DUOLOGY one

Duology One

Peter Breslin and Friends present an evening of improvised duets.

Saturday, March 24, 8 pm. $10. O'Shaughnessy Performance Space, Benildus Hall, The College of Santa Fe, 1600 St. Michael's Drive. Call 670-1500 for more information.

Improvising performers include Jeremy Bleich, multiple instruments; Peter Breslin, piano; Paul Brown, bass viol; Chris Jonas, saxophones; Mike Rowland, drums; Mark Weaver, tuba; Ruth Zaporah, voice and movement.

Duology, the study of twos. Duets carved out of fat air. Improvisation in a fairly pure form, with no prior discussion, lead sheets, arrangements or composed themes. In the moment, of the moment, out of the moment, arising from long-standing or completely non-pre-existent creative partnerships. Breslin has never performed with Rowland (his former drum student) nor with Zaporah. Has never played piano with Brown nor Weaver. Has never played a duet with Jonas.

Each participant brings vitally fresh energies coupled with depth of experience.

Performer's Bios

Jeremy Bleich incorporates a wide palette of culture, ancient and modern instruments, traditions and forms as well as electronic manipulation into the creative process of composing, performing and recording music. His approach to the electric bass and the oud have earned him a reputation internationally as an innovator. Jeremy is focused on producing music that captures the essence and meaning behind the process of creating it. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he is involved with presenting new music, as well as composing and teaching. Jeremy is a member of the critically acclaimed group birth and has performed and/or recorded with Coung Vu (Pat Metheny Group), Joe Maneri, Jeff Coffen (Bela Fleck), Chris Jonas, Carmen Castaldi, (Joe Lovano), Brook Martinez (barky!), Kevin McCarthy and Nashville songwriters Rick Elias (Ragamuffins) and Jason White. He has played the oud in collaboration w/ Mustafa Stephan Dill (SAMA trio), Andrew Stoltz (laptop musician/composer), and Rahim Alhaj (Iraqi oudist). He has recorded for MCA Records, Hopscotch Records, High Mayhem and INS labels.

Peter Breslin is a percussionist, pianist, composer and teacher who has performed extensively on the east coast and in the southwest. He studied drums with Andrew Cyrille in New York and piano with Shirley Ling in Philadelphia. In northern New Mexico, he has performed on piano in several large ensemble concerts of original composed and improvised music, as well as appeared on drums with a variety of groups, including Mingus Amongus, The John Clark Quintet, The Gluey Brothers, The African Space Program, Mad Trio, Bing, The Miles Davis Electric Project and Rrake. Breslin recently organized, arranged and conducted the Miles Davis Electric Project, a cadre of 14 local musicians re-examining Miles Davis's music from 1970-1975. Currently, Breslin is an artist-in-residence with the Santa Fe Opera's Student Produced Opera Program, and writes on the arts for The Santa Fe Reporter. Breslin broadcasts a weekly creative composed and improvised music program on KSFR, 90.7 FM, Santa Fe Public Radio called "Inside Out," every Thursday from 1-3 pm.

Paul Brown has been playing music for 33 years, studying bass with
Greg Mooter and Rich Appleman at the Berklee College of Music in
Boston, and oud (middle eastern lute) with Haig Manoukian and Necati
Çelik in Mendocino, Calif. He is a specialist in Balkan and Turkish
music, especially as they relate to groove and improvisation. A
recent (re)transplant to Santa Fe, he plays with many groups across
the country, and is starting to play locally as well, with Chris
Jonas' Rrake, Polly Tapia Ferber and Round Mountain, among others.

Mike Rowland has found himself playing drums in miscellaneous weird bands, touring and doing recording projects in Pacific Northwest from 1986-1997, including work with 11 Phantoms, Delilah, Pinewood Derby, and the infamous Rockn' Rod and The Strychnines. Rowland moved to Santa Fe in Spring 1998 and hooked up with Yozo Suzuki and Dierdre Morris, forming the legendary Candy From Strangers, as well as playing in Invisible Plane. Rowland is a Board member and co-founder of High Mayhem (IDEA: Institute for the Development of Experimental Arts). Currently, Rowland plays in The Late Severa Wires. His side projects include The QT, a percussion driven experimental ensemble and guest appearances with We Drew Lightning and The Pedal Pushers.

