The Creative Music Guild’s Confluence Visiting Artist Series presents French bassist, vocalist and composer Joëlle Léandre. Beginning with a duo set by Léandre and local pianist Dana Reason, the night will continue with Léandre and Reason joining local musicians Juniana Lanning, Doug Theriault, Doug Detrick, Jonathan Sielaff, Andrew Jones and Ken Ollis for several sets of improvisational ensemble performance.

Joelle Leandre

French double bass player, improviser and composer, Joëlle Léandre is one of the dominant figures of the new European music. Trained in orchestral as well as contemporary music, she has played with l’Itinéraire, 2e2m and Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain. Joëlle Léandre has also worked with Merce Cunningham and with John Cage, who has composed especially for her – as have Scelsi, Fénelon, Hersant, Lacy, Campana, Jolas, Clementi and about 40 composers.

As well as working in contemporary music, Léandre has played with some of the great names in jazz and improvisation, such as Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Pascal Contet, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Peter Kowald, Urs Leimgruber, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Mark Naussef, Marilyn Crispell, India Cooke and so many others…

She has written extensively for dance and theater, and has staged a number of multidisciplinary performances. She got the DAAD at Berlin, is welcomed as artist resident at Villa Kujiyama (Kyoto). In 2002, 2004 and 2006, she is Visiting Professor at Mills college, Oakland, CA, Chaire Darius Milhaud, for improvisation and composition. Her work as a composer and a performer, both in solo recitals and a part of ensembles, has put her under the lights of the most prestigious stages of Europe, the Americas and Asia.

From 1981 to 2009, Joëlle Léandre has about 150 recordings to her credit. (www.joelle-leandre.com)

Dana Reason

Dana Reason is a Canadian-born pianist, composer/improviser and musicologist. Reason was part of The Space Between trio with Pauline Oliveros and is documented on over 14 commercial recordings. Her research is available on Wesleyan University Press and Columbia Jazz-Studies On-line. Reason holds a B.Mus (McGill University); MA in Composition (Mills College); and Ph.D in Critical Studies/Experimental Practices, UC San Diego.  Her main teachers include: George E. Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Alcides Lanza, Alvin Curran, Aleck Karis and Anthony Davis. She teaches courses on music composition and is currently the director Popular Music Studies at Oregon State University. (www.danareason.com)

Juniana Lanning

Juniana Lanning began studying computer music composition under Mary Lee Roberts, Henry Gwiazda, and James Harley.  From their influence, she became fascinated with the digital manipulation of found sounds and the creation of sonic paintings.  It wasn’t until the formation Seven Engines, her duo with tape manipulator Kyle Bouchard, that this practice moved from the controlled environment of the recording studio into a more real-time  improv performance.

After receiving a music degree from Minnesota State University, Moorhead, Juniana became a  mother and freelance recording engineer, while continuing to collect myriad sounds from her local environment and shape them into sonic sculptures.  She has continued to collaborate with Kyle Bouchard, as well as artists such as Simone Pitot, Justin Smith, Doug Theriault, The Demolition Duo, and Vacilando.

In 2013 she worked with Doug Theriault in recording sounds for dancer Linda Austin’s “Three Trick Pony,” and in 2014 composed a sound score for Austin’s performance piece, “Hummingbird.”  Juniana is currently recording engineer at Fluff and Gravy Studios here in Portland, Ore.

Doug Theriault

Doug Theriault is a long time Northwest improviser, composer and instrument builder. (http://www.dougtheriault.org)

Doug Detrick

Douglas Detrick is a Portland, Oregon-based composer, trumpet player, and arts consultant whose work in these diverse areas is distinguished by its quiet thoughtfulness and its embrace of good ideas from unconventional sources. He was awarded the 2011 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works and Presenting Jazz grants for his work with his chamber-jazz quintet Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble, and the commissioned work “The Bright and Rushing World” was premiered at New York’s Jazz Gallery in 2012, performed throughout the United States, and released on CD with Parma Recordings in 2014. He is currently the Executive Director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and performs in Portland, Oregon as well as touring nationally. (http://www.douglasdetrick.com)

Jonathan Sielaff

Jonathan Sielaff resides in Portland, OR and plays the bass clarinet. Because he likes to play with drummers and electronic instruments, he often amplifies the bass clarinet and processes it with guitar pedals (he is also, conveniently, a guitarist).

He cut his musical teeth in rock bands, new music ensembles and various schools of improvisation but most enjoys exploring the territory that exists between genres. His primary musical project is the duo Golden Retriever, with Matt Carlson on synth. They have a bunch of tapes and CDs out there as well as albums with Root Strata and Thrill Jockey. (http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Golden-Retriever)

Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones is a musician working in Portland, OR where he composes, arranges and plays in a wide variety of musical contexts primarily on electric and double bass. Before relocating to Portland from Arizona he performed and/or recorded with musicians as varied as LA drummer/performance artist Corey Fogel (Missincinatti, The Mae Shi, Gowns, Julia Holter, Cryptacize), Tokyo-based pianist Jacob Koller, jazz vocalist Dennis Rowland (Count Basie), downtempo electronica artist Coppe and began doing recurring US/European tours alongside theremin virtuoso Pamelia Kurstin with Brooklyn Art-rockers Barbez.

Since moving to the NW he’s performed and/or recorded with the Blake Lyman trio, Andrew Durkin’s Protohuman, Portland Cello Project, Boy and Bean, Portland psych-folk outfit Egg Plant, Cameron Morgan Trio, Scott Cutshall’s Phraseology, Noah Bernstein, Ryan Meagher, Lee Elderton, Ryan Miller and Pinkish. He’s also spearheaded a local chapter of the Immersion Composition Society reluctantly dubbed Stallion Pussy Lodge and plays his own music for voice, electronics and double bass under the name The Crenshaw. (www.soundcloud.com/thecrenshaw)

Ken Ollis

Ken Ollis is a drummer and composer from Portland, OR. He has performed extensively throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and has played with a variety of musicians including: Kenny Werner, Ingrid Jensen, Julian Priester, The Drifters, Bud Shank, John Stowell, Darrell Grant, John Gross, Dan Balmer, Chata Addy, Rob Blakeslee, Rich Halley, Glen Moore, and many others.

Most recently, his projects have included work with Dominique Eade, Heather Masse (from The Wailin’ Jennys), Aoife O’Donovan (from Crooked Still), Pepe and The Bottle Blondes, Paxselin Quartet, and several other groups. Ken also regularly performs in collaboration with painters, poets, dancers, and cinematographers. His compositions are featured in the repertoire of the Paxselin Quartet, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, PDX Ensemble, The Chamber of Commerce, and in his own groups. (www.kenollis.com)

The Creative Music Guild is a Portland, Oregon all-volunteer, non-profit organization whose mission is to promote experimental, improvised music by presenting concerts, workshops and other events that bring together internationally recognized musicians with local performers, audiences and music students of all ages. For over twenty years, the CMG has been a leader in cultivating Portland’s experimental and improvised music.

Confluence, our visiting artist series, is where the CMG started back in 1991 with bringing the best improvisers in the world to Portland. We present 6-8 concerts a year by artists from all over the world at venues around Portland. Our programming committee carefully curates this series taking into account diversity (both musical diversity as well as gender & ethnic diversity), quality and recognition (extremely high quality of craft is a given and some degree of critical and/or community recognition within the creative improvisation scene is crucial) and the ability of the musicians to come to Portland without our help (we generally don’t get involved in concerts that would happen without us).

Joëlle Léandre (photo courtesy of Joëlle Léandre)