KRIS TINER QUINTET

Kris Tiner – trumpet and compositions
Motoko Honda – keyboards and electronics
Chris Schlarb – electric guitar
Steuart Liebig – contrabassguitar
Nathan Hubbard – drums and percussion

“As a composer and trumpeter, Kris Tiner has stored up a lotta respect over the last decade on the avant circuit,
so when he puts together a quintet, he can tap the best, which is what he’s got here…”
–Greg Burk, MetalJazz.com

The Kris Tiner Quintet is a newly formed electro-acoustic ensemble that gathers some of Southern California’s finest improvisers to perform the music of trumpeter-composer Kris Tiner. The group features the brilliant keyboardist and sound artist Motoko Honda, a native of Sendai, Japan who is deeply involved in the Southern California improvised music scene. On electric guitar is Chris Schlarb of Long Beach, whose recent work on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label has been widely hailed as some of the most innovative new jazz to come along in decades. LA avant-jazz stalwart and former Les McCann and Julius Hemphill sideman Steuart Liebig plays contrabassguitar and electronics, and on drums and percussion is the iconoclastic San Diego-based improviser-composer-instrument builder Nathan Hubbard.

Incorporating ideas from various fields of psychological and transpersonal inquiry, Tiner’s compositions explore connections between improvisational world music traditions and systemic compositional practices, blending deep jazz roots with references to many diverse streams of contemporary and experimental music. Tiner’s music has been performed on five continents, his 40+ CD recordings have been enthusiastically received 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, and the John F. Kennedy Center.

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Kris Tiner is a California-based trumpet player, composer, and improviser. Featured on NPR Music as one of five new trumpet voices impacting modern music, Tiner has been described as “extraordinarily inventive” (Signal to Noise), and LA Weekly jazz critic Greg Burk claims, “Trumpeter Kris Tiner can turn barbed wire to beauty.” He has performed at concert venues and festivals throughout North America and in Europe and West Africa, and appears on over 40 recordings. His own projects have been released on the Clean Feed, pfMENTUM, Nine Winds, and Evander Music labels. As a composer-improviser, Kris has received awards from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, Chamber Music America, the International Association for Jazz Education, and the John F. Kennedy Center. In addition to numerous interdisciplinary collaborations involving dance, poetry and spoken word, visual art, film, and animation he has recorded music for radio, television, and motion picture scores and his trumpet playing has been heard on MTV, NBC, and Comedy Central. His primary musical projects include the Empty Cage Quartet – a collaborative new jazz ensemble that has been hailed as “one of the most powerful and appealing jazz units currently active” (All About Jazz), and Tin/Bag – a duo with Brooklyn guitarist Mike Baggetta that explores “abstract yet jazz-derived realms of expansive lyricism and liquid melody” (Time Out New York). Kris is a regular member of the Industrial Jazz Group and a founding member of the Los Angeles Trumpet Quartet. Among the many notable musicians he has performed and/or recorded with are Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Donald Robinson, Gerry Hemingway, Nels Cline, Mary Oliver, Ken Filiano, Kraig Grady, Tatsuya Nakatani, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jeff Kaiser, Anne LeBaron, G.E. Stinson, Steuart Liebig, Alicia Mangan, Hans W. Koch, Pete Christlieb, Motoko Honda, Michael Vlatkovich, Joe LaBarbera, Harris Eisenstadt, Lukas Ligeti, Aurelien Besnard, Sara Schoenbeck, Phillip Greenlief and Brad Dutz. He has been a featured performer at the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) in New York City, Clean Feed Festival (New York), Aperitivo in Concerto (Milan), Le Mandala (Toulouse), Is That Jazz? Festival (Seattle), Trummerflora Spring Reverb Festival (San Diego), The Outpost Creative Soundspace Festival (Albuquerque), and at annual conferences of the International Association for Jazz Education and the International Society for Improvised Music. Kris holds an MFA in African-American Improvisational Music from California Institute of the Arts and a BA in Music from California State University, Bakersfield. He has lectured on both music and visual art, and currently teaches courses in jazz and American popular music at Bakersfield College. He is also an adjunct faculty member and current Interim Director of Small Jazz Ensembles at California State University, Bakersfield.

