(London, UK)

ALEXANDER HAWKINS TRIO

ALEXANDER HAWKINS piano NEIL CHARLES bass HARRIS EISENSTADT drums

Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is “unlike anything else in modern creative music” (Ni Kantu) and whose recent work has reached a “dazzling new apex” (Downbeat). He was first introduced to Canadian audiences through last year’s tour with the great South African drummer Louis Moholo. His first Hamilton appearance finds him in a powerhouse trio with the Canadian (now Brooklyn-based) drummer Harris Eisenstadt (whose own quartet played in the first Something Else! Festival in 2014), and British bassist Neil Charles.

“British pianist Alexander Hawkins is an erudite improviser who embraces the entirety of jazz history—he’s that rare European player who doesn’t need to denigrate or shake off American traditions in order to celebrate his own. He’s incredibly versatile, bringing something special to every context, and I’ve never been more satisfied with his work than on this nimble trio album—he expresses clear affection for Ellington, Monk, and Herbie Nichols, among others, even as he stakes out his own turf.” Peter Margasek — Chicago Reader

(Montreal/Ottawa/Peterborough)

DUSK SCORED DARK

VICKY METTLER guitar CRAIG PEDERSEN trumpet MARK MOLNAR cello BENNETT BEDOUKIAN drums

Dusk Scored Dark is an acoustic quartet that uses electronics to transform acoustic improvisations into an immersive performance experience. DSD are known to Hamilton new music audiences from performances at Artword Artbar and HAVN. They bring passion and virtuosity to a project that draws the audience into its sonic imaginative world.

(US/Denmark)

MTT TRIO (DORJI/RASMUSSEN/DAMON)

TASHI DORJI guitar METTE RASMUSSEN alto saxophone TYLER DAMON drums

MTT Trio unites Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, Bhutan-via-Asheville, NC guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon. Mette Rasmussen draws from a wide range of influences, spanning free jazz to textural soundwork. Tashi Dorji was born in Bhutan and started playing guitar as a teenager, first influenced by flamenco and classical music he heard on shortwave radio, and later by the far-ranging music of Albert Ayler, John Zorn and Derek Bailey. Tyler Damon is a Bloomington, IN-based artist whose work aims to reveal obscured and untold narratives via drums/percussion & free improvisation.

(Hamilton)

KINDS OF LIGHTENING

JOSH ST. DENIS guitar, electronics CONNOR BENNETT reeds, electronics

Magnificent Hamilton duo of Josh St. Denis & Connor Bennett will be busy “lightening” things electro-acoustically… colourful, out there and in the moment kind of expression, adventurous music making.

(Vancouver/Hamilton)

GORD GRDINA & DAVE GOULD

GORD GRDINA oud, guitar DAVE GOULD percussive strings, percussion

Vancouver guitarist/oud player Gordon Grdina combines post-jazz improvisation with influences from a wide range of world music. “Truthfulness and direct expression are so important,” he says. “It’s when you try and think your way through the concepts that you run into problems.” For this unique set Grdina is paired with Hamilton’s own Dave Gould. Winner of the 2013 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Performance, Gould is known throughout the city as a percussionist, as a children’s performer, and as a unique soloist whose instruments made from bone and antler open up a new world of improvised sounds. A once-in a lifetime pairing!

(Nova Scotia/Toronto/Hamilton)

THE SPOKES

ARTHUR BULL guitar, vocals, harmonica DAVID LEE double bass BOB VESPAZIANI percussion +CHRIS PALMER guitar

The Spokes brings together a range of talents to play a distinctive brand of free, cosmic blues. Guitarist Arthur Bull, with his tiny hollow-bodied Gibson, hails from Digby Neck, Nova Scotia, and has played with such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell, the Bill Smith Ensemble, poet Paul Dutton and legendary British guitarist Mike Cooper. Percussionist Bob Vespaziani is active in both the Blues and Improvisational music scenes in Canada, playing with Snake Oil Johnson, Julian Fauth and Taki Oto. Bassist David Lee, familiar to Hamilton audiences from his work with Gary Barwin and his trio with Chris Palmer and Connor Bennett, also has a long musical resume, including work with such musicians as Al Neil, Joe McPhee and Leo Smith. Their special guest for these Hamilton performances will be local guitar whiz Chris Palmer.

