Church of the Friendly Ghost presents: jazz
-
Saturday, 7 May, Music begins at 11:00pm. 10pm doors.
please join us after you’ve been to hear NMC’s rendition of “The Great Learning”
you may wish to consider this the after-party…
+Free admission.
+Complimentary refreshments courtesy of Dripping Springs Vodka.
@Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Road.
* There will be sno-cones.
group1, ECFA:
Carl Smith-tenor saxophone
Stefan Gonzalez-drum kit
Robert Pearson-electric piano
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten-contrabass
group2, Yells at Eels:
Dennis Gonzalez-trumpet
Aaron Gonzalez-contrabass
Stefan Gonzalez-drum kit
Friendly friends, this musical event is leagues below the sagging old lawn gnomes and smarmy young pudding vendors overpopulating any of Austin’s venerated “Jazz” holes. Here we feature sounds from beyond the outbound, in the dark stepchild stage (black walls, black curtains) of a dusty former grocery store warehouse, where parts of the music, and all of the drinks are free. The players? Some of the hardest working, best respected jazz rats to be found anywhere in the world of sonic adventure. You? Showing up in a turtleneck, beret, and glue-on goatee just like every other local culture junkie of mode. Duh.
Biographical information on three of the tremendously heavy, highly interesting musicians featured this on Saturday night, 7 May:Trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez is a musician/composer, visual artist, broadcaster, writer, educator, linguist, and world traveler who has lived in Dallas for the past 33 years. He has recorded thirty albums as a leader in the jazz and church music styles for Stockholm’s Silkheart Records, Berlin’s Konnex Records, Poland’s Gowi and Not Two Records, Brut Records in Ljubljana, and Clean Feed in Lisbon, as well as U.S. record companies Music and Art (Berkeley), Koch Jazz (New York), and 8th Harmonic Breakdown (Chicago), and Furthermore Recordings (Asheville, North Carolina). He has also produced recordings on his own label in Dallas, daagnimRecords, since 1979. He began playing music and singing in the Southern Baptist church, under his mother’s teaching.Gonzalez describes his music as being a new, lyrical form of the jazz tradition, encompassing any and all styles of music from the world of music, from the spiritual to the profane, from reggae to bop to free jazz. His emphasis on the sound of his trumpet and the importance of melody in his music has garnered praise from listeners and critics internationally. In 2009, his jazz trio Yells at Eels, with sons Aaron and Stefan, is celebrating a decade of existence.
Bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - born in Oppdal, Norway - living in Austin, Texas http://www.ingebrigtflaten.com Ingebrigt studied Jazz at the Music Consevatory in Trondheim, Norway, from 1992-95 with bassplayer Odd Magne Gridseth. Since ‘95 he has been a professional musician, refining his sound by touring extensively all over the world with some of the most diverse and important improvisers on the international circuit today. He have participated on more than 100 recordings. Ingebrigt is currently focusing on his work in the Scandanavian ensembles Atomic and The Thing, both of which have toured Europe, Japan and the U.S. regularly over the past decade. He also leads his own quintet and is a vital part of the groups Free Fall, Håker Flaten/Kornstad Duo, Scorch Trio, IPA, The Electrics, The Outskirts, Dave Rempis Percussion Quartet and Atomic Schooldays. Ingebrigt also have ongoing projects with musicians from the undergrounds of Chicago, Austin, Houston, Mexico City and New York.
Håker Flaten represents a special era in Norwegian bass tradition. Inspired by Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis and William Parker, as well as European bassists such as Barry Guy, Dave Holland and Peter Kowald, he provides an historical continuity of the instrument’s tradition, and as such, improvisation. Ingebrigt’s bassplaying also draw inspiration and energy from his deep roots in the bustling Norwegian jazz scene. This can be summarized by placing him and his contemporaries in the great lineage of Norwegian progressive jazz musicians that include the famed Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen and Terje Rypdal, as well as the less well-known pianist, Svein Finnerud, and bassist, Bjørnar Andresen, all of whom were key figures in shaping Norwegian avant garde jazz into the sound we have today.
Today, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is one of the great ambassadors of the Norwegian sound, carrying this strong tradition further, both musically and geographically. He is constantly pushing and challenging himself, seeking out collaborations that hold a promise to lead to new and unheard territories.
Tenor Saxophonist Carl Smith is a musician originally from Houston, but long-since based in Austin, Texas. Carl has studied music with Frank Gratkowski, Jack Wright, Tina Marsh, Sabir Mateen, Assif Tsahar, Alex Coke, Rob Brown, Rudi Mahall, Charles Gayle, Sam Rivers, and Lou Grassi. Carl has played in North America, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Carl also has performed with Peter Kowald, Josh Berman, Julie Nathanielsz, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell, Faruq Z. Bey, Dennis Gonzalez and Yells At Eels, Wadada Leo Smith, and Gunda Gottschalk, among others. Carl is also organizer of the ECFA group which is the main vehicle for his musical ideas. ECFA has released three full-length CDs, one (Die Faden) on the Texas label Pecan Crazy Records, and one (Die Mitte) on the French label Lenka Lente. Der Wald is available now through www.carlsmithgroup.com. ECFA’s newest album WittiW will be available in 2011.
“These here spacemen are bound to razz your berries, so shoot low and show up thirsty.” - Uncle Cliff
Church of the Friendly Ghost concerts and events are made possible through partnership with Salvage Vanguard Theater. This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
