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Thursday Evening ($30/40)
7 pm | EARTH WIND & CHOIR
Sarah Good conductress
Annie Shaw piano
Vocalists:
Tee Caterini • Bailey Duff • Babette de Jong • Olga Kirgidis • J Burbage • Katie Penrose • Jess Carey • Rebecca Duyzer • Christeen Urquhart • Emily Sattler • Ian Challenger • Jon Dalton • Kieran Commanda • Lee Skinner • Hope Wickett • Ania Fritch • Mimi Vukasevic • Amy Gowling
We will start our festival with a tradition The ever-evolving local vocal institution Earth Wind & Choir first introduced their fun, adventurous sound some 15 years ago. Conductress Sarah Good plays the choir of 15-20 dedicated creative vocalists like an instrument, presenting idiosyncratic takes on the most beautiful, ugly and/or interesting music the group can find—from early polyphony to avant-pop.
8 pm | UGLY BEAUTIES
Ugly Beauties explores the terrain between jazz, contemporary classical music and improvisation. Marilyn Lerner’s piano, Matt Brubeck’s cello and Nick Fraser’s drums interweave to create a boundless palette of texture and mood, and the breadth of sonic experimentation at times renders the three instruments indistinguishable from each other.
9 pm | GAYLE YOUNG
Gayle Young designs and builds instruments on which she performs music for unusual tunings. Her music often includes recordings filtered by tuned resonators she designed and built to combine pitch and overtones with environmental sound. Her text-based compositions invite musicians to build rhythms and textures in response to depictions of everyday experience.
Her recent recordings As Trees Grow (works for piano) and According to the Moon (works for voice), are both available through gayleyoung.bandcamp.com. Young’s sound installations, often in collaboration with visual artist Reinhard Reitzenstein, include tuned resonators that respond to environmental sound, found objects such as resonant stones and beaver-chewed sticks, and room-sized three-dimensional string structures. Young wrote The Sackbut Blues, the biography of pioneering electronic instrument inventor Hugh Le Caine (1914–1977). As editor of Musicworks magazine over two decades, she established an inclusive perspective on the complex and multifaceted sound worlds that characterize experimental music.
Gayle will perform two short pieces on the Amaranth and solo improvisations. One of them will include lithophone stones. She will also play improvisations that include Eugene Martynec, Bill McBirnie and Bill Gilliam in different configurations. Her improvisations place interaction among musicians in the foreground of a listener’s experience, when sounds and textures are echoed, shared, and extended.
10 pm | SOPHIA JERNBERG & MATS GUSTAFSSON
2/5 of The End (playing next day!) grace our stage for the first time. Vocalist Sofia Jernberg and reedsman, flutist Mats Gustafsson perform an all too rare duet set! It's an exciting opportunity to experience the dialogue between two intense and gifted artists, in an unusual context and instrument combination.
Born in Ethiopia, now an Oslo resident, Sofia Jernberg is a Swedish experimental singer, improviser, and composer. She is widely known for expanding the "instrumental" possibilities of the voice and is active both as soloist and in various bands. Her musical partners include internationally acclaimed performers such as Peter Evans, Eve Risser, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kim Myhr and Heiner Goebbels.
Jernberg is the leader (together with the pianist Cecilia Persson) of the chamber jazz group Paavo. In 2008, the group received the "jazz group of the year" award from Swedish Radio. Jernberg also works on the contemporary classical music scene, in which she serves as both singer and composer.
Although having been adopted as a young child, Jernberg was never completely disconnected from Ethiopia. After traveling to Addis Abeba in 2000, she emerged into Ethiopian music traditions—inspired by the film Endurance, among other influences—, and soon started collaborating with legendary musician Hailu Mergia. Jernberg lives in Oslo.
Born in Umeå, Sweden, living in Nickelsdorf, Austria, Mats Gustafsson is a saxophone player, improviser and composer. He performs as a solo artist, as well as many other projects internationally touring/ playing with Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Peter Brötzmann, Neneh Cherry, Chrstian Marclay, Albert Oehlen, Ken Vandermark and in working groups FIRE!, THE END, LUFT, ANGUISH and Gush.
Projects include The Underflow, Boots Brown, Swedish Azz and Fake (the facts), BNNT, etc…. Large ensemble work ranges from FIRE! Orchestra, Klangforum Wien to the NU – ensemble. In all, over 2000 concerts and over 250 record productions in Europe, Australia, Africa, North & South America and Asia. Multidisciplinary collaborations with contemporary dance, theatre, art, poetry as well as projects with noise, electronica, contemporary rock and free jazz make Gustafsson a music and art omnivore.
$30 advance tickets (for 4 acts) via Eventbrite
$40 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Friday Evening ($30/40)
8 pm | BEINGFIVE
Yorgos Dimitriadis percussion, electronics
Axel Dörner trumpet, electronics
Lori Freedman clarinet, bass clarinet
Andrea Parkins accordion, amplified objects, electronics
Christopher Williams double bass
Together since June 2022, a truly Berlin-based ensemble, BeingFive is made up of musicians hailing from everywhere but Berlin. With the vast capabilities of sound production from each of its members the group can sound like it is anywhere from 1 musician to 5, to 50 musicians. The overall vocabulary of BeingFive is stupefying but what they have to “say” with this palette, unmistakably their own, will open the listener’s mind - including body and that thing called spirit - to a wondrous wilderness.
9 pm | AMRITA
Soprano saxophonist Kayla Milmine and tabla player Anita Katakkar’s Amrita is like a canvas where shapes are formed by rhythmic grooves, the colour is spontaneous improvisation and the texture is an exploration of tone, timber and emotion.
10 pm | THE END
Sofia Jernberg voice
Kjetil Møster sax, clarinet, electronics
Mats Gustafsson sax, flute, live electronics
Ander Hana guitar, bass, langeleik
Børge Fjordheim drums
A brand new Scandinavian powerhouse of experimental music was born in 2018. Collectively, the members of the group have worked in a huge variety of creative music ensembles over the past years: Cloroform, Møster, The Thing, Fire! & Fire! Orchestra, Ultralyd, MoHa, Sonic Youth, Refused, Paavo, Datarock, The Core, Noxact, NU- ensemble, Brutal Blues and many other essential groups within the contemporary creative music scene of today.
The End is a serious attempt to create new perspectives of contemporary experimental music – where elements of noise, melodies and layers of extreme energy can interact with the different backgrounds and experiences of the musicians and their work in genres as Free Jazz, Noise, Alternative Rock, Free Improvised Music, Contemporary Music, Opera, Scandinavian Folk & N. African folk traditions, Grindcore, Jazz and related activities!
$30 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$40 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Saturday Noon (Free)
12 Noon | SAKINA ABDOU & DAVID REMPIS
While Lille saxophonist Sakina Abdou and Chicago free-jazz reedsman Dave Rempis have performed with Peter Orrins’ post-rock/ jazzcore band Toc, but Hamilton audiences get to hear them as a duo for the first time.
Sakina Abdou photo by HG
Dave Rempis photo by Peter Gannushkin
1 pm | ALINE’S ÉTOILE MAGIQUE
Montreal-born Toronto violinist Aline Homzy's étoile magique is a collective that paints the sonic canvas with celestial strokes, captivating audiences with their unique artistry in the contemporary jazz scene …with Michael Davidson on vibraphone, Dan Fortin on double bass, Thom Gill on electric guitar and Marito Marques on drums.
2 pm | CAROLINE DAVIS & WENDY EISENBERG
New Yorkers, saxophonist Caroline Davis and guitarist Wendy Eisenberg have history together. “A nucleus is supposed to be an especially essential form in eukaryotic cells. Their nuclei are surrounded by a membrane, which in that world permits them to be said to have “true nuclei.” Even their smallest parts, their organelles (incidentally also the name of Caroline’s keyboard heard throughout the record), are held by that membrane. The deepening of our musical friendship, the affordance of space we give to the possibility of synchronicity, the reminders we write of the preciousness of our existence - all of this we put into these songs for you, to help us all accept these miracles and metaphors, in our lifeboats”.
FREE EVENT
Donations appreciated, not mandatory
Saturday Afternoon ($25/30)
4 pm | TASHI DORJI
Ashville, North Carolina-based Bhutanese ex-pat, improvising guitarist Tashi Dorji is known for his avant-garde and experimental approach to music. Tashi’s idiosyncratic take on the instrument, one defined by movement and profound openness to technique, adds up to a post-colonial disembowelment of guitar traditions.
Dorji come to Asheville, NC to study in 2000 and discovered worlds of anarcho-punk and avant garde such as he’d only dreamed. Having made recordings of his newly-located improvisational conception, he intuited a desire to go deeper in his explorations of the recorded sound of the guitar, melding and colliding traditional music with his feeling for the range of textures within.
Tashi has released music both as a soloist and as a collaborator, notably with Mette Rasmussen, Aaron Turner (Sumac, Mamiffer), Che Chen (75 Dollar Bill), Aki Onda, Michael Zerang, John Deiterich (Deerhoof), C Spencer Yeh, Dave Rempis, Tyler Damon, Patrick Shiroishi, KUZU ( w/ Rempis & Damon), MANAS (w/ Thom Nguyen) on labels like Moone Records, Gilgonko Records, Bathetic Records, Trost, Cabin Floor Esoterica, Blue Tapes, Marmara Records, Feeding Tubes, UNROCK, VDSQ, MIE, Ultra Violet Light, Aerophonic Records, Medium Sound, Family Vineyard, Astral Spirits and Drag City.
5 pm | CLUTTERTONES
$25 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$30 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Lina Allemano trumpet
Rob Clutton bass, composition
Ryan Driver human voice, analogue synth, piano
Tim Posgate banjo, guitar
Bassist Rob Clutton’s chamber jazz quartet that exquisitely synthesizes his diverse interests – song, long-form composition, lyricism, extended improvisation, extreme textures, and more – through his seasoned bandmates. Cluttertones music reveals itself slowly, making countless subtle, mysterious insinuations in place of bold declarations. Disarmingly gorgeous melodies emerge from the fog of thorny group playing, often evoking the simplicity of folk music.
The group has been playing together for over a decade, and each of the members have long associations with the others in various projects. This music plays at the edges between known/unknown, concrete/abstract, solo/group, expression/process. Drawing from a broad range of experience—which includes jazz, European classical music, electronica, improvisation, folk, singer-songwriter, experimental—the Cluttertones play what some have called “otherworldly chamber music.”
6 pm | EMMELUTH’S AMOEBA
Blazing Danish/ Norwegian quartet plays intense, creative music that navigates through free jazz to chamber music with such fierce energy and passion, that it is hard to feel unmoved.
"This working quartet reaches new heights and deeper depths by experimenting, searching and taking risks... Signe Emmeluth proves herself, again, as one of the most original and fresh voices in the Nordic scene. Provocative, mind blowing and emotionally engaging."
Salt Peanuts – Eyal Hareuveni
Pianist Christian Balvig has made a mark both as a musician leading his own group and playing with the colossal danish supergroup Efterklang as well as composing music for large orchestras such as Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Guitarist Karl Bjorå is a strong voice on the scene of improvised music and has recorded and toured extensively with his own groups Megalodon Collective, Yes Deer and Aperture for years all around Europe, USA and Asia.