Chris Jonas of Santa Fe, New Mexico is a composer, multimedia/visual artist and soprano/tenor saxophone player. Jonas has gained recent international attention for his work leading the New York-based ensembles The Sun Spits Cherries, the Jonas Cork Ensemble (a mixture of Irish and Congolese musicians from Cork, Ireland), the Santa Fe poly groove band, Rrake, the collective EU-US quartet amitosis, and along with co-leader and life partner Molly Sturges a neo-Ethiopian pop groove band BING (of annual silent film soundtracks at
the Lensic and Circus Luminous). He is also well known for his 1990s
tenure as a saxophone player and side-man to New York City jazz musicians
and composers Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, The Brooklyn
Sax Quartet and in Butch Morris‘ conduction ensembles. Additionally, Jonas
has also become well known for composing and guest-conducting ensembles
all over the US and Europe, receiving commissions for works for
orchestras, circus noir, soundtracks, installations and new music
ensembles. Jonas also works as an intermedia artist, combining music,
performance, video and new media into structures for performance.

Mark Weaver (an architect by profession) has been playing low-brass instruments since 1970. Primarily self-taught, Mark studied the wind instrument methods of Arnold Jacobs with his student Steve Rossé (now principal tuba, Sydney Symphony Orchestra) in 1989-90. His musical interests have been broad, leading him to involvements with a wide range of ensembles. Currently, Mark is a member of the following ensembles: Brassum, a unique brass+drums quartet performing Weacer;s original compositions, with Dan Clucas, Michael Vlatkovich, Weaver on tuba, and Harris Eisenstadt; Rumble Trio – (Mike Balistreri-dbl bass/percussion, Ben Wright-dbl bass/saw, and MW-tuba) with guests including Jack Wright, Dan Clucas, Tom Leith, Alan Lechusza, Dave Nielsen, Dave Wayne, and Sara Schoenbeck; Selsun Blue – Albuquerque street band quartet with a down-home off-beat approach, led by L.B. Smith with instrumentation including dobro, banjo, guitar, tuba, vocals, drums. Mark has performed in ensembles led by trombonist/composer Michael Vlatkovich, trumpeter/composer Jeff Kaiser, multi-instrumentalist/composer J.A. Deane, pianist/composer Christopher Adler, bassist/composer David Parlato, composer/arranger Jack Manno, percussionist/composer Harris Eisenstadt, multi-instrumentalist/composer Alan Lechusza, dbl-bassist Damon Smith, trumpeter/composer Dan Clucas, saxophonist-composer Chris Jonas and vocalist Patti Littlefield. He considers these artists to have been his teachers, in the absence of a formal music education.

Ruth Zaporah's work established her as one of the San Francisco Bay Area's pre-eminent solo performers. Zaporah recently relocated to Santa Fe, a return to her home town. She is a master of improvisational performance, a master of dramatic action. Her scripts are created in the moment-to-moment process of performance, never to be repeated. Zaporah is a dancer, an actress, a mime. She is a performer who can transform her being into characters of great variety. These characters have extra-ordinary, archetypal dimensions, illuminated by her unique use of language, gesture and her freedom of mind. She dances and sounds, creating environments and moods. Zaporah is funny; she's moving; she's entertaining. Zaporah's book, _The Improvisation of Presence_, is a vital guide to the spirit of improvisation in performance. Zaporah is a teacher of these particular skills of performing, which she calls ACTION THEATER. Ruth's training awakens spontaneity, present awareness, and a sense of play. For her audience and students alike, Zaporah's theater offers a lesson by example: Every action becomes exciting the moment we pay it our undivided attention.

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in other news:

Okay, so I finished drafts of all 4 sections of the Santa Fe Reporter's Annual Manual. You know those ideas that hit you and you never do anything about them? The idea I had last year was to collect all the news related to the four sections I did then, (same as this year-- Jobs and Business, Education, House and Garden, Health and Wellness) and have all of that info at my fingertips for the 2007 versions. Of course, I never did this, not even for a week or two after I finished last year. That meant hours of research into news archives, City Council web pages, State of New Mexico government pages, a huge number of websites regarding housing, commerce, real estate, water conservation, alternative energy, health care laws, etc. It's Wednesday morning and I've already forgotten just about everything I knew yesterday. Then there's the strange necessity of double checking city and state web sites by calling info and other numbers on the phone...for example, 6 weeks after local School Board elections, the Santa Fe Public Schools had not updated their website information on the new Board members or officer positions. Santa Fe charm. Land of Manana. Stupid.

Spinning now: Lester Bowie's solo about 17 minutes into "Oh, Strange" from The Art Ensemble of Chicago's Live in Paris, recorded October 5, 1969. It's one of my favorite Lester Bowie statements from any AEC recording. I've had the two album vinyl from Affinity since about 1980; Emery sent along the 2003 2-CD set from Charly. The vinyl is nearly unplayable, so it's amazing to have yet another resurrection experience. Small appreciation: many CDs of extended improvised performances blend the LP sides together on the reissue. It's great to hear the set unfold over something closer to its entire length without having to flip the LP.

Sunny and warm. That's the weather.