CHICAGO MUSCIANS
Rob Frye plays woodwinds, percussion, and synthesizers in Chicago-based bands Bitchin Bajas, Jackie Lynn, and CAVE (Drag City), tours internationally, and has recorded with Ben Lamar Gay (International Anthem), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (Western Vinyl), and Circuit des Yeux (Thrill Jockey) among others. Since 2010, his project Flux Bikes has held solar-powered workshops, annual bike tours, and performances. In the field of jazz and improvised music, he collaborates often in Chicago and participated in the second edition of The Bridge, a trans-Atlantic network of creative music linking France and Chicago in May 2019; and Close To There, an artistic exchange allying Salvador, Bahia and Chicago through Comfort Station and Projeto Ativa in February 2020.
Ben LaMar Gay is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Afropunk has called “strikingly original,” Pitchfork has called “uncategorizable,” and Jeff Parker has called "hands down, one of my favorite musicians on the planet today.” He channels a radical array of sound, color, and space through the universal language of folklore; but despite the widely attributed genius of his work, his artistic approach and general demeanor are characterized by an endearing humbleness and warm humanity.
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA in fine arts. Since 2014 he has been working with the Prisons and Neighborhood Arts Project at Stateville Correctional Center teaching art. He is a recipient of the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award in the Arts and the 2016 MAKER Grant. He operated as an Artist Mentor in the Chicago Artist Coalition program FIELD/WORK. In 2017 he became a Soros Justice Media Fellow. In 2019, he became a 3Arts Awardee. He recently completed 4years as an artist in residence as a part of the Museum of Contemporary Arts’ SPACE Program, introducing civically engaged art into the curriculum at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy High School. In the spring of 2022, he taught his first semester in the Sound Department on improvisation at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Damon leads the Black Monument Ensemble and is a founding member of the band The Eternals.
Steve Marquette (b.1987, BM DePaul 2010) is a guitarist, improviser and organizer based out of Chicago, IL. Over the past decade he has become an integral part of the city's storied and vibrant improvised music community touring the United States and Europe in ensembles of his own (The Few with Macie Stewart and Charlie Kirchen, Kobra Quartet, Instigation Orchestra, Ibises) and as a member of Ken Vandermark's Marker among other projects. In addition to his work as a musician, he is also a founder and lead organizer of the biannual Instigation Festival - which brings together performers from Chicago and New Orleans for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration in each city. In 2022 he was selected by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events as an Esteemed Artist for his work with the Instigation Festival.
Kim Alpert combines analog and digital technologies, movement, music, and interactivity, to create sculptural and performance-based video systems. Kim's visual practice centers on humanism with inquisitions into psychology and spirituality - understanding and translating the impact of visual language to create meaning.
Kim uses digital and analog techniques, feedback, and found footage to weave dream tapestries both recorded and improvised. A significant part of Kim’s performed work is in collaboration with improvisational musicians, blending pre-rendered content with live visualizations. Kim performs in collaborative and cross-discipline works such as Mike Reed’s Flesh and Bone, Ken Vandermark’s Momentum, The Instigation Orchestra, and with her project Scan Lines.
Josh Berman is an internationally recognized cornetist and composer. He has led the acclaimed Old Idea, Josh Berman and his Gang, and his own trio. In addition to being an indispensable contributor to Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene, Berman has been a concert presenter with fellow Chicagoan Mike Reed, producing hundreds of shows over the past 20 years. Berman’s work has been critically acclaimed in the New York times, Chicago Tribune, JazzTimes, and DownBeat, among others. HIs recordings can be found on Chicago’s legendary Delmark Records and more recently on Austin’s Astral Spirits Records
Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes solo composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration.
She tours nationally and internationally, working in theater, jazz, rock, and experimental contexts. Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound.
Bassist, composer, and improviser Anton Hatwich has lived in Chicago since 2003. He was born and raised in Rockford, IL, growing up in a musical family. Anton moved to Iowa City, IA in 1995 and lived there until 2002, earning a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Iowa. After graduation Hatwich taught for two years as Visiting Artist in Music at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, IA. At the UI he studied bass with Dr. Diana Gannett, jazz and improvisation with John Rapson, and also gained valuable experience playing with the school's renown Center for New Music, under the direction of David Gompper. Outside of class, Anton was active in the local music scene. Of particular lasting importance was his work with clarinettist, saxophonist, and composer Robert Paredes, with whom Anton took first steps in the world of free improvisation.
