In collaboration with Open Streets
12 Noon | EARTH, WIND & CHOIR + FARIDA AMADOU
Sarah Good conductor + vocalists:
Annie Shaw • Teresa Caterini • Bailey Duff • Olga Kirgidis • J Burbage • Katie Penrose • Jess Carey • Emily Sattler • Ian Challenger • Jon Dalton • Magda Tigchelaar • Chris Palmer • Siobhan Murphy • Amanda Jansen • Hope Wickett • Claire Doey
Their 7th year joining us, usually opening the festival, out of the 12 years of Something Else! has been at it, this ever-evolving local vocal institution Earth Wind & Choir first introduced their fun, adventurous sound some 15 years ago. Conductor Sarah Good plays the choir of 12-20 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.
Belgian-Nigerian bassist Farida Amadou who has been reinventing the electric bass for over a decade, playing a wide spectrum ranging from deep-listening ambient sounds to high-pressure noise and sound sculpture, will join the choir on a few numbers for the very first time.
1 pm | GEORGE CROTTY TRIO
Powered by a dynamic rhythm section of John Murchison on bass and Jeremy Smith on percussion, the George Crotty Trio’s sound deviates from a trio's typical hierarchy. The three players intertwine on their own spontaneous terms in an exploration of groove and colour, lending Crotty's tunes an exciting three-dimensional quality.
Known for their expressive fluidity and modal orientation, George Crotty Trio makes music that is cinematic, collaborative, and conversational. They draw on influences within Indian raga, Arabic maqam, and modal jazz; using the language of other cultures to speak new things. “I’m not at home in any one culture,” muses Crotty, “so the trio became my home.”
George Crotty has forged his own unique vocabulary on the cello. A member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Detroit-based National Arab Orchestra, he has also worked with esteemed musicians such as Bob Ezrin, Adam Rudolph, Simon Shaheen, and Paquito D’Rivera.
Crotty has performed as a soloist and bandleader in North America and Europe including at the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Markham Jazz Festival, Small World Music Festival, Copenhagen Vinterjazz Festival, and New Directions Cello Festival.
2 pm | NAOMI MCCARROLL-BUTLER w/CHIK WHITE
Naomi McCarroll-Butler plays saxophone, clarinet, flute, jaw harp, guitar, various homemade whistles and noise machines. She's involved with a wide community of collaborators crossing locale, genre and discipline including free jazz, DIY punk, singer-songwriter, durational drone, contemporary classical, and traditional and contemporary strains of Iranian, Turkish and Arabic music. She has recorded on about 40 albums and plays in the touring bands of Jeremy Dutcher, Pinksnail, Quinton Barnes and Beverly Glenn Copeland.
Her music draws from drone, noise, Irish and Scottish traditional music, protestant hymns, the free jazz tradition, alternate tuning systems (historical, modal and experimental), and often investigates mysticism, anarchism and the body horror and ecstasy of trans embodiment. Oscillations of maximalism and minimalism as the one fractals out and the discrete transforms to the continuous. Eldritch folk-drone-static/ecstatic. She sometimes performs under the name Mer Agatha, a song project that uses voice, guitar, whistles and live processing. From a family of musicians, teachers and radical ministers in Hamilton Ontario, nurtured in Toronto's Tranzac improvised music community, she's now based in Montreal.
Following Naomi’s short solo set, her longtime collaborator joins in, visiting us all the way from West Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia, chik white plays jaw harp with astoundingly visceral intensity, an energetic echo of his background as a member of East Coast punk, doom metal, and noise rock bands.
Chik and Naomi recently released st!mmng, a duo album of improvisations on jaw harps and winds, on UK label Soundholes. In his review of the album in The Wire, Byron Coley says “the interaction between the players is like listening to a couple of birds discussing the nature of reality.”
3 pm | EUCALYPTUS
BRODIE WEST alto saxophone, clarinet • ALINE HOMZY violin • RYAN DRIVER keyboards • KURT NEWMAN guitar • MIKE SMITH bass • NICK FRASER drums • ROBIN BUCKLEY drums • BLAKE HOWARD percussion
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 all-star, evolving 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.
Eucalyptus is an eight-piece group that “manages to combine the accessible and avant-garde in an appealing way,” writes Kerry Doole in Exclaim! Led by Toronto-based composer/saxophonist Brodie West, the band features an all-star lineup of musicians from Toronto’s improvising music community. Their eclectic style incorporates aspects of pop, jazz and the avant-garde. West’s compositions feature syncopated rhythms inspired by calypso, dancehall, and bossa nova, played with collective free improvisation reminiscent of Sun Ra, Globe Unity Orchestra, or the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
FREE EVENT
Reserve space via EVENTBRITE
Donations appreciated, not mandatory
2025 Something Else! Festival at-a-glance
Sunday, June 22, 2025 events
In our 12th year of operation, as Zula Presents Something Else!, we are most grateful to Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, and The City of Hamilton for their financial support to make these festival events possible. We would also like to acknowledge and thank our partners Hamilton Public Library and Open Streets for their kind support and enthusiasm. As well, much gratitude goes to our diligent media partners Musicworks, Music Buddy, and CFMU.