Spring/Summer Update

Lots of interesting creative projects over the last few months, in addition to a busy teaching semester in Bakersfield and filling in for John Fumo as the Jazz Trumpet instructor at CalArts – which was a whole lot of fun.

In February I had the pleasure of bringing my former teacher and mentor Wadada Leo Smith to Bakersfield College for a public lecture and concert, which is something I’ve wanted to do for many years. It was wonderful to see him interact with the students and the public here, and his solo performance of his own music and reinterpretations of music by Thelonious Monk was beyond great.

Other recent highlights include a couple of Blue Whale gigs with Cathlene Pineda’s quartet and the LA-based new jazz ensemble Slumgum; Vidya Trio in San Francisco at the Center for New Music; three performances in two days with Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond; and a duo performance with pianist Motoko Honda at Montalvo Arts Center as part of their 75th anniversary Rock the Garden celebration.

Some Recent Highlights

It was a busy few months leading up to the end of the year. The Empty Cage Quartet got together in October after a two-year hiatus for a live recording and several concerts culminating in a fantastic night at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles. In September I had the pleasure of performing at REDCAT with pianist Cathlene Pineda, who put together an impossibly beautiful suite of new compositions based on the poetry of Eloise Klein Healy for the Angel City Jazz Festival. Other recent concerts included collaborations with Thollem McDonas, Charles Sharp, Jeff Schwartz, Vijay Anderson, Chris Schlarb, Tabor Allen, Phillip Greenlief, Motoko Honda, Beth Schenck, G.E. Stinson, Alex Cline, Steuart Liebig, Kio Griffith, and the Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet.

Reaching back further into 2014, there were musical encounters with Jack Wright, Ben Wright, Tatsuya Nakatani, Michael Vlatkovich, Anna Homler, Kyle Burnham, John Fumo, Jeff Kaiser, Daniel Rosenboom, Ted Byrnes, Brian Walsh, John Lindberg, Gilbert Isbin, Scott Walton, Wadada Leo Smith, and quite a few others.

I’m opening this new year with a deep and profound feeling of gratitude for the wonderful and endlessly inspiring friends I’m fortunate to cross musical paths with so often, each one pursuing a life uniquely centered on beauty and creativity, bringing life-affirming music with them wherever they go.

Upcoming in Bako

cathlene pineda quartet 

Cathlene Pineda Quartet

Monday, September 22, 7:30pm
Bakersfield College, SPArC-2, free

LA pianist Cathlene Pineda offers an exclusive preview of a new extended work commissioned for a performance at REDCAT Theater by the Angel City Jazz Festival. With Kris Tiner (trumpet), Dave Tranchina (bass) and Paul Kikuchi (drums). Bakersfield College students Omar Murillo (trombone) and Amanda McCaslin (guitar) will play an opening set featuring standards and original compositions. This concert will take place in the band room (SPArC-2) at the new Simonsen Performing Arts Center at Bakersfield College.

 



 empty cage quartet 

Empty Cage Quartet

Sunday, October 12, 7pm
Metro Galleries, 1604 19th St, $5

Heralded as one of the most powerful and original new jazz groups to emerge from the American West Coast, the Empty Cage Quartet breaks a two-year hiatus with a concert of brand new music to be featured here and the following night at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles. With saxophonist Jason Mears (NYC), trumpeter Kris Tiner (Bakersfield), bassist Ivan Johnson (LA), and drummer Paul Kikuchi (Seattle). Presented by Epigraph Records.

“The Empty Cage Quartet… is a thoroughly modern and multifaceted 
jazz ensemble that stakes out a singular voice.”
-NPR Music

“Smart, kicking and as natural as a heartbeat… an unaffected, personalized amalgam of the most significant creative (as opposed to political) developments in jazz from the past several years.”
–JazzTimes

 



 skeleton wire 

Skeleton Wire + IAHRQ

Sunday, October 26, 8pm
Metro Galleries, 1604 19th St, $5

Skeleton Wire is bay area saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, LA guitarist G.E. Stinson (formerly with Shadowfax), and LA bassist Steuart Liebig (formerly with Les McCann and Julius Hemphill). Their music is a mixture of free improvisation, industrial-strength electronic beats, and ambient textures. Local group the Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet will also perform. Presented by Epigraph Records.

