Experimental Music and Film at The Red Room
May 2008 - September 2008

Doors open for all events at 8:30

Saturday, May 10th, $6

The Epicureans: Dave Gross (sax) + Ricardo Donoso (drums) + Ryan McGuire (bass) ++ Myo (electronics)

formed in 2008 the epicureans have the hottest new sound out there. they range from sparse 'lowercase' type music to "full on" (as the kids say these days) noise with a hardcore metal edge. at once playful and brutal, the epicureans are your best friends and your enemies worst enemy. when they say 'we love you' at the end of every show they mean it. music is all about love and the epicureans, with their thirst for seeking pleasure, are here to provide.

Myo is Cory O’Brien, a self taught hacker, computer musician, and electro-acoustic improviser who works with digitally processed voice and objects. Described by Vital Weekly as "louder, dirtier, gritty and angular, but still with ingredients of microsound." Collaborations include Kenneth Yates (of Harm Stryker, Insects with Tits), video artist Metaphreaq, and visual artist Jesse Hartgraves (as Clouds-Out). He currently lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.

Saturday, May 17th, $5

3081: John Dierker (reeds) + Dave Ballou (tpt) + Michael Formanek (bass) + Will Redman (drums)

John Dierker: "Multi-reedman John Dierker has become a major improvisational stylist…interweaving concepts augmented by howling lines, injections of blues-drenched choruses and Albert Ayler-like display of energy." (All About Jazz) A Baltimore, Maryland native Dierker has worked in a wide variety of musical settings collaborating with Peter Zummo, Jason Willett, Jad Fair, and The Basement Boys. John is a longtime member of Lafayette Gilchrist and The New Volcanoes. Currently he is working with Quartet Offensive, Microkingdom, and 3081, a group that includes Michael Formanek, Dave Ballou and Will Redman.

Dave Ballou has released eight internationally recognized CD's as a leader for the SteepleChase record label. He has performed or recorded with ensembles led by Michael Formanek, Kevin Norton, Maria Schneider, Andrew Hill, Dave Leibman, Oliver Lake, Joe Lovano, Sheila Jordan, Steely Dan, Rabih Abou-Kahlil, Don Preston and an extensive list of jazz personalities. Dave has performed Bach's Brandenberg Concerto #2 with the Bella Musica Orchestra of NY, Larry Austin's Improvisations with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Gunther Schuller's Journey into Jazz with the Spokane Symphony and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He also was a featured soloist for the premiere of Schuller's Encounters, a composition celebrating the 100th anniversary of Jordon Hall. Dave has composed for each of his SteepleChase releases as well as numerous arrangements and original works for a wide spectrum of genres. His work for solo trumpet, "Samskara" was commissioned by Jon Nelson of the Meridain Arts Ensemble. He earned a BM (magna cum laude) from Berklee College of Music in 1986 and a MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1991. Dave is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Music at Towson University.

Michael Formanek's singular approach to the acoustic bass has led to an impressive range of musical associations. During his thirty-plus year career, he has played and/or recorded with Elvis Costello, Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Marty Ehrlich, Chet Baker, Tony Williams, Gerry Mulligan, Bob Mintzer, Fred Hersch, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Mark Isham, Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, Mingus Big Band, Terumasa Hino, Cedar Walton, Attila Zoller, George Coleman, Jane Ira Bloom, Bob Moses, Gunther Schuller, Peter Erskine, Joe and Matt Maneri, Gary Thomas, Harold Danko, Dave Burrell, and many others. Composition also plays a significant role in Formanek’s overall musical profile, and four albums of his original music, Wide Open Spaces, Extended Animation, Low Profile and Nature Of The Beast have been released to critical acclaim on the Enja label. Am I Bothering You, a recording of solo bass performances made for Tim Berne’s Screwgun label, has firmly established itself as an important contribution to that genre. Formanek produced or co-produced all of these recordings and among the featured musicians are Greg Osby, Tim Berne, Mark Feldman, Dave Douglas, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Marty Ehrlich, Wayne Krantz, and Jim Black. Formanek received Chamber Music America's New Works: Creation and Presentation Grant for 2000-2001 to compose a new piece for the Tim Berne/Michael Formanek Duo, which was recently performed in Philadelphia as part of the Chamber Music America Encore program for 2007. Formanek was commissioned to compose an original piece for the 150th anniversary of the Peabody Conservatory. The piece, The Open Book for Jazz Soloists with Orchestra, was premiered at Peabody in February of 2007, and featured members of the Peabody Jazz Orchestra and the full Peabody Concert Orchestra under the direction of Hajime Teri Murai. Current projects include Tim Berne’s bloodcount, together with saxophonists Time Berne and Chris Speed, and drummer Jim Black, which has reunited after a ten-year hiatus, and 3081, a Baltimore based quartet featuring trumpeter Dave Ballou, saxophone and clarinetist, John Dierker, and percussionist Will Redman.

