The Creative Music Guild “Outset Series” and Music Portland Music Month co-present a monthly residency from CMG Artistic Director/guitarist Mike Gamble at Blue Butler Studios in SE. The series will be held every Saturday and feature a trio of improvised music each accompanied with a solo set from a different special guest each week. This event was also made possible via the support of RACC. A portion of every ticket purchased for Portland Music Month shows goes straight to the Echo Fund to support creative project grants for independent musicians.

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 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, Esperanza Spalding, 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 4-7 times a week. He currently holds a position as a Contemporary Music Industry instructor at Oregon State University, and a guitar teacher at both Willamette University and Reed College and is the Artistic Director of Portland’s long standing experimental music organization, The Creative Music Guild.

https://mikegamble.bandcamp.com/

Todd Sickafoose

s a Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader and double bassist. He has performed on hundreds of recordings, toured internationally, appeared at music venues and festivals from Carnegie Hall to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and played on national television and radio programs including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with Conan O’Brien, The Artists Den, and NPR’s Mountain Stage. 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 nearly two decades – together they have made 7 albums, two concert DVDs, and performed over 1000 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 2019 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Recording. Hadestown continues to run both on Broadway and a North American Tour, and will open on London’s West End in early 2024.

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 and JazzTimes. Writing for Tiny Resistors, he recently composed Bear Proof, a long-form chamber jazz hybrid commissioned by the Doris Duke Foundation.

https://www.toddsickafoose.com/

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 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.

https://www.machadomijiga.com/

Paris Butler is an improvisational pianist who basks in territory of uncertainty, digging harmonic holes and finding ways to navigate towards spontaneous composition with some semblance of form.