Drummer Ole Mofjell is a force of nature. Playing with ECM recording legends Jon Balke and Norwegian Powerhouse guitarist Hedvig Mollestad
Band leader, composer, saxophonist Signe Emmeluth has made a strong imprint on the scene in recent years, playing and collaborating with Mats Gustafsson, Kresten Osgood and Paal Nilssen-Love among others, as part of Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra and in different versions of Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. With a sharp and unique tone, her playing is easily recognized. Melodies with rapidly changing octaves and a shift between the naive and playful to brutal primal screams are some of what makes up Signe Emmeluth’s vocabulary.
Saturday Evening ($30/40)
8 pm | SAKINA ABDOU
Lille-based saxophonist and flutist Sakina Abdou has been active for many years within explosive collectives such as Muzzix, but it's as a solo artist that her strong, multi-faceted identity shines through: a powerful, precise sound, sometimes fierce, sometimes full of grace and quietude.
Abdou studied the flute (early and contemporary music) and the saxophone (classical/contemporary/jazz) at the Music Academy of Lille and Roubaix. She graduated from the Fine Arts School of Tourcoing and Valenciennes (DNAP, DNSEP) and also has a State Diploma of Music Teacher. Since 1998, she has been a member of various music bands in Lille's area. Concurrently with her studies, she has explored free improvisation, experimental and contemporary music within various entities: La Pieuvre orchestra, led by Olivier Benoit, part of the collective of musicians Muzzix, the band Vazytouille, part of the collective of musicians Zoone Libre, Le Miroir et le Marteau led by rock drummer Guigou Chenevier, the free rock quintet Eliogabal or the TOC & The Compulsive Brass Band.
"It's a music of paradoxes: at once airy, with its sudden bifurcations and devilishly earthy, planted in the raucousness of the reeds."
– Franpi Barriaux
9 pm | DOUG TIELLI’S IMAGINARY BRASS BAND
A long-time contributor to the range of experimental music in Toronto affiliated with the Rat-drifting record label, multi-instrumentalist Doug Tielli has been a key member of groups like the Silt, the Reveries, and Drumheller. Now based in Neustadt, Ontario, he has been more engaged in community music initiatives, activities that have inspired his Imaginary Brass Band project, a set of joyful, not-so-imaginary (but certainly imaginative!) tunes for an ensemble of brass and rhythm featuring Tielli, Heather Saumer, Emily Ferrell (trombones), Colin Couch (tuba), Charles Spearin (trumpet), Tania Gill (piano), and Aidan McConnell (drums).
Creating a quilt, or a pillow, not yet knowing who it’s for. A glove - that fits any hand … but just one at a time … a glove for a weather not yet known. In the fertile void of 2020-2022 The Imaginary Brass Band coalesced based on compositions for an ensemble that could not yet exist.
Writing and recording this music for an imagined group of musicians provided a source of energy, and a sense of vitality and possibility. When playing in larger groups became easier again, a real-life ensemble of instrumentalists came together to bring the imaginary to life. Friendly and strange, innocent and complex, this music rearranges the organic-familiar and celebrates the unusual.
Photo by Zena Curwain
10 pm | DAVID REMPIS & TASHI DORJI
North Carolina-based Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji and Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis first came together as a duo on the extensive solo tour that Rempis undertook across the US in 2017. Performing together in Dorji’s hometown of Asheville, the two spurred one another on with back-to-back solo sets that ratcheted up the fire, before coming together in a shared union of volcanic proportions. That initial meeting quickly led to the formation of the trio Kuzu with drummer Tyler Damon, which has toured extensively, and released five outstanding records since 2018. Over the past couple of years, the two have also decided to revisit the more stripped back duo context as a way to re-discover the underlying tendons of what’s become a profound musical relationship.
Both of these musicians have the ability to come out of the gate spewing lava at anything in their path. But they also know how to temper that energy into patiently constructed arcs, where meditative inner focus within the maelstrom renders the magnificence of their long form constructions even more powerful. At times, spacious gestures carve up the canvas with the austerity of a calligrapher, while at others those sparse gestures build into an unstoppable tsunami of energy. Those waves are never impulsive or impetuous though, they ebb and flow logically and patiently out of simple and clearly defined sources. Rempis’ penchant for pentatonic melodies and rough and tumble timbres combines seamlessly with Dorji’s thick, raw sound and singular approach to intonation to produce a music that’s exquisitely detailed at any one point in time, yet can also carry the narrative arc of their longer-form explorations without ever losing its coordinates.
$30 advance tickets (for 4 acts) via Eventbrite
$40 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Sunday Noon (Free)
12 Noon | THE SHUFFLE DEMONS
Richard Underhill alto, baritone sax, vocals
Kelly Jefferson tenor sax, vocals
Matt Lagan tenor sax, vocals
Mike Downes acoustic bass, vocals
Stich Wynston drums, vocals
The Shuffle Demons first broke onto the Canadian music scene in 1984 with an electrifying musical fusion that drew in equal measure from Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. This band is genre bending, highly visual, entertaining, funny, and best of all, can really play. All their eye-catching, crowd-pleasing stunts are backed up by solid musicianship.
Collaboration with Open Streets
FREE EVENT
Donations appreciated, not mandatory
Sunday Afternoon ($25/35)
2 pm | JESSICA ACKERLEY
Previous New York resident, now Honolulu-based, Alberta-born, daring improvising guitarist Jessica Ackerley’s first visit to Something Else! will be a great thrill for us all.
" Jessica weaves a distinctive path between atonality & tonality, noise & notes, while bringing heart to a style that can often reside in the head." – Guitar Moderne
3 pm | RALPH ALESSI’S THIS AGAINST THAT
Bodacious New York City quartet is led by trumpeter, composer Ralph Alessi, with Andy Milne piano, John Hébert double bass, Mark Ferber drums, organically towing the line between jazz, pop and contemporary classical (sans Ravi Coltrane, sadly). The band has toured Europe and the United States since 2004 playing venues such as The Earshot Festival in Seattle, RedCat Theatre in Los Angeles, Bimhuis in Amsterdam and The New Morning in Paris. Recently they released their 3rd album, Imaginary Friends which the London Guardian called “Alessi’s best album yet for ECM.”
Ralph Alessi photo by Peter Gannushkin
4 pm | BEATINGS ARE IN THE BODY
Borrowing the project’s title from a work by Canadian poet Meaghan McAneeley, Montréal voicalist / electronicist Erika Angell (was at last year’s festival with Thus Owls), Vancouver composer & improviser Róisín Adams on wurlitzer / piano and Canadian treasure, veteran Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee (also very present at 2022 SE!) explore how memories, pain, and a spectrum of emotions are stored in and continue to be carried by our physical bodies.
$25 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$35 door
$65 festival weekend pass Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Saturday Evening ($25/35)
8 pm | BRIAN ABBOTT
Half of Toronto’s multi-faceted Faster duo (with Kayla Milmine), composer, guitarist, visual artist Brian Abbott’s exciting solo project, microtonal guitar excursions, preternatural and organic, performed in Hamilton for the first time.
Evolver is a partially composed, partially improvised piece for 31 tone microtonal guitar. With each performance the piece grows and changes. This was performed at Array Space in Toronto on April 14th 2019. See video ––>
9 pm | WILLIAM PARKER & ANDREW O’CONNOR’S MUSIC & THE SHADOW PEOPLE
Music and the Shadow People is a story written by William Parker, who self published it in 1995. It takes place in a world that is "for the most part ruled, dominated, and being destroyed by HE," a world built on lies, a world "not in tune with the reality of the universe." It centers around two main characters: Johnson Wordless, a conscripted soldier in HIS Army, and Stockyman, a revolutionary figure trying to show people the path to the “Tone World.”
The story was adapted into a radio play by Andrew O’Connor, premiering on Austrian public radio’s KunstRadio. That work has since been further adapted by William and Andrew into a live performance for musicians, actors, and multi-channel sound design, styled in the German tradition of Hörspiel or live radio/sound play. Featuring original music composed by Parker, and immersive multi-channel sound design by O’Connor developed at the NAISA North Media Art Centre.
In Hamilton for the first time (after 4-5 years of planning), with William Parker writer, composer, ensemble director, bass, flutes, brass • Andrew O’Connor live multi- channel sound mixing, sound design, direction, production • Bea Labikova saxes, fujara, vibraphone • Kayla Milmine soprano sax • Anita Katakkar tabla, percussion • Rosina Kazi narrator • Mike Rinaldi Johnson Wordless • Trent Pardy Stockyman • Gary Kirkham live visual projections.
10 pm | TANIA GILL QUARTET
Tania Gill's name will undoubtedly be familiar to anyone that's been keeping a close eye on Toronto's jazz and experimental scenes over the past two decades. She is a member of the Brodie West Quintet, the Titillators, Rebecca Hennessy’s Makeshift Island; a former member of the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and Deep Dark United; and has performed with a long list of other prominent musicians including Steve Reich, Anthony Braxton, Andrew Downing and The Weather Station.
Tania Gill Quartet is a primary vehicle for her writing and playing. The group launched their debut Bolger Station (Barnyard Records) in 2010 to numerous accolades including a nomination for ‘debut album of the year’ in The Village Voice jazz critics’ poll, and a spot on The Globe and Mail's top 10 discs of the year. The quartet’s most recent recording, released in March 2022, is titled Disappearing Curiosities.
Tania Gill piano • Brodie West alto saxophone • Rob Clutton bass • Nico Dann drums
“…cleverly and completely effortlessly balances between modern jazz and the more unpredictable avant-garde” – Ivan RodDK
$25 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$35 door
$65 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Music & the Shadow People – April 25, 2022, Registry Theatre, Kitchener, ON
Start around 10 minute mark… trio only, Brodie West not presents.
Saturday Afternoon ($25/35)
2 pm | HOPE CRIES FOR JUSTICE
PATRICIA NICHOLSON dance, text
WILLIAM PARKER bass, ngoni
Music and dance for a better world! Renowned New York City stalwarts of creative music and dance, bring music, words and movement to open hearts and minds to envision a compassionate world... embracing creativity to find strength and reclaim hope in a difficult time. Inspiring, much needed!
3 pm | DUN DUN BAND
Craig Dunsmuir, Kurt Newman guitars • Josh Cole electric bass • Jay Anderson Roland Handsonic • Blake Howard percussion • Colin Fisher, Brodie West, Ted Crosby saxes
"..reminiscent both of prog and Afrobeat, with sequenced rhythms cued by Dunsmuir and executed by the rhythm instruments while the electronics and saxes played through, occasionally dipping into composed melodies." – Nilan Perera
4 pm | SUSANNA HOOD’S PACKET TRIO
Susanna Hood photo by Frederic Chais
Unpacked by Susanna Hood Trio
Montreal-based bandleader and vocalist-dancer, Susanna Hood, along with the superb Toronto-based musicians, Tania Gill (piano) and Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone) bring poet, Judith Malina and composer, Steve Lacy’s “Packet” suite to life through sound and movement. At the heart of the suite, a provocation: the emotional, embodied, unfettered female voice. Heart-felt, yet unsentimental, these eight songs hold no punches as they bring voice to a woman’s later life, grappling with imperfection, sexism, paradox, grit, beauty, regret, invisibility, death and love.
