Come celebrate an evening of collective musical joy! Boxitania is the brainchild of Seattle vocalist and improviser Elizabeth Lawrence, affectionately known as Detonator Beth or DB. This performance was originally created in collaboration with composer Scott Adams and artist Maris Kundzins. It is a square country with no boundaries populated by the most joyous and spontaneous beings in the universe. It was first revealed as a country at Fremont Solstice Parade via the Boxitanian Revolutionary Rolling Band, and was iterated the following year as a huge float called The Spirit of Boxitania.

Elizabeth Lawrence has engaged Amy Denio to coordinate a new visit to the distant shores of Boxitania. The Boxitanian Liberation Orchestra will be playing great classics such as the Boxitanian National Anthem as well as many of its unruly folk musics. The BLO is comprised of many talented and uncompromising musicians based in the Seattle area, including Composer Scott Adams and Captain Amy Denio. E. Grace Dager is the Visual Coordinator.

Please join us in the magical land of Boxitania. The evening will be recorded for posterity.

On July 11 of this year, the music world lost the monumental musician Charlie Haden, a man who completely reinvented the approach to the double bass in jazz music. With an amazing career that spanned five decades, he is known for his groundbreaking reinvention of jazz harmony and structure. From Ornette Coleman’s seminal free-jazz quartet to his intensely melodic and sparse approach to duos with Pat Metheny and Keith Jarrett, to leading his own large ensemble, the fiery, politically radical Liberation Music Orchestra, he brought together his love of folk, classical, free jazz, and world music.

Bassist Birch Pereira, a longtime admirer of Haden, has organized a night of music to pay tribute to the man and his music. Pereira will be joined by distinguished Seattle bassists John Seman, Paul Kemmish, Geoff Harper, Carmen Rothwell, Evan Flory-Barnes, and David Michael Marcus. Each bassist will trade off with songs from Haden’s legacy that feature different sets of musicians including Jason Goessl (guitar), Ben Krulewitch (piano), Seth Alexander (saxophone), Scott Morning (trumpet), and more.

Presented by Zero-G Concerts.

One of the world’s premiere musical innovators on her instrument, Baltimore-based Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country and western swing music. Known among steel guitarists for her virtuosity and authenticity in a traditional context, Alcorn first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands. Soon she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of modern classical music (Messiaen, Varèse Penderecki), the deep listening of Pauline Oliveros, Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango, free jazz, and world musics (Indian rags, South American songs, and gamelan orchestra). Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.

Sharing the evening is Seattle alto saxophonist Wally Shoup. For more than 30 years, Shoup has pegged a claim-stake on the saxophone vanguard, in collaborations with vaunted improvisers from all over, including guitarists Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Nels Cline (Wilco). Lately he’s had a regular Seattle gig at Vito’s with his quartet, including Bob Rees, John Seman, and Mark Ostrowski. This is a somewhat rare opportunity to hear him blowing solo – always a treat!

Presented by Nonsequitur.

Announcing the annual contrabass clarinet solo courtesy of Paul Hoskin. An eighty-minute adventure sounds the Chapel Performance Space. Hoskin’s solo life began with multiple reed instruments lasting for hours. He “simplified” by 1990 — contrabass clarinet only. Given cassette recording, the initial presentations were of ninety-minute length. As he ages (and switches to CD recording), eighty-minute episodes started in Seattle 1996. Hoskin’s approach may be labeled spontaneous composition. Improvisation — as a label — does not provide for a thorough investigation of his solo work. Language qua metaphor is one way of approaching. Periods of “jazz melody” live with extreme sonic exploration. The entire dynamic field, a five-octave range, multiphonics never heard — all are in evidence. In literal terms, Paul Hoskin is the only person to do this — worldwide, NOW.

(photo: Janet Neuhauser)

Neil Welch solo saxophone album release and performance: A Response to the Wednesday Morning Shooting at Cafe Racer. May 30th, 2012 in Seattle, WA. The duo of bassist John Teske and saxophonist Ivan Arteaga opens the show. $15 donation includes admission + a hand-made musical score with the album inside. All proceeds donated to caferacerlove.org. Audience members are encouraged to bring a mat or blanket and lie down on the floor during the performance.

The Response album is the latest release on the local avant-garde label Table and Chairs Music. Tonight’s event features a rare performance of Neil Welch‘s 36-minute solo composition. The Response album is a celebration of the fallen victims and the Seattle creative music community itself. There is a direct, careful presentation of sound in Welch’s music, whether through long bouts of silence, thronging sound textures or aching wails from deep within the horn. Response was composed in traditional and graphic notations, highlighting Welch’s ability to play several pitches on the saxophone simultaneously.

