7 pm | EARTH WIND & CHOIR
Sarah Good conductor
+ vocalists: Shannon Aitken • David Bird • Mike Caminiti • Tee Caterini • lan Challenger • Adrienne Connelly • Claire D • Jon Dalton • Bailey Duff • Allison Griffin • Amanda Jansen • Siobhan Murphy • Chris Palmer • Katie Penrose • Emily Sattler • Jac de Schutter • Annie Shaw • Magda Tigchelaar • Grace Tovah • Gaby Tuba • Anne Varasso • Hope Wicket
Their 8th year joining us, usually opening the festival, out of the 13 iterations of Something Else!, the 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.
7:45 pm | GHOST VARIABLES
Ghost Variables is an improvising ensemble based in Hamilton, Ontario. Do they play jazz? The US scholar Thomas Brothers calls “jazz music” the interaction of the fixed, and the variable. Ghost Variables, as a musical ensemble, inhabit the region between the fixed – what is known, and the variable – what is yet to be played.
Connor Bennett is known as a saxophonist with such ensembles as Blue Moss, Ylang Ylang, and Tidal Pool, and as a designer of custom mouthpieces. Author David Lee is a veteran bassist in Canadian ensembles for many years, reedsman Gary Barwin is a performance poet with a PhD in musical composition, and percussionist Mike Hansen is a sound and installation artist, painter who has recorded with Michael Snow, Glen Hall, and John Butcher. Chris Palmer, a guitar teacher and choral soloist, has played with Lee as onstage musicians in the acclaimed Sky Gilbert play “Pat and Skee”, and as ⅓ of Lee-Palmer-Bennett on their CD “The Phantom Hunter.”
8:30 PM | AGALAWATTE-BENNETT-THORN
A first time meeting of three disparate worlds that is sure to be a treat!
Nimal Agalawatte performs in a wide range of projects and joins us for a palate-cleansing, bone-rattling, intense contribution on no-input mixing board. Nim is a sound technician for local venues, events, and runs regular events for featuring 2SLGBTQIA+ musicians in Hamilton and Southern Ontario while not touring with various projects.
Hamilton resident reeds player Connor Bennett starts 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 is as ubiquitous as he is indispensable within the local arts ecosystem. He played saxophone in Haolin Munk, Eschaton, Lee/Palmer/Bennett and was a founding member of HAVN, as well as currently performing in Blue Moss, Black Moss, and Ghost Variables.
Harpist Elisa Thorn performs in many contemporary contexts from pop to jazz to experimental. Interested in the intersection between composed and improvised music, she is involved with many projects including HUE, The Giving Shapes, and Gentle Party, and works alongside many artists such as Mauvey, Tonye Aganaba, Loscil and Mother Mother.
9 PM | AVRAM FEFER’S JUBA LEE 4TET
Avram Fefer alto and tenor saxophones, composition
Anders Nilsson electric guitar
Hilliard Greene double bass
Hamid Drake drums, percussion
“Inspired by the musical worlds of Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Ali Farka Toure, Ethiopian Jazz, Gnawa, and Charles Mingus, Avram Fefer has forged a highly original sound within a modern jazz context.” - All About Jazz
“Global spiritual music — embracing a concept of jazz that highlights the transcendental power of groove, the narrative power of melody, and the intellectual power of improvisation.”
Avram Fefer began his jazz life as an expat in Paris, where he played with Archie Shepp, The Last Poets, Sunny Murray, Rasul Siddik, Graham Haynes, and John Betsch. It was also in Paris that he first became interested in West African and Arabic music, playing with a variety of musicians from Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, and Morocco.
This all-star lineup of the Juba Lee 4tet draws on Fefer’s work with a diverse range of ensembles – African, Latin, Indian, Eastern European, modern classical, funk, drum ‘n’ bass, and every type of jazz under the sun, as a long-term member of large groups like Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra and Adam Rudolph’s Go:Organic Orchestra and in small groups or solo, as in the Resonant Sculpture Project – Fefer’s series of improvisational interactions with the monumental sculptures of Richard Serra.
“Compositionally, I tend to use the guitar as a front-line foil, a kind of punk alter-ego to my jazzy saxophone, often playing lyrical unison lines, slightly off from each other. We usually try to hone in on the narrative, storytelling aspect of the tune, while the bass and drums create a constant underpinning of implied dance rhythms, bubbling up occasionally to overtake the guitar/sax with their own energy and story to tell.
We play music with a wide emotional range, conveying diverse imagery—heartfelt ballads, late-night urban streets, the vastness and longing of the desert or sea, and powerful, groove-based, melodic improvisation.
Our repertoire is definitely modern and reflects the contemporary landscape of our times, but it's also deeply rooted in our personal stories, reflecting the intertwining narratives of our prodigious cultures. Deeply rooted in blues, spirituals, and songs of Liberation, I often juxtapose strong sensations --- joy and grief, simplicity and complexity, hope and desperation, structure and freedom, lyricism and chaos. Soothing rhythmic or melodic gestures create a safe space for the musical intensity ahead. The audience is drawn in, immersed, challenged, provoked, and transformed.
– Avram Fefer
Thursday Evening Ticket:
$33 advance/ $40 door (1 event, 4 sets)
Festival Pass:
$135 (6 ticketed events, 21 sets, $185-225 value)
Discounted Advance Tickets & Passes:
E-transfer (no fee) tix@zulapresents.org or EVENTBRITE (+fee)
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds
2026 Something Else! Festival at-a-glance
In our 13th year of operation, as Zula Presents Something Else!, we are most grateful to 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 for their kind support and enthusiasm. As well, much gratitude goes to our diligent media partners Musicworks, Music Buddy, and CFMU.