 

Upcoming: Tiner/Honda/Schenck

trioFBbanner

June 29 – Berkeley Arts Festival | Berkeley, CA | 8pm | fb

June 30 – Nebraska Mondays @ Luna’s | Sacramento, CA | 7:30pm | fb

July 29 – Oakwood School Guest Artist Series | North Hollywood, CA | 3pm

August 17 – Blue Whale | Los Angeles, CA | 9pm

Date TBA – Dagny’s | Bakersfield, CA

The trio of pianist Motoko Honda, saxophonist Beth Schenck, and trumpeter Kris Tiner performs original compositions and improvisations that explore subtle sonic textures, deeply nuanced lyricism, and a unique take on the idea of “chamber jazz.” Frequent collaborators over the past decade, these three musicians have established wide ranging associations in the jazz and improvised music communities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

http://www.kristiner.com
http://www.bethschenck.com
http://www.motokohonda.com

Kris Tiner is a California-based trumpet player, composer, and improviser. His playing has been described as “extraordinarily inventive” in Signal to Noise Magazine, and the LA Weekly claims “Trumpeter Kris Tiner can turn barbed wire to beauty.” His music has been performed on five continents, his 50+ recordings have been enthusiastically reviewed in the international jazz press, and he has been recognized with awards from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, Chamber Music America, the International Association for Jazz Education, Montalvo Arts Center, and the Kennedy Center. He is a member of the acclaimed Empty Cage Quartet, and he collaborates with New York guitarist Mike Baggetta in the duo Tin/Bag. Tiner performs with the Industrial Jazz Group, Chris Schlarb’s Psychic Temple, the Los Angeles Trumpet Quartet and the Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet, and has collaborated with Wadada Leo Smith, Vinny Golia, Kraig Grady, Tatsuya Nakatani, Donald Robinson, Nels Cline, Lukas Ligeti, Phillip Greenlief, and Cathlene Pineda. He directs the Jazz Program at Bakersfield College, and is the Trumpet Studio Instructor at CSU, Bakersfield. He is the founder of Epigraph Records, an independent label dedicated to the documentation of new creative music recorded live in Bakersfield.

Beth Schenck is a SF based saxophonist, composer and educator who has worked throughout the United States and abroad. A recent NYC transplant, Beth has performed frequently in the New York downtown scene as a leader and a sidewoman. She has been featured in Andrew D’Angelo’s Big Band and Saxophone Quartet, Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble, and Andrew Durkin’s “Industrial Jazz Group.” She has also had the opportunity to perform with Greg Osby, Henry Threadgill, Ben Street, Jim Black, Larry Koonse, Gerald Cleaver, Becca Stevens, Trevor Dunn, Cory Smythe and many others. As a composer, Beth has been commissioned to write for Saint Ignatius Loyola School in New York City, Oakwood High School in Los Angeles, the Sunset Jazz Festival in Nagasaki, Japan, and the Women’s Work Festival in New York City. In 2010, Beth released her debut record, “What Shock Heard,” which has been described by critics as “frank and beautiful”, with “solos full of artful logic”. It features Bill McHenry, Matt Wrobel, Eivind Opsivk and Jeff Davis.

Motoko Honda is a concert pianist, composer, and sound artist who has created a distinctive sound through her holistic approach to music, and her exceptional sensitivity in relating to other art forms and technologies. Employing a “virtuoso technique paired with her intensely imaginative mind” (Susan Dirende, L.A. Splash Magazine), and with stylistic influences ranging from jazz to Indonesian music to contemporary prepared piano with electronics, Motoko’s compositions and structured improvisations are intended to affect the skin, organs and minds of the listener rather than simple recitations of rhythmic and harmonic themes. Called both a “keyboard alchemist” (Chris Barton, L.A. Times), and the “embodiment of a muse” (Greg Burk, Metaljazz), Motoko’s performances transport audiences on sonic adventures that transcend the boundaries and conventions of contemporary music.

For Instance

For Instance
 

 

Jack Wright – alto and soprano saxophones
Ben Wright – double bass
Kris Tiner – trumpet


Known for decades as the “Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation,” saxophonist Jack Wright has forged a singular path, touring throughout the US and Europe in search of interesting partners and playing situations. Jack’s son Ben Wright came up in the Philadelphia punk scene but has spent the last 25 odd years exploring the double bass, and now lives in Taos, New Mexico. The father-son duo performs regularly, and their West Coast tour in early 2014 brought them to Bakersfield for an unforgettable performance at Dagny’s, with Epigraph Records founder Kris Tiner sitting in on trumpet.