Will Redman says: I am a composer, percussionist, and teacher. I play and write as much bent music as is possible (really, how much music is possible?). My music has been heard by audiences in houses, dive bars, nightclubs, restaurants, art galleries, parks, amphitheaters, record stores, book shops, hotels, and concert halls. I have some degrees in music - University of Maryland at Baltimore County (BA), the University of Southampton (MA), and SUNY Buffalo (PhD) - and have studied composition and/or percussion with Stuart Saunders Smith, Kevin Norton, Jeff Stadelman, Tom Goldstein, and Michael Finnissy; I have learned a lot from friends such as John Dierker, John Hughes, Todd Whitman, Jonathan Vincent, Bill Sack, Evan Rapport, and others. My most recent compositions, such as Book, are graphically fantastic scores that are intended to be interpreted by musicians of varied backgrounds and abilities. Some of my recent performances have included free improvisation with baritone saxophonist Steve Baczkowski; a dramatic lecture/recital with musicologist Jaime Currie and the Open Music Ensemble; solo drum set recitals (evoking both Max Roach and Morton Feldman’s The King of Denmark); high-energy improvised rock-ish music with Microkingdom (Marc Miller (of the Oxes) and John Dierker); free jazz with 3081 (Dave Ballou, Mike Formanek, John Dierker) and drum and/or lo-fi electronics improvisations with many other good friends.

Saturday, May 24th, $6

Adam Caine (guitar) + Nick Lyons (sax) ++ Jenny Graf Bibulah (electronics)

Adam Caine is a guitarist, improvisor and composer. He grew up in Rochester, New York and studied music at the University of Rochester. Since 2000 he has played with various groups in New York City and throughout the United States. He has performed with Connie Crothers, Paul Smoker, Daniel Carter, Ken Filiano, Glen Branca, Haale, and the New York Soundpainting Ensemble. Current projects include The Caine Trio, The Adam Caine & John McCutcheon Duo, The Sweetblood Quartet, and New York 69 with drummer Kevin Shea. Adam's 2005 CD, "PIPE," received rave reviews in the Wire and Cadence magazine.

Nick Lyons is an improvising alto saxophonist living in Brooklyn, NY since 2005. He graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory in 2004 with a Bachelor of Music degree and relocated to San Francisco, where he performed as a freelancer until returning to New York City in January 2005. Recently, Nick has performed throughout the Northeastern US with his trio, the Adam Caine/Nick Lyons Duo, and with, among others and in various formations, pianist Connie Crothers, tenor saxophonist Lorenzo Sanguedolce, bassist Adam Lane, pianist/vocalist Kazzrie Jaxen (formerly Liz Gorrill), and bassist Ken Filiano. Nick has recorded several projects and plans to release duo albums with Adam Caine and pianist Carol Liebowitz in 2008.

Jenny Graf Bibulah: A Visual, sound and performance artist, Miss Gräf works independently and in long-term collaborations with individuals and groups. Her work includes several long-term collaborations with people with Alzheimer’s including The Guitars Project, in which 6 women with Alzheimer’s developed strategies for playing electric guitar. She is also one of the creators of the Hilgos Foundation Scholarship, which supports intergenerational artistic collaborations. For over ten years she has recorded, toured and played in Metalux. She is currently working on a Western for which her new music project Harrius will create the score. She is professor of Mass Communications at Harford Community College where she works with students on looking and listening.Recordings on Load, Ehse, Hanson, Veglia, No Fun Productions, Resipiscent

Saturday, May 31st, $6

Byron Westbrook (electronics) ++ Shelly Blake (voice, misc)

