moon Bladder! A show not to miss! Show at 8pm, $10 admission.

The Reed Showcase will be an evening of music performed by students of Reed College. There will be sets by both bands and soloists playing whatever kind of music they’d most like to perform, and the tastes are diverse—there will be rock, indie, folk, and punk, to name a few. Reed’s music scene has experienced a bit of a downturn since the pandemic, but these students show that the scene is making a comeback. Come for an evening of great music and support these student bands!

Esmé

Esmé is a musician and writer with an interest in the social application of creative work. They are a senior studying English and creative writing at Reed College. Their musical style draws on rock, jazz, folk and country. One day they hope to write their own songs. For now, they play the work of artists across genres—favorites include Stevie Nicks, Amy Winehouse, Lucinda Williams, and Janis Joplin.

Glass Eyed Tiger

About: we’re stuck in the era of guitar music and regularly cover 90’s rock favorites. But we’re also writing originals that blend indie idiosyncrasy and punk spontaneity.  Drawing as much on Guided by Voices as on Neil Young, we aim to do something new with something that can’t get old.

Motorway South

Emerging out of a tiny grimy basement in Portland, Oregon, Motorway South is guitarist and singer Rachel Vogel and drummer Cleo Berryman. Drawing influence from giants such as Modest Mouse, Wilco, and Elliot Smith, their upcoming EP “Bottle Eve” is a sentimental collection of indie songs that are grainy, confessional, frustrated, recursive, hopelessly suburban, intimate in spite of/because of their equivocation, exact, disappointed,, half-remembered, and completely doomed (but in all the best ways).

Contemporary Music Industry Showcase

Join us for an incredible array of up and coming talent from Oregon State University Contemporary Music, Music Production, Jazz programs, and more. Featuring student led projects and original works! Guest faculty, too!

Original music from a variety of styles of music making. Everything from pop-punk, bossa nova, blues, singer-songwriter, jam band and live electronics and visuals.

https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/svpda/music/academic-programs/ba-and-bs-degrees/contemporary-music-industry

Todd Sickafoose’s BEAR PROOF 

Jenny Scheinman / violin 

Adam Levy / guitar  

Carmen Staaf / piano  

Ben Goldberg / clarinet 

Kirk Knuffke / cornet 

Rob Reich / accordion 

Allison Miller / drums 

Todd Sickafoose / acoustic bass, composer 

West Coast native Todd Sickafoose is a musical  visionary. JazzTimes calls him “thoroughly  

original” and “endlessly creative,” and the San  Francisco Chronicle calls him “a captivating  

improviser, imaginative composer, and master of  collaboration.” He’s worked with an array of  

amazing performers – the New Yorker has  

referred to him as “Ani DiFranco’s secret weapon”  and he is the Tony and GRAMMY award-winning  orchestrator and music producer of Anais  

Mitchell’s current Broadway hit “Hadestown”.  

Tonight’s concert will be a rare performance of  BEAR PROOF, an hour-long piece commissioned  by Chamber Music America. Todd describes the  music, which he composed specifically for this  octet, as “a surreal meditation on BOOM and  BUST.” Members of the all-star ensemble have  played with a range of musical innovators, from  Bill Frisell to Norah Jones, Dee Dee Bridgewater  to Dr. Lonnie Smith, Tin Hat to Andrew Bird.

Keeping a band together, particularly among the mercurial community of jazz musicians, is no small feat. Other gigs beckon. Life outside of making art takes precedence. It’s a reality that makes the continued existence and progression of Portland quintet Blue Cranes feel so momentous. The ensemble — saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham, drummer Ji Tanzer, keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, and bassist Jon Shaw — has been working together in a variety of formats since 2004, creating a solid body of work that has connected them to both the traditional sounds and the future-minded artists of their chosen genre.

What has kept them together, even as Cunningham has lived outside of Portland for the past few years, is strong personal and creative bonds. As a collective, their remit has always been to continually push their art further and further outside their comfort zones and to the edges of their abilities. It’s what fueled the group’s last album, 2021’s Voices, which found Blue Cranes recording for the first time with an assortment of vocalists (Laura Gibson, Edna Vazquez, Holland Andrews, Peter Broderick, Laura Veirs). And that desire to stretch even further beyond their previous work is at the heart of their new album My Only Secret. “I felt like I was getting in a rut, harmonically,” Wallsmith says. “I was trying to get out of that. To bring in more complexity and not do the same thing again.” 

To that end, Wallsmith brought elements of twelve-tone and through-composition into his writing. “Semicircle” has an ever changing tonal center, while “Forward” keeps shifting and evolving in the manner of cloud formations being pushed along the sky. Cunningham, meanwhile, took on a nonlinear form of songwriting. “Gaviota” evokes the minimalist work of John Adams with its intertwining melodies and an extended coda that brings in some rattling percussion, the flute playing of John C. Savage, and the trombone of James Powers. 

Another major shift for the band was to change the way they recorded My Only Secret. Created during the height of the quarantine,  Blue Cranes altered their usual way of recording out of necessity, tracking each part separately and in duets  across the studio window in Wallsmith’s basement. With some help from longtime cohorts Jason Powers and Todd Sickafoose, Wallsmith built the songs up using the individual components, usually adding Tanzer last in the process, because, he notes, “Ji is such an expressive player and is so in the moment, reacting to what’s happening. I felt like we’d lose all that otherwise.” Even with this temporal separation, says Cunningham, “it was like we were responding to each other. There was communication happening in the same space but at different times. And somehow it sounds like we’re playing live in the same room.” 
What will always stay the same with Blue Cranes no matter how much they change as people, as players and as composers is the vibrant emotional core within the music they create. Each song on My Only Secret has a core memory attached to it, whether it is the birth of a child (“Sloan”), a parent’s comfort after the death of a beloved pet (“Rhododendron”), or the agony of the 2016 election results (“Forward”). They feel every moment of every song deeply, something which colors every note they play. “We’re a good emotional band,” says Cunningham. “We can go to that place.” The beauty of My Only Secret, like all of the work Blue Cranes has produced to date, is that they want anyone and everyone to join them.

Harlan believes in the power of music to comfort our minds and relax our bodies. As a cellist and multi-instrumentalist, his musical talents span across genres from classical music for meditation and wellness to hip hop. His diverse list of songwriting and producing credits range from Michelle Branch to The Late Show’s John Baptiste and the hip hop artist, Duckwrth. As a solo artist, Harlan has released four instrumental albums that have been wildly featured on playlists for mediation and wellness.

As a film and television composer, Harlan brings together all elements of his musical background. He has worked such talents as Lakeith Stanfield and had his music featured on such hit series HBO’S INSECURE and Hulu’s WOKE.

 

Harlan’s musical training began at the age of four, when he began playing the cello after seeing Yo-Yo Ma perform on television. Harlan went on to study with renown cellist Eugene Friesen at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

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: