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

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

ochs.cc/groups/ochs-robinson-duo.html

[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

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!

facebook.com/eschatoneschaton

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.

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.

somenewmusic.com

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.

thewoodshedorchestra.com

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.

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)

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

solongseven.com

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.

facebook.com/gilliammilminepottie

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.

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.

adreanfarrugia.com

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.

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

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!

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).

arthbull.ca

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

brodiewest.com

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.

scottthomson.ca

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.

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

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.

ellwoodepps.ca/togetherness

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.

eyevintrio.bandcamp.com

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

lemonbucket.com

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.

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

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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 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

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

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

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

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.

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