In late 2002 Hatwich started spending large amounts of time amongst Chicago's improvised music community, hanging out all night with his new friends at concerts and bars, and crashing on his brother's couch. One thing led to another, and by spring of 2003 he was playing so much in Chicago that it made sense to move there. Since that time he has played in endlessly varied groups of (mostly) improvising musicians, with some combinations sticking around longer than others. A partial list of his collaborators includes Frank Rosaly, Keefe Jackson, Aram Shelton, Nick Mazzarella, Russ Johnson, Tim Daisy, Jason Stein, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Josh Berman, and Paul Giallorenzo. With the bands that lasted, Anton has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums and toured nationally and internationally. He has appeared at a handful of the major jazz festivals, including the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade, the Umbrella Festival, and the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon Festival in Austria. In addition to his performance work, Anton maintains a small private teaching studio.
Haley Fohr (b. Dec 16 1988) is a vocalist, composer and singer-songwriter based in Chicago, Illinois. Her musical endeavors focus around our human condition, and her 10-year career as Circuit des Yeux has grown into one of America’s most successful efforts to connect the personal to the universal.
She is most distinctly identified by her 4-octave voice and unique style of 12-string guitar. Her mysterious “Jackie Lynn” project landed her on the cover of Wire Magazine in August of 2016. Her recent works include an Original Soundtrack for Charles Bryant’s silent film Salomé (1923), commissioned by Opera North, and her critically acclaimed 2021 album -io, released on Matador Records.
Now residing in Philadelphia, multidisciplinary artist MIKEL PATRICK AVERY had been actively working out of Chicago and then New Orleans for the past 16 years. Established as a jazz drummer, he is commonly recognized for his orchestral and melodic style of drumming that often involves the use of unconventional "non-musical" objects. Adjacent to being a performing musician, Avery is a dedicated filmmaker, composer, photographer, designer, and educator, whose body of work invariably draws upon the ideas of ‘unstructured-play’ commonly applied to learning environments found in early education.
In recent years, Avery has become an integral voice in varying ensembles, including Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society, The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, the Joe Policastro Trio, and Theaster Gates's Black Monks of Mississippi as well as leading several of his own projects, including 1/2 Size Piano Trio, Wazella, Sore Thumb, PARADE, and Mikel Patrick Avery PLAY.
Mikel has had the privilege to perform and exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Documenta 13 (in Kassel Germany), Drunk Lunch Gallery, Pitchfork Music Festival, White Cube (London), MCA Chicago.
NOLA MUSCIANS
Cassie Watson Francillon explores folk, jazz, classical, modern & experimental music on the harp, as a visionary harpist in New Orleans, Louisiana. Having studied directly under harpists Gabriella Pinto, Brandee Younger, Mia Theodoratus and Patrice Fisher, she composes, teaches, and has served on the board of the New Orleans Chapter of the American Harp Society. She was the Assistant Producer of the annual New Orleans Jazz and Pop Harp Weekend for 2018-2019 and is a producer of the Sirens in the Twilight Music Series series. She was the principal harpist in 2019 new age opera: The Coronation, debuted at the New Orleans Airlift Music Box Village. Her solo album Luna Nuda was released in 2019. In 2020, Cassie released the acoustic solo album this appears to disappear, which earned her a fellowship with indie-label Joyful Noise Records. She played in the futuristic trio Shakespeare & The Blues and co-produced their 2021 release e.g.: Rhapsodic, recorded at Mark Bingham’s Nina Hwy Studio in Henderson, Louisiana.
Paul Thibodeaux (drums) was born in Southeast Louisiana. Raised on Cajun music, Paul received his Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans. He was a student at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). He has studied under drummers Johnny Vidacovich, Ed Petersen and the legendary Alvin Batiste.
Thibodeaux is the driving percussive force behind the Renaissance of the sound of the Dukes of Dixieland®. Prior to joining the DOD, Paul has worked with and continues to work with many New Orleans musicians including Cliff Hines, Rick Trolsen, James Singleton, Steve Masakowski, George French, Don Vappie, and vocalists Sasha Masakowski and Aurora Nealand.
Bassist/composer/improviser James Singleton has been an essential piece of the New Orleans creative music scene since his arrival in the early 1980s. Since then, Singleton found himself as one of the most in demand sidemen, becoming a regular collaborator with legendary New Orleans artists like James Booker, Alvin "Red" Tyler, and Johnny Adams. He is most well known as a principal member of the City's leading progressive jazz ensemble, Astral Project. Singleton continues to perform relentlessly throughout the country with his many eclectic projects.
Dan Oestreicher is a professional saxophone player based in New Orleans. His current primary work is baritone sax for Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue along with a number of other eclectic projects. Dan is the complete sax player, with expertise in baritone, tenor, and bass sax. He is comfortable in multiple genres, including trad jazz, alternative jazz, electronic music, funk, and rock and roll. In fact, he announced at age 9 that he was going to be a rock star.