Byron Westbrook (b. 1977) is a sound/intermedia artist living in Brooklyn, NY. His audio video performances as CORRIDORS involve the distribution of processed instrumental and environmental recordings through a multi-channel environment with a focus on energy distilled from sound and light. He has shared bills with Sawako, Tony Conrad, O.blaat, Lichens, James Blackshaw, Anette Krebs, Soft Circle, Mountains among many others, and presented at venues such as Tonic, Issue Project Room, Experimental Intermedia, Exit Art Gallery. He has also collaborated with Rhys Chatham in the drone metal group Essentialist (Table of the Elements), as well as performed in the ensembles of Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham (alongside Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon), Glenn Branca and Jonathan Kane. He was a 2007 recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Commission through Roulette Intermedium. Releases are forthcoming in 2008 for both Corridors and Essentialist, along with a fall tour of the US with Alessandro Bosetti.

Shelly Blake-Plock (b. 1974) is a musician, writer, and filmmaker from Baltimore, MD. His recording experience began in 1995 with the release of 'The Lonely Ornamental Music of Shelly Blake' -- a lo-fi cassette release of songs and improvisations mostly recorded on the outgoing message of an answering machine. Early experiments in lo-fi democratized recording produced albums ranging in styles and genres from lo-fi bedroom pop and fractured Americana to abstract electric guitar comps and organ infused psych-outs to non-instrument body performance and theatrical esoterics. 2004 saw first of many collaborations with double bassist Joel Grip. In 2006, they performed a 48 hour continuous performance as a duo; this was a benefit for Public Health Music. In late 2006, Shelly and Matthew H. Welch began work on a quasi-musical called 'The Violencestring'. Comprised entirely of free improvised music but with a scripted libretto, the piece was directed by Grip. Lately, Shelly has been re-exploring the electric guitar in various contexts. Working both solo and in ad hoc ensembles, Among the musicians he has worked with over the years: Joel Grip, John Dierker, Eve Risser, Yuko Oshima, Niklas Barnö, Yann Joussein, Lars Ahlund, Carly Ptak, Twig Harper, Ryan Dorsey, Susan Alcorn, Jenny Gräf, Will Redman, Jessica Riefler, Marcus Doverud, Lyle Kissack, Andreas Werliin, Christopher Varner, Ben McConnell, Lawrence Lanahan, Matthew H. Welch, Craig Bowen, Devin Gray, Melissa Moore, Nathan Bell, and Per Walstedt.

Saturday, June 7th, $6

Shot X Shot: Dan Scofield (alto sax) + Bryan Rogers (tenor sax) + Matt Engle (bass) + Dan Capecchi (Drums)

Shot x Shot is a Philadelphia quartet that has forged a distinctive sound through five years of steady collaboration. Their work is based in collective improvisational compositions that run the gamut from delicate to ruthless. The band was formed in 2004 while the members were students at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. They began performing at local venues and gradually extended their range to include New York, Boston, Chicago, Montreal and other major cities. Shot × Shot has performed alongside Peter Brötzmann, Jeb Bishop, Chicago Luzern Exchange, Peter Evans, Jack Wright and Pete Robbins among others. In 2007, the band showcased at South by Southwest. Shot × Shot’s self-titled live debut (High Two, 2006) was heralded in the pages of Downbeat, The Wire, Signal to Noise, All About Jazz–NY, and other publications. The Village Voice and All About Jazz–NY listed the album among the top debuts of 2006. Shot × Shot’s second album Let Nature Square, their first studio recording, is due to be released by High Two in May 2008.

Saturday, June 21st, $6

THE FLYNTS

A Red Room sponsored event to take place off-premises at 12:00 Midnight. Details soon.

Friday, June 27th, $6

Anne McGuire

Special weekend of Film by Anne McGuire.

Saturday, June 28th, $6

Anne McGuire

Special weekend of Film by Anne McGuire.

Saturday, July 5th, $6

Little Howlin Wolf (blues)+ Twig Harper + Max Eisenberg + Jason Willett (electronics and mayhem all) ++ Trio: Drury + Arias + Wooley

Saturday, August 23rd, $6

Michael Straus and Matthew Burtner // Electroacoustic works for Saxophone

Wednesday, September 17th, $12

High Zero Festival #10

Mark your calendars! September 17th-21st will be the 10th annual High Zero Festival; check highzero.org for more details as the festival approaches.

The Red Room
at Normals Books and Records
425 E. 31st Street Baltimore
Doors open at 8:30