"Remarkably, Susanna Hood proves to be impeccable when it comes to interpreting Steve Lacy's repertoire of magnificent songs. Her voice, expressive and sumptuous, makes us favorably forget the interpretations of Irene Aebi, Lacy's collaborator and first interpreter of his songs." – Montreal drummer, Michel F Côté
$25 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$35 door
$65 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Friday Evening ($25/35)
8 pm | EARTH WIND & CHOIR
Sarah Good conductress
Annie Shaw piano
Vocalists:
Tee Caterini • Bailey Duff • Babette de Jong • Olga Kirgidis • J Burbage • Katie Penrose • Jess Carey • Rebecca Duyzer • Christeen Urquhart • Emily Sattler • Ian Challenger • Jon Dalton • Kieran Commanda • Lee Skinner • Hope Wickett • Ania Fritch • Mimi Vukasevic • Amy Gowling
This ever-evolving local vocal institution Earth Wind & Choir introduced their fun, adventurous sound some 15 years ago. Conductress Sarah Good plays the choir of 15-20 dedicated creative vocalists like an instrument, presenting idiosyncratic takes on the most beautiful, ugly and/or interesting music the group can find—from early polyphony to avant-pop.
9 pm | BOB WISEMAN
One time Blue Rodeo keyboardist, singer, guitarist, accordionist & songwriter Bob Wiseman has become even more prolific and artistically omnivorous since leaving the band in ‘92. His music is hard to pigeonhole varying from avant-garde to political pop. Wiseman makes super 8 films and videos that he accompanies live on accordion, guitar or piano.
He has co-written, produced and played on records for a wide variety of artists ranging from the Barenaked Ladies to John Oswald to Mendelson Joe, as well as scoring music for many television & film projects.
Wiseman toured with Feist, Final Fantasy, Ron Sexsmith, and Scott Thompson and was a guest performer with Wilco, The Wallflowers, Eugene Chadbourne, Jimmy Carl Black (of Frank Zappa), Edie Brickell, Michelle Wright, Ashley MacIsaac & Garland Jeffries.
10 pm | HEAR IN NOW
From Chicago, New York City and Siena, HEAR in NOW is comprised of Mazz Swift on violin/ vocals, Silvia Bolognesi on double bass and Tomeka Reid on cello. A world-caliber collective of women working in a class almost entirely their own, HEAR in NOW is a string trio that composes and improvises fluidly between free jazz and contemporary classical, folk music and avant-garde. In over a decade since their first encounter, Hear in Now has become a rare egalitarian ensemble for three highly active musicians who are as often singular band leaders as they are sidewomen.
The trio’s compiled musical CV is as impressive as it is diverse – including collaborations, performances and recordings with Anthony Braxton, Nicole Mitchell, Butch Morris, William Parker, Common, Jay-Z and Kanye West. As a unit they have comprised half of the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet for several European shows in early 2017. Not Living in Fear, their second studio album, was engineered by Griffin Rodriguez (Icy Demons, Beirut, Modest Mouse) and Alex Inglizian (Experimental Sound Studio), and features guest vocals by Chicago jazz legend Dee Alexander.
"They begin by telling us stories, these stories have all kinds of twists and turns plots and counterplots. . . . The musicians use sound hieroglyphics to set up structures that construct and deconstruct regrouping after every excursion. These compositions change hue and timbre, landing at different positions then eventually returning to a place of silence. This is music with a new sensibility that flies and hops over fields of blues, jazz, bluegrass, classical, yet it is none of these things; it is MUSIC – nameless, eloquent, not locked into category." – William Parker
$25 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$35 door
$65 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Festival Weekend
10th Annual Something Else! Festival Tickets & Passes Available via Eventbrite
$25 advance tickets per event (for 3 acts)
$65 passes for all 4 events (12 acts in total – $100-140 value)
$35 door tickets per event (for 3 acts)
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
Wheelchair accessible
Snacks and beverages available
Many restaurants in the vicinity
Cover/ poster photo of Peggy Lee by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
2023 Something Else! Program (Friday - Saturday)
2023 Something Else! Program (Sunday)
Saturday, July 16 Eve at Cotton Factory
Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix
LINA ALLEMANO’S OHRENSCHMAUS
Formed in 2017, Canadian trumpet player and composer Lina Allemano's Berlin trio Ohrenschmaus (or “ear feast” in English) epitomizes the power trio format through their virtuosic dynamism. Although the group has been featured heavily on European stages—notably at the 2020 edition of Berlin's Jazzfest—they're just now visiting Canada for the first time and Something Else! is delighted to be including them in this year's program.
Their critically acclaimed 2020 debut recording Rats and Mice (Lumo Records) sees Allemano leading Norwegian bassist Dan Peter Sundland and German drummer Michael Griener through a bristling series of pieces, each full of explosive melodic interplay and deep textural exploration. In addition to receiving a generous helping of press worldwide, the disc was also featured on the NPR Jazz Critics Poll Best Music of 2020 (USA), Citizen Jazz France Best New Albums (2020), and PAN M 360 Top Albums of 2020 (Canada).
NUMINOSITY TRIO
Genre-defying trio Numinosity consists of David Mott (baritone saxophone), Justin Gray (bass veena, acoustic bass), and Jesse Stewart (percussion). The group was named for the music they play, which audience members have described as having a “numinous” or spiritual quality. Their music is entirely improvised, drawing on diverse influences and traditions that reflect their respective musical backgrounds.
David Mott’s playing crosses the boundaries of style, form, and content, incorporating elements of jazz, creative improvised music, new music, and world influences. He is one of the pioneers of using circular breathing, multiphonics, and other extended techniques on the baritone saxophone in order to create a rich tapestry of polyphonic sound. He has worked with musicians including Gil Evans, Stevie Wonder, William Parker, Ray Anderson, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Robert Dick, Ernst Reijseger, Wadada Leo Smith, Michael Vlatkovich, and many others.
Justin Gray performs in a variety of traditional and contemporary musical ensembles from around the world and leads his own contemporary world music ensemble, Justin Gray & Synthesis. In 2010, he invented the Bass Veena, an instrument designed for Indian classical and contemporary world music performance.
Jesse Stewart has performed and/or recorded with many musical luminaries including Pauline Oliveros, Hamid Drake, and William Parker. In 2012, he was honoured with the “Instrumental Album of the Year” JUNO award for his work with Stretch Orchestra.
When they perform together, their diverse musical sensibilities overlap and interact with one another in unexpected ways, creating transcendent improvised music.
$20 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$20 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$25 at the door regular
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Sunday, July 3 Eve at Bridgeworks
Sunday, July 3 Eve at Bridgeworks
FRANÇOIS HOULE 4: RECODER
“Strong from our first release on Songlines Records, the quartet is about to embark on a Canadian Jazz Festival tour in July of 2022, and going to record a second album at East Side Sounds in NYC.
This band features some of my favourite musicians on the planet. I’ve been dreaming of working with Gerry Hemingway (drums) ever since I heard him for the first time on those legendary Braxton Quartet recordings from the 80’s. Mark Helias (bass) has performed with pretty much everyone you can imagine, from Ed Blackwell to Tony Malaby. Joining these two monster musicians is my long time collaborator (and Juno Award winner!) Gordon Grdina on guitar.”
— François Houle (clarinets, composition)
“listed in DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE on Best of 2020!!! (January 2021 edition)”
“One reason why Canadian clarinettist François Houle’s compositions roar with such fierce and indefatigable energy lies in the personnel and instrumentation he’s assembled to play them”
— Daniel Spicer, The Wire (november 2020)
“The leader’s writing reflects the chamber-like vibe of Jimmy Giuffre’s trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow”
— Peter Margasak, Downbeat (November 2020)
GORDON GRDINA’S NOMAD TRIO
Complex, intricate, idiosyncratic, and rocking — those are the adjectives that best describe this cross-border collaboration between Vancouver guitarist Gordon Grdina, and New York’s Matt Mitchell piano, and Berliner Jim Black drums. Juno Award winner Grdina’s compositions give the nod to 20th century classical composition, rock, free jazz, and third stream, and this trio promises to explore those ideas at their highest levels.
Gordon Grdina is known for his incredible versatility and ability to bring a fresh and edgy vibe to any ensemble he joins or forms. His musical output is diverse, including 10-piece Arabic/avant-garde ensemble Haram, the intricate GG Quartet and cinematic GG Septet, high-energy collective Grdina/Houle/Loewen, free-punk duo Peregrine Falls, and contemporary Persian-influenced ensemble The Marrow.
Jim Black is a legend in the downtown New York jazz and improv scene and a world-renowned drummer. He has been part of legendary groups Endangered Blood, Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, and Human Feel as well as leading his own groups the Jim Black Trio, Alas No Axis, and Malamute.
Matt Mitchell is a mainstay on the New York jazz scene playing with internationally acclaimed ensembles like the Dave Douglas Quintet, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble and Tim Berne’s Snakeoil. He also leads his own Quartet, Phalanx Ambassadors and Friction duo with Ches Smith.
$20 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$20 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$25 at the door regular
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Saturday, June 25, Noon – 4 pm at Hamilton Public Library
Saturday, June 25, at Hamilton Public Library, noon to 4 pm performances
NEW ORIGIN
In the tradition of cross cultural exploration, the trio New Origin come together to make a clear statement of its intent. With a new recording and concerts internationally, these three "comprovisors" are truly the sum of their individual paths.
Christophe Rocher has been involved in the creation of new works that feature Paul Rogers, Daunik Lazro, Hasse Poulsen, Joêlle Leandre, and Bernard Lubat amongst many other cutting edge artists in the European contemporary music scene. In addition, his own "Ensemble Nautilus" and his key role in the "The Bridge Project" have toured internationally to high acclaim.
To say that the list of important artists Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen have created with is impressive is an understatement. Those in the world wide community are well aware of their accomplishments over the decades. Artists such as Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altchul, Dave Douglas, Oliver Lake, Hot Tuna, Brenda Bufalino, Karl Berger, Ahmad Jamal and a host of others have had the good fortune to make a connection to these two.
Through many years of touring and recording, the members of this trio have left an indelible mark on the history of jazz and improvised music. Many reviews, awards, and accolades have been bestowed on each of them from the international music critics and writers. With the coming together of Rocher, Fonda, and Sorgen, the expansiveness of their output is a force to be reckoned with. New Origin will be on tour supporting their new record.
christopherocher.eu
joefonda.com
harveysorgen.com
NEW HERMITAGE
Understated Nova Scotia improvising quartet New Hermitage has steadily been gathering momentum over the past few years. Veteran critic Peter Margasak remarked in the Quietus that “the group’s fragile, gauzy chamber sound pushes against what you might expect from such an ensemble,” and indeed their unconventional instrumentation of Andrew Mackelvie (reeds), India Gailey (cello), Ellen Gibling (harp), and Ross Burns (guitar) imparts an ambient weightlessness to their music.
The ensemble's debut album was nominated for Music Nova Scotia Award, and written up by dearly departed wayward tastemaker Tiny Mix Tapes. Their 2018 performance with internationally renowned bass clarinettist/ ECM record alumnus Jeff Reilly saw subsequent commercial release and won Classical Recording of the Year at the 2019 Music Nova Scotia Awards. 2020's Unearth was widely acclaimed in publications such as Musicworks, Vital, Free Jazz Blog, the WholeNote, PanM360, and Esoteros.
