SUSANNA HOOD’S PACKET 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

ADMISSION
$15 advance purchase via Eventbrite or $20 at the door
[NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS]

Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports will be required.

​​The Michael Formanek’s Drome Trio consists of Michael Formanek on double bass, Chet Doxas on tenor and soprano saxophones, and clarinet, and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums. They have played together in different configurations since 2018 and have worked on music collectively as a trio since mid-2020. They are all composers and bandleaders and cover a huge range of musical territory between them. This incarnation focuses primarily on the compositions of Michael Formanek.

Their first recording as a group, Were We Where We Were, will be released in March 2022 on Formanek’s Circular File Records label on CD, limited edition vinyl, and digital formats. The stunning dark blue opaque vinyl LP was mastered by Alex DeTurk. It comes in a full color gatefold jacket adorned with original artwork by Stewart III and was designed by Steve Byram and Warren Linn. The music is based on a set of musical palindromes that started out as graphic scores and were then reinterpreted into conventional music notation. For live performances in 2022 their concerts will center around this set of compositions and will also feature a selection of pieces from their vast collective trove of varied repertoire.
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Michael Formanek has been described as “a bold and unclassifiable bassist and composer,” while The New York Times has noted that his music is always “graceful in its subversions, often even sumptuous.” Whether it’s for a small band or a large ensemble, he creates modern jazz that is earthy yet atmospheric, always alive with dark-hued melody and bone-deep rhythms, rich in dynamic possibility and the sound of surprise. Even with decades of experience to his credit – he got his start as a Bay Area teenager playing with the likes of Joe Henderson and Tony Williams – Formanek has made some of his keenest creative leaps in recent years, documented on a sequence of justly lauded recordings. His three ECM albums as a leader each scored rare five-star reviews in DownBeat. These included two discs – Small Places (2012) and The Rub and Spare Change (2010) – featuring a powerhouse quartet with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver; the third was a magnificent record – The Distance (2016) – that showcased his compositions for an all-star big band, playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. Formanek’s first album for the Intakt label, Time Like This (2018), saw him leading his new Elusion Quartet with saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Kris Davis and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith to “soul-stirring” effect, according to All About Jazz. Formanek’s latest release from Intakt Records, Imperfect Measures, his second solo bass recording was released in mid-2021. Were We Where We Were by the Michael Formanek Drome Trio with saxophonist/clarinetist Chet Doxas, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza will be released in March 2022 on his newly minted label, Circular File Records.

Chet Doxas is a multiple Juno Award nominee whose playing was also featured on the Grammy and Academy Award nominated soundtrack, Les Triplettes de Belleville, and in 2019 was awarded SOCAN’s Haygood Hardy Award. Now based in Brooklyn, NY since 2014, Chet leads and co-leads several projects including The Chet Doxas Trio, Doxas Brothers Quartet, Landline, and Rich in Symbols. Since this move, he has had the opportunity to perform alongside or record with: Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Dave Douglas, John Abercrombie, Michael Formanek and Ethan Iverson.

Vinnie Sperrazza is a Brooklyn-based jazz drummer. He has made a mark on the New York Jazz community with his swinging, enthusiastic playing and his commitment to original projects. He has released three full-length albums of original compositions for Loyal Label and Positone Records, is planning a release of a trio album of original music with pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Michael Formanek for 2022, and has played on over 70 albums as a sideman. Notable touring has been with Stew and Heidi Rodewald in Stew and The Negro Problem and the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Pepperland with a score by Ethan Iverson. He is a member of the Hank Roberts Sextet and Hank Roberts Trio, tours and records with the groups Landline, the Choir Invisible, Ember featuring Orrin Evans, Matt Bauder's Hearing Things, Vinnie Sperrazza-Jacob Sacks-Masa Kamaguchi PLAY, and trioTrio, and collaborates closely with bandleaders/composers Mike McGinnis and Michael Formanek.

ADMISSION
$15 advance purchase via Eventbrite or $20 at the door
[NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS]

Limited capacity, masks, social distancing and vaccine passports will be required.

A rare and exciting opportunity to see two masters of jazz improvising together in a duo situation. Sure to be a transcendent and beautifully challenging exploration of the outer limits of instrumental expression, this duo features two of the most idiosyncratic musical talents.

New York based jazz pianist, composer and recording artist Russ Lossing is known worldwide for his highly personal and unique improvising voice. Lossing has composed over 400 works and has an international reputation as a world-class improviser. Lossing has twelve releases as leader on Hat Hut, Clean Feed, Fresh Sound, Double Time and OmniTone record labels. Lossing worked with Motian for over twelve years both as leader of his own trios and as sideman in the Paul Motian Quintet playing at the Village Vanguard in New York.

Samuel Blaser is a 21st century trombonist. Born in 1981 in the town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Swizterland, he emerged professionally after graduating from conservatory in 2002. During the next five years he developed associations with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the European Radio Big Band, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, pursued graduate studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, State University of New York, and recorded his first album as a leader, the Samuel Blaser Quartet’s 7th Heaven (Between The Lines). Since 2009 he has been based in Berlin.

The foundations of Blaser’s art are the breadth of his influences, his technical fluency, and the clarity with which he applies these assets. He grew up learning classical and Swiss folk music as well as jazz, and his projects include jazz-informed investigations of operatic, rock stead, and blues music. He understands that growth is relational, and has sought out and sustained relationships with veteran and senior musicians, such as Pierre Favre, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ducret, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, and Daniel Humair, all of whom have helped him to develop his own sense of who he is. He exercises the full range of the trombone’s possibilities, including fluid melodic statements, emphatic rhythmic punctuations, earthy interjections, and abstract sound effects, with a clear sense of purpose. He approaches each endeavor as a leader and collaborator with a clear sense of purpose, knowing what he wants to accomplish and what each musical situation requires from him. Blaser’s responsiveness is never more evident than in his solo performances, which use his bold sound to draw out the qualities of both architectural and environmental settings.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced all musicians to suspend touring. But Blaser’s response illustrated another aspect of his resourcefulness. While he was off the road, he set up an internet label, Blaser Music, which issued its first four releases during the spring and summer. And as soon as Europe began to reopen, he returned to the stage, playing concerts with Samuel Blaser Quartet, Humair Blaser Känzig, and as a sideman for Michel Portal and Marc Ducret.