(Hamilton)

ESCHATON

AARON HUTCHINSON trumpet, synthesizer, electronics, percussion CONNOR BENNETT saxophones, bass, vocals

Last fall, Zula presented Eschaton on the same bill as the trio In the Sea with the great Tristan Honsinger, Nick Caloia and Jesse Zubot. Zula is proud to present this much-loved Hamilton duo again in this year’s Something Else! Festival.. outside! Aaron Hutchinson (trumpet, synthesizer, electronics, percussion) and Connor Bennett (saxophone, bass, vocals) constitute this soulful Hamilton noise duo, which creates thick textural noise with vulnerable horn expressions, narrative soundscapes that breathe, bend and distort. They have released four cassettes, and a 2014 tour tape out of the HAVN label, and can also be heard on the long-awaited Perdu Hamilton release. Come and listen to Eschaton as they offer a transformative future for Canadian music!

(Hamilton)

THE PROSPERO B. RAPPINI ARKASTRA

PROSPERO B. flute, bass DAN LOGAN guitar MONIKA MINNIS drums

Jazz standards and music of Monk, Mingus, Coltrane, Miles, Shorter, Jobim, Porter and more… by enthusiastic Hamilton unit.

(Hamilton/Toronto)

LEE BARWIN 3

GARY BARWIN alto saxophone, flute, text RYAN BARWIN pedal steel guitar DAVID LEE bass

The Lee Barwin 3 are indicative of the new waves in the arts that are making the Hamilton cultural scene one of the most vibrant on the continent. Poet/saxophonist Gary Barwin has been known for years as the city’s most dynamic and imaginative literary performer … and in recent months, as a bestselling novelist, as his Yiddish for Pirates climbs the Canadian bestseller charts. Ryan Barwin is an in-demand Toronto steel guitarist, who has worked with the Woody Allens, Northern Empties, the Mike Plume Band, Local 164, Ray Harris, Uncle Sean & the Shifty Drifters, Lefty McRighty, Pete VanDyk, Single Bed Carousel, the Key Frames, Justin Sawicki, bumpHEAD, and many others. David Lee, as well as authoring the recent Hamilton-based horror novel The Midnight Games, is a visionary acoustic bassist who has played from coast to coast as well as in the USA and Europe. The Lee Barwin 3’s combination of improvisation, texts and textures is like nothing you’ve ever heard.

(Hamilton)

HAOLIN MUNK

Haolin Munk have become a favourite with Hamilton audiences thanks to their good humour and wide-ranging repertoire. The quartet with Connor Bennett and Chris Ferguson (saxophones), Josh Wiener (bass) and Aaron Hutchinson (drums) have become an emblem of the fresh wave of youthful creativity for which the Hammer is becoming known. They are part of the proactive HAVN (Hamilton Visual Arts Node) downtown arts community: “a jazz quartet that plays a range of music from Miles Davis to Black Flag. This band will blow your mind with their chops and force you to move your feet with their grooves.”

(Sweden/Norway/Chicago)

The Thing with last minute guest Ken Vandermark

MATS GUSTAFSSONz tenor & baritone saxophone INGEBRIGT HÅKER FLATEN double & electric bass PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE drums (subbing for Mats Gustafsson) KEN VANDERMARK bariton saxophone & clarinette

In a legendary moment for the Something Else! festival. Mats could not make the trip,and Ken Vandermark agree to fly in from Chicago at the last minute.