In their five years together, they've been programmed alongside Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society, Angel Bat Dawid, pi'pa virtuoso Liu Fang, and prolific noise explorer i d m theft able while embarking on multiple tours of Eastern Canada.
Free event… we do appreciate donations
PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE
Water & snacks available by donation
Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Our partner in educational programming
Sunday Eve at Cotton Factory
Sunday, June 19 Eve at Cotton Factory
$25 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$30 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$35 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Sunday Jodi Gilbert Balkan Song Workshop at Cotton Factory
JODI GILBERT BALKAN SONG WORKSHOP at Cotton Factory on Sunday, June 19 (4 – 6 pm)
Amsterdam-based American vocalist, dancer, actor, and pedagogue Jodi Gilbert has enjoyed a fascinating and eclectic career thus far. She has received several grants to study theatrical forms and music (Wayang Kulit and Gender) in Bali and was sent to Mongolia by the Dutch government to work and perform with Mongolian musicians and singers. She continues to teach privately sponsored workshops in voice, dance, theatre, improvisation, and Balkan song throughout Europe and the USA.
Jodi Gilbert came into contact with the traditional musics of her Eastern European grandparents as a teenager, and since that time has been influenced by this music as a singer, and an improviser. She has taught many workshops in Balkan song in USA, and Europe.
Balkan song is an incredibly rich and varied oral tradition that has been passed down through countless generations. In Balkan countries singing accompanied every aspect of life; work and play, happiness and sadness. Those familiar with its sound know that it embodies great emotional intensity, and resonates with people the world over.
In this workshop we will learn and sing some of the beautiful folk songs sung at gatherings of everyday people in communities around the Balkans. We will explore the harmonies, melodies, rhythms of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, oa. Through these soulful songs (most sung in 2 and 3 part harmony), we'll explore techniques to open participants' voices to discover a natural Balkan folkloric timbre.
It is not necessary to read music, it is helpful, but much of the music will be taught by “ear” with just lyric sheets, sometimes music notation will be used. Singers of all ages, genders, and levels of experience are welcome! The only prerequisite is the ability to accurately match pitch and solidly hold one's part when singing in harmony with others.
$20 advance
$25 regular participants at door
$20 discounted at door for students, seniors, un(der)employed, artworkers
PLEASE REGISTER & PAY VIA EVENTBRITE
Beverages & snacks available
Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Sunday Afternoon at Bayfront Park
Sunday, June 19 Afternoon at Bayfront Park
$20 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$25 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$30 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Saturday Eve at Cotton Factory
Saturday, June 18 Eve at Cotton Factory
$25 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$30 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$35 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Saturday Jodi Gilbert Free Vocal Workshop
Saturday, June 18, at Hamilton Public Library
11 am to 2 pm film screening and performances (then 2-4 pm workshop)
JODI GILBERT VOCAL WORKSHOP (HPL–HAMILTON ROOM)
Amsterdam-based American vocalist, dancer, actor, and pedagogue Jodi Gilbert has enjoyed a fascinating and eclectic career thus far. She has received several grants to study theatrical forms and music (Wayang Kulit and Gender) in Bali and was sent to Mongolia by the Dutch government to work and perform with Mongolian musicians and singers. She continues to teach privately sponsored workshops in voice, dance, theatre, improvisation, and Balkan song throughout Europe and the USA.
This workshop focuses on the voice and the unknown regions of the voice; the expansion of the boundaries of vocal possibilities. Through the exploration of improvisational ideas and games based on rhythm, timing, physicality, counterpoint, personal expression and emotion, we will discover a broader definition of musicality that can expand ones personal musical vocabulary and freedom of expression.
The workshop will begin with a highly physical and vocal warm-up and move into various exercises focusing on freeing one’s thinking and judgemental mind to discover the expressive and personal voice. Elements of intention, texture, emotion, images, timing, color, timbre, dynamics, and physicality of sound will be employed.
This workshop is open to everyone, musicians and lay-persons alike. No previous singing experience is necessary. The workshop is for anyone with an adventurous spirit.
Free event… we do appreciate donations
PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE
Water & snacks available by donation
Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Our partner in educational programming
Saturday Afternoon at Bayfront Park
Saturday, June 18 Afternoon at Bayfront Park
$20 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$25 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$30 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Saturday 11 am – 2 pm at Hamilton Public Library
Saturday, June 18, at Hamilton Public Library
11 am to 2 pm film screening and performances (then 2-4 pm workshop)
11 am: Derek Bailey’s On the Edge: Improvisation in Music Miniseries Film Screening (Part 1: Passing It On)
A handful of festival-curated surprise improvising groups including world-renowned visiting artists, Canadian greats, local favourites
Broadcast in 1992, On The Edge is a 4-part miniseries about improvisation in music — in all of its forms. Written by improvising British guitarist Derek Bailey and based on his book 'Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music', the program admirably includes everything from traditional Korean music to French Catholic liturgical organ performance to downtown New York free jazz.
Film screening will be followed by a handful of short, 10-15 minutes each, festival curated, surprise ensembles, ad hoc groupings made up of some of the leading, world-renowned improvisers from acrooss the globe, revered national artists and Southern Ontario musicians.
Free event… we do appreciate donations
PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE
Water & snacks available by donation
Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Our partner in educational programming
Friday Eve at Cotton Factory
Friday, June 17 Eve at Cotton Factory
$25 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$30 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$35 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Friday Afternoon at Bayfront Park
Friday, June 17 Afternoon at Bayfront Park
$20 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$25 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$30 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
Thursday Eve at Cotton Factory
Thursday, June 16 Eve at Cotton Factory
$25 advance tickets via Eventbrite
$30 at the door for students, seniors, artworkers, un(der)employed
$35 at the door regular
$130 festival passes to all 7 ticketed core weekend events + Balkan vocal workshop (up to $255 value at the door)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds, provided there’s space
Food and beverages available at venueLimited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports may be required.
These concerts are made possible by kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Big thanks to these funders for believing in what we aim to do.
Also a big thanks to The Cotton Factory, Bayfront Park, Bridgeworks and the Hamilton Public Library (for partnering with us and) for opening their doors to us …the Hamilton Spectator for their support.
2021 Something Else! Festival “On the Bay” — Saturday
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT, ALONG WITH THE ADDITION OF THE PREVIOUS EVENING, HAS BECOME A COLLABORATION WITH SUPERCRAWL ON THE BAY
This last in person sliver of a festival day (7th this fall, 10th this year) of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay event also stands out for multiple long distance visitors and their reach as artists. This one is built around veteran improvisers, saxophonist LARRY OCHS & drummer DONALD ROBINSON, on tour from the San Francisco Bay Area, and trumpeter NICOLE RAMPERSAUD visiting us from New Brunswick, joined by pianist MARILY LERNER from Toronto, as BRASS KNUCKLE SANDWICH… two incendiary duets. Toronto trio FISHER / FURLONG / GENNARO bring fire music to the proceedings. Another fine duet closer to home, ESCHATON, acts as the invocation, the welcoming.
Saturday, October 9
WEST — PAVILION STAGE
[12:00 ESCHATON Main Stage]
12:45 FISHER / FURLONG / GENNARO
14:30 MARILYN LERNER & MATT BRUBECK
16:00 OCHS-ROBINSON DUO
18:00 SOMETHING ELSE! SPECIAL
In accordance with provincial legislation, all ticket holders ages 12 and up will be required to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, as well as matching government-issued ID.
RESERVE TICKETS VIA EVENTBRITE LINKS BELOW
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS (FREE) – Limit 2 Tickets Per Individual
WEST STAGE SEATING AND TABLES — FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED
MAIN STAGE VIP RESERVED SEATING ($19.99 + SC & HST) – Limit 1 Table Per Household, 1 Household Per Table
OCHS-ROBINSON DUO
LARRY OCHS saxophones
DON ROBINSON drums
Both San Francisco Bay Area residents, on a tour of the Eat Coast, OCHS & ROBINSON first performed together from 1991 to 1998 in The Glenn Spearman Double Trio. From 1994 to 2002, they worked with bassist Lisle Ellis in the trio What We Live, a band that recorded many CDs and added incredible guests for special concerts / recordings including Dave Douglas, Wadada Leo Smith, Nels Cline, Miya Masaoka, Saadet Türköz and Chris Brown, among others.
From 2000 until 2010 Robinson was part of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core featuring drummer Scott Amendola, as well as the additions of Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura from 2007 - 2010. Throughout all this time, Ochs and Robinson jammed and rehearsed in Robinson’s studio, easily done as they live only 15 minutes apart. Thus it seems inevitable that they would – eventually - create a special repertoire for this duo.
"...a sometimes stark, brilliantly focused program. While the saxophone-and-drums format may suggest a certain excess, Ochs and Robinson invert the expectation, creating profoundly elegiac music with an economy that only magnifies its power. Recorded in 2018/19, it might suggest a Trump-era Jeremiad; heard in 2021, it’s larger than that: wise survivors reassembling, still whole, facing the difficult prospects of renewal."
— Stuart Broomer @ freejazzblog.org June 18, 2021
MARILYN LERNER & MATT BRUBECK
[Sadly, there will be no Brass Knuckle Sandwich performance, as Nicole Rampersaud is unfortunately stuck in NB. Instead, keyboardist MARILYN LERNER will play with cellist MATT BRUBECK at 2:30 PM at Zula / Something Else! / West / Pavilion Stage. They have history both as a duet and as a trio in Ugly Beauties with Nick Fraser.]
Jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her musical career has been marked by a deep exploration of traditional and free jazz, new music tinged improvisation, and Ashkenazic folk music. Lerner performs and records with her two jazz trios, Ugly Beauties with Matt Brubeck and Nick Fraser and Lerner/Filiano/Grassi and accompanies silent films at the Toronto Bell Lightbox Theatre in Toronto. In the New Jewish music scene, she performs with, Frank London, Alicia Svigals and David Wall.
Matt Brubeck is a JUNO award-winning performer/composer specializing in improvisation on the cello. Raised on jazz and classically trained at Yale, Matt is at ease in multiple genres and has taken his cello improvisation skills into diverse musical territories (including Tom Waits, Yo-Yo Ma, PamelaZ, and many others.) In addition to his work with Ugly Beauties, Matt’s ongoing projects include the highly eclectic Stretch Orchestra, and cello/piano duo Brubeck Braid. In his solo work, Matt explores the reach of contemporary cello performance, placing various musical traditions in dialogue with each other to reveal a broad continuum of influences. Matt is on the music faculty at York University and Humber College, where he teaches strings, improvisation, composition, and leads various ensembles. Yes, he is the tallest son of Dave.
mattbrubeck.com
marilynlerner.com
FISHER / FURLONG / GENNARO
COLIN FISHER saxophone, guitar
ANDREW FURLONG double bass
MIKE GENNARO drums
Toronto improvisers saxophonist, guitarist COLIN FISHER & drummer MIKE GENNARO have had a long-running duo project. Adding double bassist ANDREW FURLONG made sense, when they wanted to add players to the mix. They play improvised music in a classic free jazz vein… fire music!
colinfisher.org
ESCHATON
AARON HUTCHINSON trumpet, synthesizer, electronics, percussion CONNOR BENNETT saxophones, bass, vocals
A fearless, soulful noise duo, Hamilton’s finest in sound exploration, made up of improvising multi-instrumentalists… creating thick textural noise with vulnerable horn expressions, narrative soundscapes that breathe, bend and distort. Come, listen to ESCHATON as they offer a transformative future for Canadian music!