Pianist/composer/sound artist Motoko Honda marries classical, jazz, avant-garde and Pacific-Rim textures with 21st-century technology and emerges with musical soundscapes as profound as they are all-encompassing. Whether solo or in collaboration, live or in-studio, a Honda “comprovisation” is sound- and shape-shifting at its most thrilling and immediate. A native of Sendai, Japan, Honda was a child prodigy who began transcribing musical scores by ear at age four and writing pop and folk arrangements for her school ensembles at nine. After receiving numerous music awards in her home country, including the prestigious JPTA national competition, Honda emigrated to the U.S. in 1995, where she earned degrees from Bethany College and the California Institute of the Arts. Honda’s musical virtuosity, coupled with a firm grasp of the multimedia arts, has taken her to European concert halls as well as festivals, jazz clubs and underground music venues in the United States and Japan. Honda has performed and recorded with renowned musicians such as Wadada Leo Smith, Jeff Gauthier, Maggie Parkins, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Emily Hay, Joe Berardi, Mark Dresser, Mike Watt, visual Artsit Carole Kim, dancer “Oguri”, and musician/sound designer Jesse Gilbert. Performance venues include Ford  Amphitheater in Los Angeles, MOCA/REDCAT/Disney Hall, Barnsdall Art Gallery Theater, Angel City Jazz Festival, Asian American Creative Music Festival, Boise Improvised Creative Music Festival, Spark Electronic Music Festival, Outsound Summit, Music of Kalheinz Stockhausen Festival, Park City Music Festival, Ear Jam Music Festival, Hugely Tiny Music Festival, Cattedorale di Sinenna, Accademina Dei Rozzi, Sala Degli Specchi, San Quirico Estate Festival, Cortile Del Podesta, and Cattedorale die Pienza.

Chris Schlarb is a guitarist, composer and producer based in Long Beach, California. His debut album, Twilight & Ghost Stories, released by Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty Records, was critically hailed as “a monumental achievement” by FFWD Weekly. His follow up album, Interoceans, with experimental jazz duo I Heart Lung, was chosen by National Public Radio as one of the Top 5 Jazz albums of the year in 2008. His newest release, Psychic Temple, features a 29-member ensemble including Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, pianist Mick Rossi of the Philip Glass Ensemble and pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley of the Brian Blade Fellowship. Time Out New York said the album, “blurs the line between avant-garde jazz and chamber music,” while Chris Barton of the L.A. Times remarked that the music is, “reminiscent of the epic scope of some ’70s jazz.”

Contrabassguitarist/composer Steuart Liebig has had a varied career in music. At the age of 19 he started a three-year stint playing rhythm guitar with soul-jazz pianist-singer Les McCann (playing on four albums). He quit Les’ band and returned to university, where he studied classical contrabass, music history and composition. Realizing that the life of a symphony bassist was not for him, he started a rock band (BLOC). During this period, Steuart also played and recorded with noted saxophonist/composer Julius Hemphill and members of the Los Angeles improvised music community. Concurrently, he did much self-study and writing in “classical” composition, resulting in 20 pieces, ranging from chamber music to symphonies. After BLOC, Steuart focused his energies on improvised music and composition, embarking on three more or less parallel lines of compositional investigation: 1) Improvising chamber groups: Quartetto Stig, Kammerstig, Stigtette and Minim; 2) Groups that revisit American blues and country music through the prism of “avant-garde” jazz: The Mentones and The Tee-Tot Quartet; 3) Jazz jazz-based groups: The Seconda Prattica Quintet, the Meninas Quartet (two versions) and various trios. Steuart has also written music for solo contrabassguitar; written for large-scale groups incorporating electronics and acoustic instruments; and written and performed music incorporating computer music technology. He has performed and recorded with cutting-edge musicians like Nels Cline, Alex Cline, G.E. Stinson, Gregg Bendian, Michael Vatcher, Tom Varner, Mark Dresser, etc.

Percussionist/Composer/Instrument Builder Nathan Hubbard works in many different fields, but in general his work shows a decided interest in exploring the possibilities of sound and embracing the passing of time. This interest in sound can be seen in everything from his extended sound language as an improvisor to his homemade and found instruments. The different rates of passing time become relevant as both a rhythmic impetus and defining element in his compositions and their changing definitions of form, shape and outcome. Musically his explorations range from solo improvisations through small group collaborations to large scale compositions for his twenty-six member large ensemble, Skeleton Key Orchestra. As a composer his works range from solo pieces to medium scale works for a variety of ensembles, works for tape, electronics and acoustic instruments, large works for orchestras, creative orchestras and traditional big bands as well as pieces involving text, voice and other media. In the last several years Hubbard has been more involved with musical situations incorporating acoustics, environments and field recordings. His work as an artist can be seen on several of his CD covers and his work as an engineer and producer can be heard on almost all of his recordings. His current projects include solo performances, collaborations with Curtis Glatter (Glatter/Hubbard), ARC Trio, and Cosmologic, as well as leading his own quintet (Nathan Hubbard/Passengers) and the large ensemble Nathan Hubbard Skeleton Key Orchestra. In addition to all this work, Hubbard has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Roger Aplon, Martin Blume, David Borgo, Castanets, Alex Cline, Anthony Davis, Michael Dessen, Tim DuRoche, Brad Dutz, Harris Eisenstadt, Justin Grinnell, Vinny Golia, Phillip Greenlief, Rick Helzer, Bill Horist, Mike Keneally, Paul Kikuchi, Ted Killian, Steuart Liebig, George Lewis, Doug Lunn, Noah Phillips, Garth Powell, Jason Robinson, Tim Root, Scott Rosenberg, Jim Ryan, Moe! Staiano, GE Stinson, Kris Tiner, Bertram Turetzky, Phillip Wachsmann and Scott Walton.