Mixing jazz with noise, avant-rock and punk, the music of The Thing has been described as ‘garage-free jazz’ and ‘improv-punk’. The band was established in 1999 when the three musicians met to play their interpretation of Don Cherry tunes. Since then The Thing has grown into one of the most successful and hardest working free jazz trio’s around, traveling all over the world. They have performed with guests like Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore, Peter Evans and Neneh Cherry. One of the most appealing facets of The Thing is the visceral experience of seeing them play live. Huddled closely on stage, wearing matching Ruby’s BBQ of Austin t-shirts, dripping with sweat and manhandling their instruments, the trio is one of the modern wonders of avant-garde jazz. Andrey Henkin, AAJ

For over fifteen years the “gnarly, impolite improvising trio” The Thing have been reminding audiences around the world of the sheer transformative power of free jazz. This Norwegian/Swedish jazz trio–Mats Gustafsson (saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten(double & electric bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)—have recorded with such musicians as Joe McPhee and Neneh Cherry, and over and over again in Canada they’ve wowed audiences at venues such as Toronto’s Tranzac and The Rex. The Guardian have called The Thing a “seething radioactive beast” and The Wire has tagged their free rhythm style “more akin to garage rock than free jazz.” Hamilton’s alternative arts scene has never seen anything quite like The Thing—their two Saturday night concerts will give us a night to remember!

(Montreal)

PLINC! PLONC!

JEAN DEROME alto saxophone, flute, objects PIERRE TANGUAY percussion, objects

Saxophonist Jean Derome and percussionist Pierre Tanguay have been collaborating since the early ’80s in Les Patenteux du Québec (where all musicians play on invented instruments), Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms, and the Thelonious Monk tribute trio Évidence. In Plinc! Plonc! They present a duo in which, as François Couture writes in Rovis, “the fun they have crosses to the audience.” With Derome on reeds, bird calls and jew’s harp, and Tanguay on percussion, Plinc! Plonc “reminds us that avant-garde music need not always be self-centered and serious.”

Two masters of improvisation, two maniacs of music, two crackpots of invention, they seem to be doing absolutely everything in this plink-plonk festival short of getting up and dancing to their own music. A significant and essential testimony about improvised music and the joy Jean Derome and Pierre Tanguay experience when playing together.

(Sweden/Norway/Chicago)

The Thing with last minute guest Ken Vandermark

MATS GUSTAFSSONz tenor & baritone saxophone INGEBRIGT HÅKER FLATEN double & electric bass PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE drums (subbing for Mats Gustafsson) KEN VANDERMARK bariton saxophone & clarinette

In a legendary moment for the Something Else! festival. Mats could not make the trip,and Ken Vandermark agree to fly in from Chicago at the last minute.

Mixing jazz with noise, avant-rock and punk, the music of The Thing has been described as ‘garage-free jazz’ and ‘improv-punk’. The band was established in 1999 when the three musicians met to play their interpretation of Don Cherry tunes. Since then The Thing has grown into one of the most successful and hardest working free jazz trio’s around, traveling all over the world. They have performed with guests like Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore, Peter Evans and Neneh Cherry. One of the most appealing facets of The Thing is the visceral experience of seeing them play live. Huddled closely on stage, wearing matching Ruby’s BBQ of Austin t-shirts, dripping with sweat and manhandling their instruments, the trio is one of the modern wonders of avant-garde jazz. Andrey Henkin, AAJ

For over fifteen years the “gnarly, impolite improvising trio” The Thing have been reminding audiences around the world of the sheer transformative power of free jazz. This Norwegian/Swedish jazz trio–Mats Gustafsson (saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten(double & electric bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)—have recorded with such musicians as Joe McPhee and Neneh Cherry, and over and over again in Canada they’ve wowed audiences at venues such as Toronto’s Tranzac and The Rex. The Guardian have called The Thing a “seething radioactive beast” and The Wire has tagged their free rhythm style “more akin to garage rock than free jazz.” Hamilton’s alternative arts scene has never seen anything quite like The Thing—their two Saturday night concerts will give us a night to remember!

(Montreal/Toronto)

THOMSON/VORVIS DUO

SCOTT THOMSON trombone JACK VORVIS drums

This year’s Something Else! Listening Artist in Residence, Scott Thomson is a virtuoso trombonist, the founder of the important Toronto performance space Somewhere There, and a composer who in recent years has been increasingly commissioned to create “cartographic compositions” in which he uses space and movement to mount large-ensemble site-specific works. Percussionist Jack Vorvis, on the other hand, is something of an underground legend. He’s played with CCMC, cut a duo album with Michael Snow, and has a recurring duo with multi-reed player Jeremy Strachan, but this rare appearance with Scott Thomson is a noteworthy event. The Toronto blog Mechanical Forest Sound calls their duo music “ridiculously tasty stuff … hopefully we’ll be hearing some more from this pairing.”