Bassist and luthier Martin Masakowski was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of a musical family, Martin's emersion in the arts began from a young age. He spent his youth studying visual arts and transitioned into music at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts high school. Martin went on to study jazz at the University of New Orleans before moving to The Netherlands to finish his bachelor’s in music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. He spent the following years touring with an Eastern European folk band, the Balcony Players. With them he explored over 20 countries in Europe, performing in clubs and festivals and also visiting Roma gypsy villages to study their music and culture. As a result of his travels and the influence of his family and his city, Martin’s musical styles span across jazz, folk, classical, electronic, experimental, Eastern European and Indian genres. Inspired by years on the road with an upright bass, Martin's most recent endeavor was the design and building of his own custom travel bass, with future plans to produce his own line of instruments to meet the need of traveling musicians. In 2019 Martin received a Masters of Jazz Performance from the University of New Orleans. He is currently back home in New Orleans, performing regularly at clubs such as Snug Harbor and The Spotted Cat while continuing to develop and push the rhythmic and harmonic boundaries of the double bass.
Sasha Masakowski, daughter of jazz guitar luminary Steve Masakowski, was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and has been a leading artist on the New Orleans music scene for many years as a vocalist, composer, and producer. Over the last several years, Sasha has performed with her band at major clubs and festivals across the United States and abroad, such as the legendary Blue Note (NYC), Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, Cotton Club Tokyo, Jazz Standard (NYC), Detroit Jazz Festival, SF Jazz Center (San Francisco), Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Bird’s Basement (Melbourne) San Jose Jazz Festival, Phoenix Musical Instrument Museum, and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, among others. She currently leads two bands of her own that range from New Orleans modern jazz (Art Market) to electronic art-rock (Tra$h Magnolia).
Drummer & beyond, Simon Lott was born on January 6, 1982 and has been making music professionally since 1995. His career as a versatile drummer began in Louisiana at age 13 in Baton Rouge & New Orleans. He completed an B.A. in English Literature in 2004. At age 23, he moved to New York City after the destructive Hurricane Katrina & began touring internationally. 2 years later, he returned to the South and has been living in New Orleans since. Lott is a regular first call for many of New Orleans’ most popular musicians and for many nationally touring musicians.
Kr3wcial is a multiple award-nominated New Orleans-based hip-hop artist, producer, engineer, and member of the acclaimed collective glbl wrmng. In 2022 alone, he performed at the world-renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, French Quarter Festival, BUKU Music + Art Project, and Pell’s national Am I Still Dreaming tour. In 2021, he supported the Grammy-nominated Tank and the Bangas for a sold-out appearance in New Orleans. Kr3wcial wrote glbl wrmng’s breakout 2021 single, “504,” and has since appeared in Complex, Essence, Okayplayer, 2DopeBoyz, Consequence, DJ Booth, at the NAACP Image Awards, the national championships for Red Bull Dance Your Stye, and as supporting talent for Rakim.
Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds, texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. For someone with her varied background, New Orleans, with its mix of cultures and musics, seemed like a natural place to call home. She was born in Belgium, raised in Singapore from the ages of 2 to 11, and routinely shuttled between the homelands of her Belgian father and American mother. Over the years — working in New Orleans with musicians of all stripes, from avant-garde jazz and classical to pop and funk — Gillet has developed a singular polyglot style. The core of her work is solo performance with live looping, layering cello parts and vocal lines. Rhythmic figures emerge with bowed or plucked ostinatos or a variety of rubbing and slapping on the body of the cello, then enhanced with melodies played or sung in her haunting alto. Her mixed musical vocabulary is commensurate with her disparate travels — French chanson of the 1940s, Belgian folk tunes sung in Walloon, a mix of rock and punk from the likes of PJ Harvey and X-Ray Spex, and her own affecting originals, like audience favorite “Julien,” sung in a mix of French and English. Gillet’s solo performance is known for its enigmatic quality as she fabricates each song with innovative use of the cello and true mastery of live looping technology.
New Orleans-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and self-proclaimed “beep-boop maker” LaTasha Bundy writes music based on New Orleans and pop culture. Bundy’s music is often informed and inspired by comic books, video games, and anime. Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bundy started playing the violin at an early age and switched to jazz trumpet in high school. Bundy is also skilled at playing synthesizers and electronics. She was taught by many renowned educators and performers including Clyde Kerr Jr., Nicholas Payton, Marlon Jordan, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, and Roger Dickerson. She received her BSM and BA from Tulane University, her MM from the University of New Orleans with Amit Gilutz and Yotam Haber, and has recently completed her MA from Tulane University with Max Dulaney, Rick Snow, and Courtney Bryan.
Jeff Albert is a musician, music technologist, and educator. He was named a Rising Star Trombonist in the Downbeat Critics Polls each year from 2011-2019, and performs regularly in the New Orleans area, and throughout the US and Europe. Jeff is the RosaMary Foundation Distinguished Professor of Music at Loyola University New Orleans, and this concert is funded in part through the RosaMary Foundation Professorship.
