Tuesday April 20th Bowery
ESP LIVE @ The Bowery Poetry Club
An experimental music series the 3rd Tuesday of every month
308 Bowery NY, NY 10012 (F train to 2nd Ave or 6 train to Bleecker)$10 at the door

10pm
Matana Roberts’ GRACE
Liberty Ellman – guitar
Tomas Fujiwara – drums
Matana Roberts – alto saxophone, compositions

11pm
Spärks
Peter Evans – trumpet, piccolo trumpet
Tom Blancarte – double-bass

More about Matana Roberts:
Chicago born and bred, Matana [mah-tah-nah] Roberts is an alto saxophonist / composer / performer who works in various mediums of improvised sound and performance, and has been active in New York since 2001. A Vanlier and Brecht Forum fellow, as well as a 2008 and 2009 nominee for an Alpert Award in the Arts, she has appeared as a collaborator on recordings and performances worldwide with her own ensembles as well as with a variety of collaborative ensembles—such groups as Sticks and Stones, Burnt Sugar, Exploding Star Orchestra, the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Julius Hemphill Sextet, Myra Melford’s Happy Whistlings, Jayne Cortez’s Fire Spitters, Merce Cunningham Dance and Savion Glover Dance. In 2008, the success of her leader debut, The Chicago project (Central Control International ), led critics to call Ms. Roberts “one to watch” (Kevin Legendre, Jazzwise) and “an eloquent, dramatic, tone warping free jazz artist right out of Ayler’s anti bop tradition.”(John Fordham, London Gaurdian) She has also recorded as a side woman on recordings with a large smattering of influential ensembles such as Godspeed You Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, Savath and Savalas, and Silver Mount Zion.

“a lyrical spiritual essence that recalls the voices of reed players Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, and others—one of profound soulfulness, passion and purity. Yet the embodiment of Roberts is devoid of mimicry or pretense, because she possesses her own identity…” - All About Jazz

More about Liberty Ellman:
“Talk about a talent deserving wider recognition.” - All About Jazz.com

“I really liked it. I need to check this guy out! 5 stars.” - Bill Frisell, Blindfold test (Downbeat)

More about Tomas Fujiwara:

“a quiet energy that propels” - All About Jazz.com

“alert drumming that has propelled some excellent ensembles on the new-music landscape” – New York Times

More about Peter Evans:
Peter Evans has been a member of the New York musical community since 2003, when he moved to the city after graduating Oberlin Conservatory. Peter currently works in a wide variety of areas, including solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro-acoustic music and composition. As a performer, Evans has been working to break through the technical barriers of his instrument and enjoys playing with steady configurations of improvisers; each band explores a specific concept or style as much as possible. Current bands include the Peter Evans Quartet (with Brandon Seabrook, Tom Blancarte, & Kevin Shea), Moppa Elliott’s terrorist bebop band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the hyperactive free-improvisation duo Sparks (with Tom Blancarte), the free-jazz quintet Carnivalskin (with Klaus Kugel and Bruce Eisenbeil), the Language Of with Charles Evans, duos with trumpeter Nate Wooley and saxophonist Dave Reminick, the New York Trumpet Ensemble, as well as a sustained interest in solo performance.

“Peter Evans is something of a trumpet wunderkind…He seems to have internalized the various languages of the trumpet’s last half century – from extended and minimalist improvisation to purer jazz forms – and is able to recall them with an ease that saves him from sounding merely referential.” - Kurt Gottschalk

More about Tom Blancarte:
Tom Blancarte is a bassist, improvisor and composer living and working in New York City. He has performed his music throughout the United States and Europe. He plays in the improvising trio Totem with Bruce Eisenbeil and Andrew Drury, Dave Smith’s Who Put The Bad Mouth On Me, the Peter Evans Quartet and in various ad hoc combinations.

“From the very first moments of the opening “Xangu” you’ll be tempted to delete the adjective “discreet” from this duo’s intercommunicative dictionary. The vicious manner in which Evans and Blancarte hurl hooks at each other, reciprocally clinching in a timbral slugfest of epic proportions, is enough to leave you with bruised ears, if not knocked out cold.” – Massimo Ricci