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Partnerships include Supercrawl, The Hamilton Spectator, Musicworks, and The Whole Note.
2021 Something Else! Festival “On the Bay” — Friday
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT, ALONG WITH THE NEXT AFTERNOON AND EVENING, HAS BECOME A COLLABORATION WITH SUPERCRAWL ON THE BAY
This second to last in person sliver of a festival day (6th this fall, 9th this year) of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, was a last minute addition of two marvellously potent bands, one from New York City and the other from Southern Ontario. Enjoy!
Friday, October 8
WEST — PAVILLION STAGE
19:00 SAM NEWSOME QUARTET
20:30 SAM NEWSOME QUARTET
22:15 THE WOODSHED ORCHESTRA
In accordance with provincial legislation, all ticket holders ages 12 and up will be required to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, as well as matching government-issued ID.
RESERVE TICKETS VIA EVENTBRITE LINKS BELOW
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS (FREE) – Limit 2 Tickets Per Individual
WEST STAGE SEATING AND TABLES — FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED
MAIN STAGE VIP RESERVED SEATING ($19.99 + SC & HST) – Limit 1 Table Per Household, 1 Household Per Table
SAM NEWSOME QUARTET
SAM NEWSOME soprano saxophone
ANGELICA SANCHEZ Fender Rhodes
WILLIAM PARKER double bass
REGGIE NICHOLSON drums
Hailing from New York City for only the one special Hamilton concert, this modern jazz / experimental quartet features Sam Newsome’s original compositions, as well as the re-imagining of commonly known jazz classics.
Nominated in 2018 as Soprano Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists’ Association, SAM NEWSOME experiments to acclaim with the prepared saxophone, wedding it with an already-prodigious knowledge of the instrument’s sonic anatomy. Newsome’s dazzling deployment of multiphonics, slap tonguing, circular breathing and other alternative means of activating the instrument, displays an urgency, insight and dexterity that’s both peerless and wholly personal.
Pianist, composer, educator ANGELICA SANCHEZ moved to New York from Arizona in 1994. Since moving to the East Coast Sanchez has collaborated with such notable artists as Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Richard Davis, Jamaladeen Tacuma, Nicole Mitchell, Rob Mazurek, Tim Berne, Mario Pavone, Ben Monder amongst others. Sanchez leads numerous groups, the most recent being her Nonet which features Chris Speed, Michael Attias, Thomas Heberer, Kenny Warren, Ben Goldberg, John Hebert, Omar Tamez, and Sam Ospavot.
WILLIAM PARKER is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time.” In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.
Parker’s current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others.
Born in Chicago, REGGIE NICHOLSON’s drum concept fitted perfectly the needs of many extraordinary Chicago musicians. An active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1979, Nicholson has absorbed the musical influences of each AACM member learning the skills to compose and improvise original music.
Since relocating to New York City in 1987, Nicholson has performed and recorded with a wide variety of jazz and new music luminaries such as Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Leroy Jenkins, Anthony Braxton, Sam Newsome, Myra Melford, Wilber Morris, Elektra Kurtis, Billy Bang, Butch Morris, James Spaulding, Yuko Fujiyama, Oliver Lake, Fay Victor, Roy Campbell, just to name a few. In addition, Reggie has toured throughout Europe and Japan.
THE WOODSHED ORCHESTRA
DAVE CLARK drums, vocals
MICHAEL HERRING bass, vocals
TANIA GILL keyboards, vocals
KEVIN BREIT guitar
TOM RICHARDS trombone, vocals
REBECCA HENNESSY trumpet, vocals
JULIA HAMBLETON clarinet, vocals
THE WOODSHED ORCHESTRA is a multi-headed celebration emancipation experience. Legendary Toronto drummer DAVE CLARK (Rheostatics, Gord Downie, Charles Spearin) pilots the band through numerous classic dance music styles including New Orleans Funk and Jazz, R&B, Ska, Soul, Reggae, Punk, Rock, Blues, Country, Surf Rock, Neo-Greek, Ranchero, Polka, Disco, Samba, Afro-Pop, Waltz, New Wave, Cajun, Tex-Mex, Power Pop, Klezmer, Torch Ballads, Tango and Calypso, in an extraordinary celebration. With a five-piece horn section and full-ensemble vocals, this is not your everyday bar-band. It is a funky, uplifting, joyful ride every time.
The Woodshed Orchestra was founded in 2005 by Dave Clark in order to celebrate friendship and love through music. Clark called upon some of the finest folks he knew from Toronto, Montreal and St. Catharines to make the gumbo boil and the people dance. The band plays Clark’s 200 strong original songbook as a full on electric band; drums, bass, guitars, horns and keys as well as in brass band formation a la the New Orleans 2nd line band tradition depending on the occasion. The players learn the tunes on the gig in front of the crowd, hence the name “Woodshed” in the title. They’ve created their own on stage language to navigate from song to song and to shift gears on a dime to awestruck audiences.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Partnerships include Supercrawl, The Hamilton Spectator, Musicworks, and The Whole Note.
2021 Fall — Something Else! + Watch it Burn! at the Bay — #5
This eighth in-person sliver of a festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, merged with a Watch it Burn! event is very special because it encapsulates many of the places we like to go to with our programming, creative, improvised music, world traditions, modern jazz, modern dance, film… will be such a fun outing!
This program was built around SO LONG SEVEN and ADREAN FARRUGIA, both originally scheduled for SE! Fest for June 2020. Projects that made sense to enrich the event were added with great pleasure.
GILLIAM / MILMINE / POTTIE, a more chamber-music-like, gentle, yet fierce composition and improvisation-based unit.
SO LONG SEVEN brings a marvelous marriage of different styles and traditions, a group that would feel at home at jazz, world, and folk festival stages.
ADREAN FARRUGIA TRIO will add another layer, more connected to the jazz tradition, bebop, grounded, with more traditional swing and plenty of fire.
ENGLISH / MORNINGSTAR duo is quite a joyous project and a fine additional layer as the beauty of adventurous movement and music connect with different needs we have as an audience.
VOC SILENT FILM HARMONIC’s live improvised musical performance to Tod Browning’s The Unknown, will take us to yet another time, and plane.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15-25 at the door …or $15 in advance via Eventbrite + dinner by donation …NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
Oct 2
4:00 pm —> SO LONG 7
5:00 pm —> GILLIAM / MILMINE / POTTIE
5:30 pm —> Food Served
6:00 pm —> MEGAN ENGLISH & DALE MORNINGSTAR
6:30 pm —> ADREAN FARRUGIA TRIO
7:30 pm —> VOC SILENT FILM HARMONIC (live soundtrack to film, The Unknown)
SO LONG SEVEN
RAVI NAIMPALLY tabla
TIM POSGATE banjo
NEIL HENDRY guitar
WILLIAM LAMOUREUX violin
SO LONG SEVEN is an audible garden where you didn’t realize you needed to escape to until you are there surrounded by the flora and fauna that is…
“What could be more Canadian than the multicultural mashup music of the Toronto quartet called So Long Seven? The band consists of expert players on banjo, tabla, violin and guitar fusing the inspirations of India, West Africa, Spain and Brazil to make dynamic and intriguing original music that draws on folk, chamber music and jazz...”
— PETER HUM, OTTAWA CITIZEN
“Of all the recordings I’ve received in 2016, the debut effort from SO LONG SEVEN was certainly one of the most impressive. Calling this “Original Music” is an understatement: Banjo, Violin, Guitar and Tabla might look strange on paper, but it sure works in reality! This fuse of world music and cinematic jazz is truly exciting and is one of my top three picks of 2016.”
— JAYMZ BEE, JAZZ FM
GILLIAM / MILMINE / POTTIE
BILL GILLIAM piano
KAYLA MILMINE soprano saxophone
AMBROSE POTTIE drums
The string of surnames may read like they’re a one-off collaboration, but this Toronto trio is anything but. Blending spontaneous invention and composition since 2015, their music simmers with quiet, transparent possibility, even in its densest moments. In addition to having been featured at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival and as part of Zula’s past seasons, they’ve documented their lucid ensemble identity on the recording Entangled Pathways.
MEGAN ENGLISH & DALE MORNINGSTAR
DALE MORNINGSTAR, multi-instrumentalist, creates a live artrock inspired sound score, peppered with vocal meanderings and a few funky beats. MEGAN ENGLISH, dancer/choreographer will search for the movement metaphors and the time, space formations. Their set will move along the spectrum of improvisation and choreography, pairing, juxtaposing and blurring the shared elements of their respective mediums.
Originally from Sudbury, Megan is a graduate of York University’s Dance Program. Megan’s choreography has been presented at Dance Matters (Toronto), St Andrews Performing Arts Festival (New Brunswick), Dusk Dances (Hamilton), Frost Bites (Hamilton) and the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Notable choreographies include The Nell Shipman Project (supported by the Toronto Arts Council) and This Dance is Mic’d, both developed in residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Megan has performed the works of diverse dance artists both in Canada and the UK, including The Kiss by Tino Sehgal. While living in London UK, Megan danced with the company Zephyr in Zanussi. (Doering, Germany) In 2016, she developed a dance work for medical ethicist/dancer Andrea Frolic of Hamilton Health Sciences, exploring resilience. Megan has created numerous performances in collaboration with musician Dale Morningstar of the Dinner Is Ruined.
ADREAN FARRUGIA TRIO
Juno Award winning pianist, ADREAN FARRUGIA, has been an active member of the Canadian jazz music scene since the late 1990s. He has appeared on more than 40 recordings and performs locally with the Bob Brough Quartet and Ernesto Cervini’s Turboprop among others. He also tours internationally with vocalist Matt Dusk, American trumpeter Brad Goode, and recently, Adrean also leads his own bands Ricochet (whose debut album was nominated for a Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz recording in 2011) and the ADREAN FARRUGIA TRIO. Adrean has been on the faculties of Mohawk College and York University.…. with JON MAHARAJ on bass and ETHAN ARDELLI on drums.
VOC SILENT FILM HARMONIC
(The Unknown)
From Kitchener / Waterloo... under the direction of TED HARMS, the project was formed in the summer of 2007 to perform live & improvised music to accompany silent films. The group takes its inspiration from how, many silent movies were originally presented - taking themes and using them as the basis for improvisation. The overall intent is to reflect, enhance and support the movie, not to overtake or distract with the music. TED HARMS bass; NEIL BALLANTYNE keyboards; DAVE HUNSBERGER clarinets; MICHAEL MUCCI guitar; BRADFORD NOWAK drums; WADE WHITTAKER guitar
The sextet will be accompanying THE UNKNOWN (1927), directed by Tod Browning & starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford.
Nanon (Joan Crawford) is the literal & emotional target for knife-thrower and sharpshooter Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney); however, his love for her is rivaled by the pursuit of the circus’ strong man, Malabar (Norman Kerry). However, Alonzo’s numerous secrets could undo any chance he has of winning her affection. How far will he go in his love for her?