(Montreal)

CASTOR ET COMPAGNIE

JOANE HÉTU voice, alto saxophone, objects JEAN DEROME alto saxophone, flutes, small keyboard, objects, voice DIANE LABROSSE accordion, sampler, computer, voice PIERRE-YVES MARTEL electric bass, synthesizer PIERRE TANGUAY drums, voice

hroughout an unusual career, Joane Hétu has carved her own place on the Canadian creative music scene. A woman of reason and passion, she mostly expresses her art through the voice and the alto sax, two instruments she approaches in a similar way, bringing into a unique symbiosis the flexibility of one and the urgency of the other. She is self-taught and played in the cutting-edge groups Wondeur Brass, Justine and Les Poules, whose resolutely avant-garde rock carried her throughout North America and Europe. Later she reinvented the sensual song format through the prism of musique actuelle with her own band Castor et compagnie. Since then, she has left rock music behind, but still flirts with song, particularly with the duo Nous perçons les oreilles, in which she continues to explore the narrow line between laughter and tears.

Active since the 1970s, the duo of Joane Hétu and Jean Derome are Montreal’s First Family of modern jazz. With Diane Labrosse (sampler, keyboards) and drummer Pierre Tanguay, the quartet Castor et compagnie brings together Hétu’s music and texts, in a cycle of songs for lovers of senses, sense and sounds, noise and lyricism, pleasure and eroticism. The lyrics were inspired by the vocabulary of Hindu erotic books, Arabic love games and a few saucy songs. Their music is “daring and energetic, made of turbulent atmospheres, evocative lullabies and even love songs.” Composer/performer Hétu “takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways” (Hollow Ear, USA). In its unique blend of musical traditions, this quintet points new directions in jazz and song. Hétu returns with the quintet (with new addition Martel), all established performers in the Montreal’s vibrant improvised music scene, these artists have been busy creating that Montreal signature sound for decades… the epitome of Quebecoise art music with heart!

(Montreal/Toronto)

THE RENT

SCOTT THOMSON trombone KYLE BRENDERS reeds WES NEAL bass NICK FRASER drums

We don’t determine music,
The music determines us;
We only follow it
To the end of our life:
Then it goes on without us.

So said the great American composer/saxophonist Steve Lacy (1934-2004), who played with Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor and Gil Evans, and who turned John Coltrane on to the distinctive sound of the soprano saxophone. With his own unique viewpoint and set of collaborators, Montreal trombonist (and this year’s Something Else! Listening Artist in Residence) Scott Thomson has been following Lacy’s music for almost a decade with his ensemble The Rent. Featuring Toronto saxophonist Kyle Brenders (leader of the newly-formed Massey Hall Band), bassist Wes Neal, and drummer Nick Fraser (familiar to Hamiltonians from his recent concert here with Lina Allemano), The Rent turns Lacy’s durable compositions into exciting improvisations that give a new spin to the jazz tradition.

(Montreal)

Nous perçons les oreilles Performance/Discussion/Workshop (Free)

JOANE HÉTU voice, alto saxophone, objects JEAN DEROME alto saxophone, flutes, small keyboard, objects, voice

Two saxophones, two voices; two gargoyles, two satyrs; two forces of nature that agitate, whistle, squeek, scrape, blow, and bite, transforming music into a secular incantation and a banquet of sound. This magnificent duo will perform a potent set of music for their attentive audience, followed by / peppered with general discussion on improvisation along with sharing of some technical details, depending on the audience interest, curiosity and desire.

Nous perçons les oreiles is a rather peculiar duo, down to its very instrumentation. There is a certain symmetry at its core: two alto saxophones improvising together, but the sax players also sing, one relaying the other to a point where, in some places, there is no way of knowing who plays what. A hall of mirrors, symbiotic work. A duality blending into one, just like two ears sending different and complementary signals to the same brain.