This session was recorded the next morning. The music is completely improvised and presented as it was created, in four sections, without alterations and with very minimal editing. As such, we witness a fascinating musical dialogue being established, with moments of mutual agreement rising from nowhere and dissolving just as quickly into further debate, reaching nearly symphonic scope, three sonic explorers engaging the shared moment, sparring a bit, open to any possibility yet leaving much to the imagination, for instance…

For Instance is the third release on Bakersfield-based Epigraph Records, and it is the first in a series of digital albums we will be releasing this year. We have some amazing recordings in the works, featuring new and improvised music from Bakersfield locals and stellar visiting artists from around the world.

I’m glad to be able to share this recording. Ben is an old friend, and we’ve played together a number of times, but I had never played with Jack Wright before that night at Dagny’s. He is a legend of free music, now in his 70s, and his improvisations are as strong and profoundly beautiful as ever. We all enjoyed the trio so much that we reconvened the next morning at the house where they were staying. Ben set up a few mics and we were off. The whole thing was finished in under an hour, and then they were on the road.

For Instance is available now exclusively on our Bandcamp page. Download the full four-track album in the format of your choice for $5.99, and if you enter the discount code “june” at checkout you’ll get 15% off, good this month only.


Jack Wright - Ben Wright - Kris Tiner, Dagny’s, 1/25/14, photo by Andrew Koeth

Jack Wright – Ben Wright – Kris Tiner, Dagny’s, 1/25/14, photo by Andrew Koeth


Sun Ra Centennial @ BJW

sunra2


SUN RA CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

Wednesday, May 21, 7:30pm

BAKERSFIELD JAZZ WORKSHOP at Le Corusse Rouge
4647 White Lane, Bakersfield, CA
free admission, donations encouraged

Featuring James Russell (alto sax), John Calo (tenor sax), Brian Walsh (bass clarinet + bari sax),
Omar Murillo (trombone), Tyler Starr (trombone + tuba), Kris Tiner (trumpet), Steve Eisen (trumpet), Jorge Santos (trumpet),
Jordan Aguirre (keyboards), Doug Davis (piano), Steuart Liebig (electric bass), Adam Zanoff (acoustic bass), Andrew Morgan (drums), and Ted Byrnes (percussion)

* * *

Don’t miss this special performance at the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop celebrating the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Sun Ra, featuring two hours of interplanetary music ranging from his very first recording session in 1956 to the postmodern Arkestra of the 1980s. The 14-piece orchestra will be led by local trumpeter and Bakersfield College Jazz Program director Kris Tiner, and will include current and former members of the BC Jazz Ensemble along with notable local musicians and special guests from Los Angeles. Multi-woodwind virtuoso Brian Walsh, who recently performed at Carnegie Hall with the contemporary music ensemble Gnarwhallaby, will be featured on baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. Master electric bassist Steuart Liebig, who has worked with everyone from Les McCann to Nels Cline, will complete the rhythm section along with the phenomenal percussionist Ted Byrnes, an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music who collaborates with improvising artists from around the world.

* * *

The composer-pianist-bandleader Herman “Sonny” Blount, widely known as Sun Ra (1914-1993), was recognized for his pioneering musical experimentation, outer-space philosophy (he claimed to be from the planet Saturn), outrageous costumes and the earliest incorporation of electronic instruments in jazz. His music both encapsulated and transformed the popular and art music of the twentieth century, from swing-era big band roots through bebop, avant-garde jazz, and on into funk and disco. Artists ranging from John Coltrane to MC5 to George Clinton all professed a deep connection with Ra’s music.

At CalArts

Daniel Rosenboom, Wadada Leo Smith, Edward Carroll, Kris Tiner at CalArts, 5/6/2014

Daniel Rosenboom, Wadada Leo Smith, Edward Carroll, Kris Tiner at CalArts, 5/6/2014

Spent the day yesterday at my alma mater California Institute of the Arts, presenting my music (along with friend and colleague Daniel Rosenboom) in Wadada Leo Smith‘s class. Dan and I both studied with Wadada from very early on. I first connected with him as an undergrad, and was in his MFA program at CalArts from 2001-2003. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of his teaching on all the work I’ve done since. Quite an honor for both of us to be invited to share our recent work on his final visiting artist program — Leo is retiring from teaching this year after 20 years at CalArts.

Also present was CalArts trumpet prof Edward Carroll, another teacher that Dan and I share. What a fantastic, sweet time reconnecting with Leo and Ed, both of them heroes for us and a whole generation of trumpet players and creative musicians.