As a director, Tod Browning suffered ups & downs. His best known film (and most notorious) is the 1932 film “Freaks” starring real-life sideshow performers. Browning had a productive relationship with Chaney, directing him in 10 films including this 1927 classic.
Chaney, famous for “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, might be considered the first actor’s actor. While known publically as the Man of a Thousand Faces, he fellow actors knew his acting skill was unparalleled. Crawford was an actress on the rise when this movie was released. However, it was significant to her as, while watching Chaney she “…became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting.”
facebook.com/vocsilentfilm
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Partnerships include Supercrawl, The Hamilton Spectator, Musicworks, and The Whole Note.
2021 Fall — Something Else! + Watch it Burn! at the Bay — #4
This seventh in-person sliver of a festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, merged with a Watch it Burn! event is based around IMAGINE THE SOUND, a magnificent documentary film about some centre figures in free jazz, co-produced, directed by RON MANN (co-produced with Bill Smith), Mann will be present for a question & answer period. Hamilton free jazz chamber trio LEE / PALMER / BENNETT will interpret some Bill Smith Ensemble music. Trombonist SCOTT THOMSON will play a solo set with Bill Dixon in mind. The inimitable BRODIE WEST QUINTET will grace our stage for the first time. The rich, multi-layered blues experience that is THE SPOKES will return and will be also joined by LEE / PALMER / BENNETT for some non-linear, exciting blues excursions.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15-25 at the door …or $15 in advance via Eventbrite + dinner by donation …NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
Sep 25
4:00 pm —> SCOTT THOMSON
4:30 pm —> THE SPOKES W/ LPB
5:30 pm —> BRODIE WEST QUINTET
6:30 pm —> Dinner Served
6:30 pm —> LEE / PALMER / BENNETT
7:00 pm —> Film: IMAGINE THE SOUND
8:30 pm —> Q&A w/ RON MANN
IMAGINE THE SOUND
Celebrated documentary filmmaker RON MANN (Grass, Altman, Comic Book Confidential) will be in attendance to present a screening of his 1981 debut IMAGINE THE SOUND, the Holy Grail of improvised music / free jazz on film, co-produced with saxophonist, writer, photographer, CODA editor BILL SMITH , who masterfully interviews the esteemed subjects, including creative music titans Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp!
THE SPOKES
For the last decade, Toronto drummer BOB VESPAZIANI and Nova Scotia-based singer/guitarist/harpist ARTHUR BULL have been commuting back and forth to play a gumbo of blues, roots, country and original music as THE SPOKES. Visiting from Vancouver, a strong blues pianist HANK BULL joins them. Together again, they’ll play a set of bluesy originals before being joined by Hamilton trio LEE / PALMER / BENNETT to form the blues/rockabilly band THE FIVE SPOKES with CHRIS PALMER (guitar), CONNOR BENNETT (saxophone) and DAVID LEE (bass).
BRODIE WEST QUINTET
BRODIE WEST alto saxophone, composition
TANIA GILL piano
JOSH COLE bass
NICK FRASER drums
EVAN CARTWRIGHT drums
“This is exciting, eventful music of the highest quality […] Defying conventional wisdom, perhaps, Brodie West’s music is complex, creative and loose.”
— Andy Hamilton, Wire Magazine
“The alto saxophonist continues to destroy the proverbial artificial walls erected in music.” — Raul Da Gama, Wholenote Magazine
“…a kind of sonic solitude emerging from the bandleader’s quintet.” — Kerilie McDowall, Downbeat Magazine
“…a complex momentum that seemingly reviews the jazz language of the 1950s, but which is oddly and absolutely contemporary.”
— Stuart Broomer, Musicworks Magazine
“First and foremost: this is a jazz album, the way jazz was intended: "the sound of surprise”…. as serious as they come, yet goes straight to the heart… ”
— Nilan Perera, Exclaim Magazine
SCOTT THOMSON
SCOTT THOMSON is an improvising trombonist, composer, producer, writer, organizer, and listener based in Montreal. His varied work and play reflect his profound interest in music as social life. Scott will play a solo set: Institute (for Bill Dixon). He will also join Lee / Palmer / Bennett for a short spell, as well as offering his insights to the Q & A with Ron Mann.
LEE / PALMER / BENNETT
Hamilton “chamber jazz” trio with its lineup of tenor & soprano saxophone (CONNOR BENNETT), electric guitar (CHRIS PALMER) and double bass (DAVID LEE), has made a special niche for itself in Hamilton’s expanding new music scene… will perform music by Bill Smith Ensemble, this brings things full-circle in a way, as David Lee was the bassist in the trio with the co-producer of the film Bill Smith, in the 80s. David was also involved in the making of the film.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
RON MANN
2021 Fall — Something Else! + Watch it Burn! at the Bay — #3
This sixth in-person sliver of a festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, merged with a Watch it Burn! event includes two Montreal bands we had originally booked for our 2020 festival. A heart-warming tribute to S. African ex-patriot jazz of 60s, 70s, and 80s, TOGETHERNESS! returns from Montreal after its 2017 festival debut. Sharing the same rhythm section, EYEVIN TRIO pays loving homage to the work of Thomas Chapin, gifted NYC saxophonist, about whom a wonderful documentary has been made, NIGHT BIRD SONG, which will also be screened. Three of Hamilton’s most adventurous acts round out the bill, MAN MADE HILL, aka Randy Gagner, TIDAL POOL, aka Connor Bennett’s solo saxophone and electronics excursions, and SOURPUSSY, 4 strong voices always with something new and original to say.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15-25 at the door …or $15 in advance via Eventbrite + dinner by donation …NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
Sep 18
4:00 pm —> CONNOR BENNETT
4:45 pm —> SOURPUSSY
5:30 pm —> MAN MADE HILL
6:00 pm —> Dinner Served
6:30 pm —> TOGETHERNESS!
7:30 pm —> Film: NIGHT BIRD SONG (abridged)
8:30 pm —> EYEVIN TRIO
TOGETHERNESS!
Trumpeter ELLWOOD EPPS’ TOGETHERNESS! is nothing short of a Montréal supergroup, offering bold uplifting renditions of repertoire by Abdullah Ibrahim, Dudu Pukwana, Don Cherry, and, among others, Epps himself. Formed in 2016, the band currently includes lauded saxophonist and musique actuelle innovator JEAN DEROME, the great LORI FREEDMAN on reeds, bassist STÉPHANE DIAMANTAKIOU (Eguiluz/ Eyevin Trio) and drummer IVAN BAMFORD (Land of Kush/ Eyevin).
They've made appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and at a previous iteration of Something Else!, this joyous, swinging group has won audiences over with driving South African-inspired grooves that veer in surprising directions.
The band was booked for the postponed June 2020 Something Else! Festival. We’re most grateful to the Guelph Jazz Festival for their kind support in inviting the band and making it more manageable for us to present them.
EYEVIN TRIO
Québecois outfit EYEVIN TRIO is drummer IVAN BAMFORD’s loving homage to composer and saxophonist Thomas Chapin, a vital contributor to the American avant-jazz ecosystem whose vision was cut short by his untimely death in 1998 from leukemia. The group — featuring bassist STÉPHANE DIAMANTAKIOU and reedsman AURELIEN TOMASI explores Chapin's rich repertoire alongside original compositions, animating them in spirit and through Chapin's own saxophone. In October 2019, they were awarded the Prix François Marcaurelle for best concert at 20th edition of the OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal. Originally planned for June 2020 Something Else! Festival, we’re glad to have them join us, with the appropriate pairing of Night Bird Song screening.
SOURPUSSY
Victoria Alstein, Becky Katz, Jessica Somers, Heather South • all various instruments, vocals
Hamilton’s own SOURPUSSY generate fantastic, poetic, and utterly surreal streams of consciousness. Their dadaesque (mamaesque?) performances are as befuddling as they are awe-inspiring. Variously mining invented narratives, lists of ingredients, doctor’s warnings, repetitions, hallucinatory humour, and feverish confabulation, they take you on a journey that you never knew you needed.
MAN MADE HILL
Hamilton’s "...RANDY GAGNE’s solo mission to the outer limits of interplanetary funk. This leather-clad cosmonaut has been hot-wired to projects as diverse as Disguises, Cave Dudes, and Claudio, but it’s his one-man disco prison that sends the largest charge through Toronto’s energy grid.” — Vice
“What also made it feel like a party was having the one and only Randy Gagne to close the night out. As MAN MADE HILL, his absurdist anthems and give-it-110-per-cent on-stage attitude make every show a sweaty delight. The set included a string of stone MMH classics, but there was a bunch of newer stuff as well, with a tune about Fantasy Pants melding into an atmospheric fantasy sequence, as well as "I'll Swallow You Whole", a slo-jam that's been heard at recent shows that just might be Gagne's "Time After Time". Or maybe his "Bizarre Love Triangle"? In any case, it's definitely the tenderest song I've ever heard to include the lyrical sentiment "I'll eat your fucking life-force!" — Mechanical Forest Sound
TIDAL POOL
CONNOR BENNETT saxophones, electronics
TIDAL POOL is Hamilton resident Connor Bennett’s solo foray into the saxophone’s nether regions and beyond. Starting from a strictly instrumental base, he augments his palette of unfamiliar acoustic colours with electronic treatments or simple amplification. As a musician, craftsperson, and arts organizer, Bennett as ubiquitous as he is indispensable within the local arts ecosystem. He plays saxophone in Haolin Munk, Eschaton, Lee/Palmer/Bennett and was a founding member of HAVN.
NIGHT BIRD SONG
An intimate and engaging documentary, NIGHT BIRD SONG: THE INCANDESCENT LIFE OF THOMAS CHAPIN tells the fascinating story behind the life and music of jazz great Thomas Chapin. A virtuoso from NYC’s downtown scene in the 80’s and 90’s, his brilliant compositions and work in a broad breath of music explorations, left critics and fellow musicians alike, amazed at his ability to bend the genre of jazz with innovative originality.
A versatile multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer, Thomas Chapin led a trio performing his own music playing in New York City’s downtown scene, and at festivals and clubs around the world. An outstanding composer of larger works as well, he sometimes augmented the trio with strings and horn ensembles.
Though leukemia tragically ended his life in 1998 at age 40, Thomas Chapin left behind a legacy of superb recordings and performances, and a reputation as one of jazz’s more extraordinary musicians – one of the few musicians to exist in both the worlds of the downtown, experimentalist scene and mainstream jazz.
He continues to be a highly influential and inspirational force to those who knew him and to those who continue to know him through his music and example.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
2021 Fall — Something Else! + Watch it Burn! at the Bay — #2
İVA BITTOVÁ
This fifth in-person sliver of a festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, merged with a Watch it Burn! event, has one of our all time favourites; avant-folk heroine, violinist, vocalist İVA BITTOVÁ, return with family, her talented pianist son ANTONIN FAJT; plus our old friends, the inimitable avant-rockers RONLEY TEPER & THE LIPLINERS returning in full force as a 7-piece, for the first time in 5+ years, and a special addition, NIMAL AGALAWATTE, on no-input mixing board… Following dinner, we will screen part 2 of director Tony Gatlif’s marvellous film on the Romani people, LATCHO DROM!
