Originally from Chicago and classically trained, Myra Melford is a composer with a singular, kinetic, and lyrical voice in piano improvisation. Chicago blues, architecture, jazz, and experimental music inspire her work. She has released over 40 recordings, including 20 as a leader or co-leader, and maintains three bands: the celebrated quintet Snowy Egret, the collective Trio M, and the duo Dialogue with clarinetist Ben Goldberg. She is a Guggenheim Fellow for “Language of Dreams,” (2013), a Doris Duke Performing Artist (2013) an Alpert Award in the Arts recipient (2012), and has been honored numerous times in Down Beat Critic’s polls. She was the Artistic Director and Co-curator for the 2015 New Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA in San Francisco, and has been a professor at UC Berkeley since 2004, teaching classes in improvisational practices and composition.
Recent projects include Snowy Egret (Enja/Yellowbird), her latest quintet recording released in spring 2015 and Life Carries Me This Way (Firehouse 12, 2013), a solo piano recording featuring original compositions based on the drawings of Don Reich. She presented a 25-year retrospective of her work at The Stone, in New York City, in March 2015.
New and upcoming recordings include a duet with Ben Goldberg (released in January 2016), a duet with Allison Miller due out in fall of 2016, a trio with Miya Masaoka and Zeena Parkins, and a trio with Nicole Mitchell and Joelle Leandre.
In March 2016, she will present Snowy Egret for a week at the Village Vanguard in New York City. In May/June 2016, she will be in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, developing “Dissonant Futures,” a piece for piano, prepared piano, electronics and video with Ian Winters.
Nana Pi Aabo-Kim is a Copenhagen-based saxophone player, composer and conductor working mainly within the experimental jazz scene. She has developed her own unique vocabulary on the saxophone using objects and extended techniques and holds a master degree at the Music Conservatory in Malmö, Sweden. Her latest release “Sentiment” (Barefoot Records) was nominated for “DMA JAZZ” 2021 in the main category “Jazz Release of the Year” and was in April 2021 selected for “The Best Jazz On Bandcamp” by Dave Sumner. In addition to playing the saxophone, she is known for conducting improvisation with her music sign language “Extemporize”, for which she received the P8 Jazz Award “Fiery Soul Of The Year” in 2020. You can hear her in bands like Nezelhorns, Tactical Maybe, Extemporize Orchestra, Hey Nana I’m Halym, Platons Prank, Skärmtid and Coriolis.
Rodney Waschka II (composer, performer, filmmaker, poet, visual artist) is perhaps best known for his music made with compositional algorithms and his theatrical pieces including three unusual one-act operas. Internationally recognized for his work in computer music, Waschka also performs as a narrator / vocalist / actor — often with electronic music. His works are regularly presented across the world and recorded by labels in the USA, England, Portugal, Canada, Poland, and Australia. Waschka welcomes commissions and other opportunities.
Sergio