(Amsterdam/Brooklyn/Chicago)

LUC EX’ ASSEMBLÉE

INGRID LAUBROCK tenor saxophone AB BAARS tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi LUC EX acoustic bass guitar HAMID DRAKE drums

There is nothing quite like the cross-Atlantic connections one hears in Luc Ex’ Ensemble. Hamid Drake, a master drummer from the vibrant Chicago scene, collaborates with two talented Amsterdam players and a German ex-pat. Using classic “jazz” elements such as strong melodies, and syncopated rhythms, Luc Ex’ Ensemble welcomes free solos, and mixes them up with pop and noise arrangements and passionate and energetic rhythms. London Jazz News calls this quartet with “their innate sense of musical vision … a master class.”

London Jazz News Concert Review

(Montreal)

CASTOR ET COMPAGNIE

JOANE HÉTU voice, alto saxophone, objects JEAN DEROME alto saxophone, flutes, small keyboard, objects, voice DIANE LABROSSE accordion, sampler, computer, voice PIERRE-YVES MARTEL electric bass, synthesizer PIERRE TANGUAY drums, voice

Throughout an unusual career, Joane Hétu has carved her own place on the Canadian creative music scene. A woman of reason and passion, she mostly expresses her art through the voice and the alto sax, two instruments she approaches in a similar way, bringing into a unique symbiosis the flexibility of one and the urgency of the other. She is self-taught and played in the cutting-edge groups Wondeur Brass, Justine and Les Poules, whose resolutely avant-garde rock carried her throughout North America and Europe. Later she reinvented the sensual song format through the prism of musique actuelle with her own band Castor et compagnie. Since then, she has left rock music behind, but still flirts with song, particularly with the duo Nous perçons les oreilles, in which she continues to explore the narrow line between laughter and tears.

Active since the 1970s, the duo of Joane Hétu and Jean Derome are Montreal’s First Family of modern jazz. With Diane Labrosse (sampler, keyboards) and drummer Pierre Tanguay, the quartet Castor et compagnie brings together Hétu’s music and texts, in a cycle of songs for lovers of senses, sense and sounds, noise and lyricism, pleasure and eroticism. The lyrics were inspired by the vocabulary of Hindu erotic books, Arabic love games and a few saucy songs. Their music is “daring and energetic, made of turbulent atmospheres, evocative lullabies and even love songs.” Composer/performer Hétu “takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways” (Hollow Ear, USA). In its unique blend of musical traditions, this quintet points new directions in jazz and song. Hétu returns with the quintet (with new addition Martel), all established performers in the Montreal’s vibrant improvised music scene, these artists have been busy creating that Montreal signature sound for decades… the epitome of Quebecoise art music with heart!

(Oakland/Brooklyn)

The Out Louds

BEN GOLDBERG clarinets MARY HALVORSON guitar TOMAS FUJIWARA drums

Out of the washing machine and into the fire with new arrangements of previously-forgotten melodies and a little something for every taste. May or may not include a special mystery guest…

This “supergroup of spontaneity” is on the road celebrating their new self-named album on Relative Pitch Records. The band put out a collection of their performances that took form as they were recording them. Mary Halvorson has been called “the most forward-thinking guitarist working right now” (NPR.org) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Village Voice). Ben Goldberg is known as the founder of the New Klezmer Trio, and Downbeat has called him “one of the most vibrant, flexible, and inventive clarinetists in jazz and improvised music.” The New York Times has praised Tomas Fujiwara for “a conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.” Set in an intimate Hamilton venue, this chance to hear one of the best groups of the new jazz is not to be missed.

Something Else Reviews: Tomas Fujiwara, Ben Goldberg + Mary Halvorson – The Out Louds (2016)

(Montreal)

Scott Thomson Solo

Our Listening Artist in Residence, Scott Thomson is an improvising trombonist, composer, producer, writer, and listener based in Montreal. His varied work and play reflect his profound interest in music as social life. Scott will play a short solo set to welcome us all… warmly!