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15-25 at the door…or $15 in advance via Eventbrite …NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
Sep 11
4:00 pm —> ANTONIN FAJT
4:30 pm —> NIMAL AGALAWATTE
5:00 pm —> İVA BITTOVÁ & ANTONIN FAJT
6:00 pm —> RONLEY TEPER & THE LIPLINERS
7:00 pm —> Dinner Served
7:30 pm —> İVA BITTOVÁ
8:00 pm —> Film: LATCHO DROM (part 2)
İVA BITTOVÁ
We are delighted to welcome back one of our avant-folk heroines, İVA BITTOVÁ, who has a rare, ineffable two-fold gift; She’s versatile enough to have collaborated with esteemed artists across the spectrum of musical expression, yet her sonic signature remains deeply imprinted, no matter what the context. Best described as a storyteller who seldom uses discernible language, her intimate, engrossing narratives unfold in a unique personal folk idiom of her own deriving—inspired by her northern Moravian roots and countless other traditions.
“… a forward thinking composer who sings and plays violin simultaneously… Her sound isinvigorating, urgent, and also soothing; it is a fusion of Old World and new-music sensibilities,infused with the spirit and language of Czech, Slovak, and Moravian music.”–New York Magazine
“With intimacy and grace, she bridges the gap between the Czech folk tradition and the avant-garde. Her voice can gently and beautifully warble oblique poetry one minute, garrulousabstractions the next. Bittová’s unique charm gives her work a constant air of accessibility.”–Request
“Iva Bittová is an extraordinary artist. Raw and refined, passionate and contained, she has the soul of a gypsy, the voice of a troubadour, and the mind of a genius.”– NPR/All Things Considered
RONLEY TEPER & THE LIPLINERS
RONLEY TEPER acoustic guitar, vox
TIM POSGATE banjo/electric guitar
DAVE CLARKE drums
VIVIENNE WILDER bass
GORDON HYLAND tenor saxophone
CHRIS PRUDEN keys
CALEB HAMILTON trumpet, accordion
“The Ronley is quite a peculiar creature”… read her bio. We love The Ronley around here! A brilliant mish-mash of roots, folk cabaret, world, jazz, blues & electronica… like an old pair of silk slippers, Hamiltonians will slip into this sweet-voiced, inventive Toronto artist’s creative work, … of this, we’re certain… what exactly will happen on stage on this day, we’re not so sure, as every night she creates a thing of one-off beauty!
RONLEY TEPER is one of Canada’s most unique and interesting musical artists. At once a storyteller, a performance artist, and a singer/songwriter, she combines these disciplines into provocative stage shows as a ringleader with the help of her improvisational band, THE LIPLINERS. The Lipliners began as a monthly residency at the legendary Tranzac Club in Toronto. Teper invited some of Toronto’s finest musicians to publicly improvise around her storytelling and songwriting. Over the past two decades, this process has developed a body of work that listeners often compare to Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and Laurie Anderson.
ANTONIN FAJT
Czech composer, pianist and electronic producer. Born in Brno, he moved to the U.S. at age 15. Drawing on his Moravian heritage and transient upbringing, his music explores for rhythmic and melodic nuances in folk song interpretation and translates them into an improvisational language informed by the American diasporic musical landscape. As a soloist, he likes to work with prepared piano, modified keyboards, and live sampling. His own bands include Mantis, a collaboration with Niloufar Shiri (Iran) and Ben Finley (Canada), and Window with Matt Norman and Carolyn Hietter.
NIMAL AGALAWATTE
Our esteemed sound technician, who is also a musician in different projects and varied settings, joins us for a palate-cleansing, short, intense set on no-input mixing board.
LATCHO DROM
LATCHO DROM is a unique musical documentary tracing the Romani people’s migration from Northwestern India to Spain over the course of more than a thousand years. Through an extraordinary variety of song, music, and dance director/writer Tony Gatlif brings Romani history to life. This vibrant musical heritage stands as a counterpoint to the darker realities of persecution faced by a nomadic culture in which family, honour and tradition are as essential to survival as water, transportation and food.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, the City of Hamilton, as well as partnerships with Musicworks, The Whole Note and The Hamilton Spectator.
LATCHO DROM
RONLEY TEPER & THE LIPLINERS
2021 Fall — Something Else! + Watch it Burn! at the Bay — #1
This fourth in-person sliver day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, is also a Watch it Burn! event, consists of two beauties; LEMON BUCKET ORKESTRA bringing with them the infectiously joyous energy, and the invigorating, life-affirming melancholy of the Balkans, followed by a screening of LATCHO DROM (part 1), the remarkable Tony Gatlif documentary on Romany culture.
5:00 pm — Lemon Bucket Orchestra
6:30 pm — Dinner
7:00 pm — Latcho Drom (part 1)
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15+ at the door or via Eventbrite + dinner by donation… NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
LEMON BUCKET ORCHESTRA
LEMON BUCKET ORKESTRA are Toronto's original guerrilla-folk party-punk massive. The multi-award-winning ensemble has been heralded as a groundbreaking, genre-bending phenomenon by media and fans alike, and over the past 8 years have performed all over the world from WOMAD in New Zealand and Pohoda in Slovakia, to Festival D’Été in Québec City, and Luminato in Toronto. The Guardian proclaimed that their performances are "gorgeously sung and passionately played" and The New York Timesdeclared them "charismatic...handsome and ambitious.”
Equal parts exhilarating precision and reckless abandon, LBO’s live shows are a truly immersive experience - ranging from the ecstatic to the cathartic and all points in between - and they have expertly captured that unique blend of energy and emotion on their most recent album If I Had The Strength, with guest appearances from famed soprano Measha Brueggergosman, rising Latino rapper Boogát, sing-a-long phenoms Choir!Choir!Choir! and more.
LATCHO DROM
LATCHO DROM is a 1993 film by Tony Gatlif. The journey of the Romany people told through musicians and dancers of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, France, and Spain, a unique musical documentary tracing the Romani people’s migration from Northwestern India to Spain over the course of more than a thousand years. Through an extraordinary variety of song, music, and dance, director/writer Tony Gatlif brings Romani history to life. This vibrant musical heritage stands as a counterpoint to the darker realities of persecution faced by a nomadic culture in which family, honour and tradition are as essential to survival as water, transportation and food.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
2021 Something Else! Festival Series — Day 3
The third in-person sliver of, or more precisely, an actual, regular festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bayfront Park consists of four solid Southern Ontario special projects spearheaded respectively by RYAN DRIVER, PETER JOHNSTON, KURT NEWMAN, & BRODIE WEST, we will enjoy one full set of music each from THE TITILLATORS, SEE THROUGH 4, NASHVILLE MINIMALISM UNIT, & EUCALYPTUS. Hamilton guitarist CHRIS PALMER will also perform a solo acoustic set. PLUS, there will be exciting solo and one-off duet situations.
SCHEDULE
12:00 —> Chris Palmer
12:30 —> Nashville Minimalism Unit
13:30 —> Thom Gill
14:00 —> See Through 4
15:00 —> Chris Palmer & Brodie West
15:30 —> The Titillators
16:30 —> Nick Fraser & Germaine Liu
17:00 —> Eucalyptus
By donation…
Suggested donation $15-25 at the door…
…$15 advance via Eventbrite
NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS
EUCALYPTUS
Photo by Aaron Hutchinson
BRODIE WEST alto saxophone • RYAN DRIVER clavinet • KAREN NG alto saxophone • KURT NEWMAN guitar • MIKE SMITH bass • D. ALEX MEEKS percussion • NICK FRASER drums • EVAN CARTWRIGHT • drums
Brodie West was in the midst of a decade-long association with The Ex and Ethiopian saxophone legend Getatchew Mekuria when he formed Eucalyptus in 2009. The 12 year old all-star octet remains a distinct and beloved presence in Toronto. Languid, poppish melodicism rides a polyrhythmic web of eclectic rhythms inspired by various global traditions. All-out groove and freeform impulse conspire secretly to produce volatile, but radically accessible, hybrid forms.
THE TITILLATORS
Photo by Vegar Samuelsen
It is a rare privilege to encounter as original a musician as Toronto’s RYAN DRIVER, whom savvy locals know, for example, for mysterious, evocative synthesiser playing and vocals with the Cluttertones (a Hamilton favourite), for singing languorous, rapturous jazz standards (and originals; he’s a splendid composer) with his Quintet/ Sextet, and crucial roles in both, Titanium Riot (performed on July 24) and Eucalyptus (also a Hamilton regular, playing this very afternoon).
THE TITILLATORS is a recently conceived of band underpinned (almost literally) by Ryan Driver’s extraordinary street-sweeper-bristle bass, an actual tine of metal that he flicks off the side of a wooden block in a bewildering approximation of jazz bass playing.
Add three percussionists (GERMAINE LIU, D. ALEX MEEKS, EVAN CARTWRIGHT) playing all manner of things strewn about a colourful carpet, and a pair of synth players (TANIA GILL & THOM GILL) to play standards in ways that are whimsical, experimental, psychedelic, and consummately joyful.
SEE THROUGH 4
KAREN NG saxophone, TANIA GILL piano, and JAKE OELRICHS perform the compositions of bassist PETE JOHNSTON. SEE THROUGH 4’s performances blur the lines between composition and improvisation in the tradition of the Jimmy Giuffre 3, Carla Bley and Ornette Coleman, with some 1980s-era King Crimson mixed in to keep it real. Bill Meyer of The Wire says: “They swing with such a light touch you might almost miss their covertly proggy digressions.”
NASHVILLE MINIMALISM UNIT
Hovering right over the intersection of psychedelia, experimental composition, instrumental country, and free-improvisation, guitarist and pedal steel practitioner KURT NEWMAN’s exciting project NASHVILLE MINIMALISM UNIT comes in all shapes and sizes, utilizing many of Toronto’s finest improvisers, country & roots music aficionados, and fearless avant-gardists. KURT NEWMAN electric & pedal steel guitars, PETE JOHNSTON bass, & JAKE OELRICHS drums
The Nashville Minimalism Unit is an ensemble with shifting membership, drawing on the immense talents of the Toronto experimental jazz and bluegrass communities, dedicated to exploring the intersection of honky-tonk instrumental country and the cellular/ repetition-based composed music of the post-John Cage era.
Initially deriving inspiration from the pioneering explorations of Henry Flynt, the NMU has mutated into a looser and freer entity, culminating in the sound heard on its debut LP, Soldier's Joy Lurking at the heart of every NMU performance is the pedal steel guitar of Kurt Newman.
A free improvising guitarist in the European tradition since the late 90s, Newman studied classic Nashville pedal steel style with the legendary Neil Flanz (Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Charlie Louvin) in Austin, Texas in the 2000s, and has for years been immersed in the recorded history of electric country of the post-Hank Williams and pre-Garth Brooks period.
Playfully knotting and un-knotting these various obsessions and compulsions while keeping the good times going: our thing.
CHRIS PALMER
A truly original improvising guitarist with a keen sense of adventure, humour, fire, curiosity, and mischief, CHRIS PALMER can easily rock a house party or stun a literary audience, hypnotizing them with his charm and chops. Palmer has been playing guitar for nearly forty years in a variety of contexts.