Saxophonist Neil Welch is recognized as a leading voice in Seattle’s avant garde community with a growing presence nationally. His work is deeply emotive, exploring the extremities of his instrument from near silence to guttural wails. All About Jazz Magazine called Welch’s solo work ”stunning and extraordinary,” and showed his saxophone as “not only something that can be blown into, but also as something that can be hit, sung into, or screamed down.” He is a member of the bands Bad Luck, King Tears Bat Trip, and his own chamber group Sleeper. He is a founding member of Seattle’s acclaimed improvisation series the Racer Sessions, and in 2011 became a Table and Chairs Music recording artist and founding member. He has released 5 albums under his own name, including 12 Tiny Explosions (2013), Boxwork (2012), Iron Creek (2011), Sleeper (2011), and Narmada (2007).

Innovative NYC-based trumpeter, vocalist, and composer Rhys Tivey marked a bold debut with the release of his album, No Voice No More. The album exposes his quartet’s firm roots in jazz and free improvisation while blending dynamic overtones of memorable melody and cinematic composition. New material incorporates indie-influenced lyrics and vocals. This performance will feature Seattle musicians Gregg Belisle-Chi (guitar), Chris Icasiano (drums), and Tim Carey (bass).

The Sky is a Suitcase plays original free-form compositions and improvisations. Its members use focused listening and lighting-quick communication to step up together through the infinite above. The result is at times sharp and dark, deep and warm. Michael Gebhart, drums; Carmen Rothwell, bass; Levi Gillis, tenor sax; Raymond Larsen, trumpet.

The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion. Everyone is welcome! Composers for this month include Paul Gillespie, Jessika Kenney, Jim Knapp, Angelique Poteat.

Black Spirituals is a collaboration between two soloists who have found a new platform for the intersection of tone-generating electronic technology and the heart-thumping technology of acoustic percussion. This duet features a new tradition in conversant, duo vernacular dynamics that sparked a revolution in our conceptions of space, stage, ritual, performance, geography, praxis, brotherhood, relationships, rockin’ out, and more. Multi-Aesthetic percussionist Marshall Trammell’s STTRCRFT platform articulates his commitment to the study of the worlds’ percussive arts in his multi-limbed Improvisation system. Utilizing super bananas electronic and guitar sounds, live processing, and heavy-heavy percussion Zachary Watkins “weaves…undulating dronescape(s), of deep sonic swells and muted electronic buzz, utilizing analog synths, guitars, drums and percussion, cassette, Casio, bass, and of course electricity(!)”

Mamiffer is the musical project of artist and composer Faith Coloccia with partner Aaron Turner, from Seattle Washington.

Jessika Kenney is an award-winning composer/vocalist based in Seattle, and will share new music from her upcoming Sige record, The Heart’s Damask (Pamoringtyas), inspired by Attar, Rumi, and Sunan Kalijaga, performed with her closest collaborator Eyvind Kang and fellow former Gamelan Auxiliary Unguent member Brian Robertson.

(photo: Lenny Gonzalez)

The Westerlies present music from their debut album Wish The Children Would Come on Home: The music of Wayne Horvitz. Hailed by Nate Chinen (NY Times, JazzTimes) as “One of the more remarkable albums to cross my path this spring….an impressive feat from almost any angle,” this Seattle-bred, New York -based brass quartet interprets chamber pieces, jazz tunes, and film music composed by one of America s most engaging genre-bending artists.

The Frank Agency and Nonsequitur have joined forces to present People. Make. Awesome. — a three-part series of pairings rooted in sound curated by Beth Fleenor. The August performance will feature three sonic duo pairings, to be announced at the event. A night of stellar, highly individualistic artists, given opportunity to communicate freely. Each duo set will be improvised. This rare line-up promises a boundlessly dynamic event. Give people a place to make awesome, and they will. Additional People. Make. Awesome. pairings featuring sound, dance, and moving image are scheduled for November 13 & December 11.

Featured artists (more info here):
Amy Denio (reeds, voice, accordion)
Randall Dunn (synth, prepared piano)
Stephen Fandrich (piano, voice)
Beth Fleenor (clarinets, voice, electronics)
Trey Gunn (touch guitar)
Alex Guy (viola, voice)