For over a decade before moving to Canada from New Zealand, he was actively involved in the Wellington improvised and avant-rock music scene. He’s a fair third of the incendiary Hamilton free jazz unit Lee/Palmer/Bennett, with bassist David Lee and reeds player Connor Bennett.
This one-of-a-kind afternoon fiesta was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
2021 Something Else! Festival Series — Day 2
The second in-person sliver day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay consists of two solid projects, both gracing our stage for the first time, from Montreal & Toronto. We will enjoy at least two sets of music each from SILVERVEST: ZOMBIK & CALOIA + RYAN DRIVER QUINTET.
Suggested donation $20 at the door…or $18 in advance via Eventbrite
[OUR ADMISSION POLICY: NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS]
SILVERVEST: ZOMBIK & CALOIA
The unique Montreal duo of double bassist NICOLAS CALOIA and vocalist KIM ZOMBIK offers an elegant, skeletal take on song and harnesses power of vulnerability. Echoing the sophisticated songcraft of everyone from Joni Mitchell to Laurie Anderson, and even the eerie jazz malaise Archie Shepp's collaboration with Jeanne Lee, Blasé, Caloia and Zombik distill their 30+ years of varied experience through this project to offer something that's at once palatable, and unclassifiable—minimalist in execution but robust in impact. Sitting between the carefully mapped-out and daringly freeform, between popular sensibilities and avant garde restlessness SILVERVEST's sonic identity is clear, palpably melodic, yet always leaves room for intuition and boundless exploration.
RYAN DRIVER QUINTET
A peculiar lounge-jazz group that has been performing monthly in Toronto since 2001, this group breathes a strange new kind of life into popular ballads from the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. They fill their renditions with psychedelic improvisational meanderings, intertwinings, and the unexpectable amidst rich tenderness, utter heartbreak, and doorways into other worlds.
This iteration of The Ryan Driver Quintet features MARTIN ARNOLD on guitar, BRODIE WEST on alto saxophone and clarinet, BLAKE HOWARD on drums, DAN FORTIN on bass, and RYAN DRIVER on Wurlitzer electric piano and human voice.
Nick Storring wrote eloquently for Musicworks about their Stephen Parkinson Songbook album here.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
RYAN DRIVER by Andrew Wedman
SILVERVEST
2021 Something Else! Festival Series — Day 1
The very first in-person sliver of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay is a warm salute to one of Southern Ontario’s most valued and beloved composer-improvisers, trumpet players, and bandleaders, LINA ALLEMANO … a well-deserved send-off just before her annual pilgrimage to Berlin.
We will get to hear two of Lina’s marvellous bands. LINA ALLEMANO 4 for their second time in Hamilton, TITANIUM RIOT’s exciting inaugural performance here, and one of ROB CLUTTON-led, long-running, brilliant projects, CLUTTERTONES for their third visit here!
Cello-banjo duo of ANDREW DOWNING & TIM POSGATE, we’re very happy to hear for the first time. A one time Hamilton resident, BRODIE WEST solo sets have not been heard in 6-7 years here! Representing Hamilton always with generous panache and appropriate fire, glassEYElashes never disappoint. They will be a welcome edition to this love-in!
Performance Schedule:
12:00 —> Cluttertones
12:40 —> Brodie West Solo
13:00 —> Lina Allemano's Titanium Riot
14:00 —> Andrew Downing & Tim Posgate
15:00 —> G l a s s E Y E l a s h e s
16:00 —> Lina Allemano Four
Suggested donation $25 at the door…
or in advance via Eventbrite
[OUR ADMISSION POLICY: NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS]
LINA ALLEMANO FOUR
(Photo by Geert Vandepoele)
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet BRODIE WEST alto saxophone ANDREW DOWNING bass NICK FRASER drums
Hailed as one of Canada’s leading avant-garde / free-jazz bands, LINA ALLEMANO FOUR is known internationally for their inventiveness, playfulness, and synergy as they deftly blur the line between composition and improvisation. This exciting Toronto band has been touring extensively for the past 10+ years all across Europe, USA and Canada. Their music has been described as abstract melodicism, combining lush colours with dense free-flowing rhythmic textures.
linaallemano.com/lina-allemano-four
TITANIUM RIOT
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet RYAN DRIVER analog synth ROB CLUTTON electric bass NICK FRASER drums
Lina Allemano's TITANIUM RIOT is "imaginative... surreal... oddly compelling" [Wholenote Magazine].
Lina's Toronto-based TITANIUM RIOT is an accidentallypsychedelic improvising powerhouse with a unique electric-acoustic aesthetic, combining an unusual instrumentation of acoustic trumpet (with acoustic sound-manipulation), analog synth, electric bass, and drums. Called "uncompromisingly explorative" by Europe's experimental music journal Tokafi, the band creates episodic soundscapes and electrically-charged improvisational adventures that unfold with an inviting and organic ebb and flow. TITANIUM RIOT's evolutionary history has its roots in two of Lina's earlier experimental groups: "N" (founded 2005) which gradually fused together with the short-lived Titanium Trio (2010-2012) to form the current quartet incarnation in early 2013.
linaallemano.com/titanium-riot
CLUTTERTONES
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet ROB CLUTTON bass, composition RYAN DRIVER human voice, analogue synth, piano TIM POSGATE banjo, guitar
Bassist Rob Clutton has been a generous and inspiring contributor to Toronto creative music for decades. CLUTTERTONES is a chamber jazz quartet that exquisitely synthesizes his diverse interests – song, long-form composition, lyricism, extended improvisation, extreme textures, and more – through his seasoned bandmates. Cluttertones music reveals itself slowly, making countless subtle, mysterious insinuations in place of bold declarations. Disarmingly gorgeous melodies emerge from the fog of thorny group playing, often evoking the simplicity of folk music.
The group has been playing together for nearly a decade, and each of the members have long associations with the others in various projects. This music plays at the edges between known/unknown, concrete/abstract, solo/group, expression/process. Drawing from a broad range of experience—which includes jazz, European classical music, electronica, improvisation, folk, singer-songwriter, experimental—the Cluttertones play what some have called “otherworldly chamber music.”
RobClutton.com
GLASSEYELASHES
While a healthy number of song-based projects have successfully merged the wayward and soulful, Hamiltonian pop surrealists glassEYElashes make an utterly distinct contribution to the lineage. Grounded by the longtime musical partnership of SARAH GOOD (guitar, voice) and ANNIE SHAW (keyboards, voice) the duo more recently expanded to welcome the ubiquitous BECKY KATZ (percussion, vocals). Each member is voraciously prolific, contributing to a number of the city's recent most adventurous and peculiar musical acts and community initiatives including Earth, Wind, and Choir, Freaky Boos, Strangewaves, Sourpussy, and Pucumber Sasssquash Family Band, while gathering Hamilton Arts Awards, and appearing at local institutions such as Supercrawl and the HPO's What Next? Festival. glassEYElashes' music gleefully and irreverently mashes together the ramshackle rock of early Red Krayola or the Raincoats' The Odyshape, with the agile ethereality of artists such as Jane Siberry and Mary Margaret O'Hara.
glasseyelashes.bandcamp.com/music
ANDREW DOWNING & TIM POSGATE
More than a decade ago these two artists started playing duets together. Being neighbours made it easy and fun to get together in their backyards and play their instruments while sharing their favourite songs and beverages. Both musicians have gone on to make numerous recordings on bass, cello, banjo and guitar and continue to play eclectic music that is informed by jazz, folk and world music. ANDREW DOWNING’s most recent project is called Otterville and TIM POSGATE is part of an acoustic roots collective called So Long Seven. He also performs with Ronley Teper’s Lipliners, Cluttertones and Collette Savard and the Savants.
BRODIE WEST
Alto saxophonist BRODIE WEST of Eucalyptus, Ways, The Brodie West Quintet, The Ex and Getatchew Mekuria, The Lina Allemano 4, and The Ryan Driver Sextet. West studied composition in Amsterdam with Misha Mengelberg.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
Free Thursdays at AGH: Something Else! Preview #3 — Regional Edition
AGH Irving Zucker Sculpture Garden
Our first on-site performances of 2021! …still via Zoom, live-streamed.
4 Hamilton greats on one bill with improvising guitarist Chris Palmer performing a rare solo set, followed by a Hammer original, glassEYElashes.
CHRIS PALMER
A truly original improvising guitarist with a keen sense of adventure, humour, fire, curiosity, and mischief, Chris Palmer can easily rock a house party or stun a literary audience, hypnotizing them with his charm and chops. Palmer has been playing guitar for nearly forty years in a variety of contexts. For over a decade before moving to Canada from New Zealand, he was actively involved in the Wellington improvised and avant-rock music scene. He has appeared on a number of albums including Leila Adu’s debut album ‘Dig a Hole’ and was largely to blame for the Elephant Men release, ‘Let You Entertain Me’. He’s a fair third of the incendiary Hamilton free jazz unit Lee/Palmer/Bennett, with bassist David Lee and reeds player Connor Bennett. He also featured in a, let’s say, ‘cult’ film by Young Guns II director Geoff Murphy… which he doesn’t want to talk about.
GLASSEYELASHES
While a healthy number of song-based projects have successfully merged the wayward and soulful, Hamiltonian pop surrealists glassEYElashes make an utterly distinct contribution to the lineage. Grounded by the longtime musical partnership of Sarah Good (guitar, voice) and Annie Shaw (keyboards, voice) the duo more recently expanded to welcome the ubiquitous Becky Katz (percussion, vocals). Each member is voraciously prolific, contributing to a number of the city's recent most adventurous and peculiar musical acts and community initiatives including Earth, Wind, and Choir, Freaky Boos, Strangewaves, Sourpussy, and Pucumber Sasssquash Family Band, while gathering Hamilton Arts Awards, and appearing at local institutions such as Supercrawl and the HPO's What Next? Festival. glassEYElashes' music gleefully and irreverently mashes together the ramshackle rock of early Red Krayola or the Raincoats' The Odyshape, with the agile ethereality of artists such as Jane Siberry and Mary Margaret O'Hara.
glasseyelashes.bandcamp.com/music
Free Thursdays at AGH: 2021 Something Else! Preview #2 — Interactive Edition
On May 13, 2021 at 7 pm, we invite you to a Zoom meeting for our second preview of our 2021 programming (fingers crossed) with one of our partners, Art Gallery of Hamilton. To register, please click above or here. For more details and line up, see below.
Tabled for discussion are our plans at AGH and Bayfront Park later this year, short chats with some artists, and never before seen video and audio by some artists we hope will visit Something Else! Festival & Music Series and Watch it Burn! Composite Arts Series as soon as feasible. Here are the artists we’ll hear from, chat & play with on May 13 (yes, some of this session involves optional audience participation!):
IMAGINARY PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
GERMAINE LIU, JOE SORBARA, MARK ZURAWINSKI percussive things
LINA ALLEMANO FOUR
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet, composition
BRODIE WEST alto saxophone
ANDREW DOWNING double bass
NICK FRASER drums
BLOOP
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet
MIKE SMITH live-processing / effects
TITANIUM RIOT
LINA ALLEMANO trumpet
RYAN DRIVER analog synth
ROB CLUTTON electric bass
NICK FRASER drums
CCMC at AGH Pavilion Feb. 8, 2020
Rob Clutton Trio at Bayfront Park Oct. 17, 2020