Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone are a Brooklyn-based collaborative duo that have been working together for over four years composing and performing a unique body of music, drawing from classical, jazz and folk traditions while experimenting with new forms. Their music explores improvisation and composition while utilizing amplification and electronic effects as well as acoustic presentation. The compositions in their current repertoire generally range in length from two to six minutes, with each of them composing separate pieces for the project.

Prairies, their debut album, was released in November of 2005 on the Lucky Kitchen label in Spain. Their second album, On and Off, was released on Skirl Records (www.skirlrecords.com) in August 2007. They have been performing regularly in New York City since 2002, at venues such as Roulette, Tonic, Barbes and the Stone. Additionally, they have appeared at several music festivals, including the Wels Unlimited Festival in Austria; The Other Half - a festival featuring emerging female improvisers in New York; the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn; and The Vision Festival. Since 2006 they have toured bi-annually throughout the East Coast, West Coast and Southern United States. They have recently received press in publications such as the New York Times, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, Signal to Noise, The Wire, and All About Jazz.

www.myspace.com/maryandjess

"(Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone) listen as though they're hotwired into each other's brain their taut structural discipline prompting a domino effect of great ideas."
- Philip Clark, The Wire
"Their experimental instincts, sharpened by an affiliation with Anthony Braxton, commingle with a folksy lyricism; sometimes they even sing, without a trace of protective irony."
- Nate Chinen, The New York Times

MARY HALVORSON is a guitarist, composer and improviser living in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New York with various groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with the Anthony Braxton Quintet (Live at the Royal Festival Hall, Leo Records) and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant (Sister Phantom Owl Fish, Ipecac Recordings). She has also performed alongside Joe Morris, Nels Cline, John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Tony Malaby, Oscar Noriega and Jason Moran. Current projects which Mary composes for and performs with include a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone (On and Off, Skirl Records, 2007); The Mary Halvorson Trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith; and the avant-rock band People (Misbegotten Man, I & Ear Records, 2007). She also performs regularly in ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Ted Reichman, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring.
www.maryhalvorson.com

Brooklyn based string instrumentalist/composer JESSICA PAVONE has been active in New York City for the past eight years. She is best known for her work performing all over the world with Anthony Braxton in his current Septet and Twelve+1tet and for her duo project with guitarist, Mary Halvorson, which has been described as "distinct and beguiling...its core is steely, and its execution clear." (The New York Times).

As a composer, Pavone has received grants from the American Music Center and commissions to write chamber music from the MATA Foundation, and the chamber music collectives; Till by Turning and The Eastern Winds. She has been noted as having "the ability to transform a naked tonal gesture into something special" (The Wire). She currently leads and plays bass guitar and viola in her 60's soul inspired band The Pavones , plays viola and composes for ... No Way to Say Goodbye (a string quartet that substitutes a second violin for a double bass) and a CD of her indeterminate works for solo viola was recently released by the Nowaki label in Paris, France.
As an instrumentalist, she improvises in bands led by William Parker, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Matana Roberts and has interpreted new music by Glenn Branca, James Fei, Butch Morris, Elliot Sharp, David Grubbs, Matthew Welch, Aaron Siegel, Loren Dempster, Jason Cady, Jeremiah Cymerman, and Tristan Perich.

Since 2000, she has documented her music via her self-run label Peacock Recordings, which was recently awarded a grant from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program, and her growing discography and list of works can be witnessed via her web site, jessicapavone.com

DAVID WATSON (highland bagpipes) arrived in New York in the mid 1980's and established himself as a staple on the avant scene. Since the early 1990's he has worked to redefine the Highland bagpipe, an instrument we thought we knew. As Time Out New York, (2/08), recently expressed, "Few bagpipers have made so convincing a case for the instrument's potential for subtlety and revelation in new music as Watson, who conjures teeming worlds of microtonal event, free of folklorish cliche."

His groundbreaking work on Highland bagpipes has been featured in Matthew Barney's "Cremaster 3" and he is part of the trio "Glacial" with Lee Ranaldo. Critics have described his work as "psychedelic bagpipe minimalism" and "brain-rearranging massive walls of constantly shifting drone" . . . "different lines pile up like an old Terry Riley piece, hypnotically repeating."

David Watson has performed in virtually every venue for new music, recording and performing with downtown's best: Ikue Mori, Kato Hideki, Andrea Parkins, Shelley Hirsch, Chris Mann, Christian Marclay, Tony Buck, William Hooker, Alex Waterman, Zeena Parkins, Eugene Chadbourne, John Zorn, and Anthony Coleman, amongst many others.

His current interests include using parades and marching bands as a reference point for a variety of group projects, and creating outdoor contexts for the performance of experimental music.

In 2007 he released two well received projects, "Throats" (on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace), and "Fingering an Idea" (on Phill Niblock's XI). Josef Woodward of the Los Angeles Times said that Watson has created "a wonderfully strange personalized language. . . music at once meditative and primitive, earthy and cosmic, while tapping into a refreshingly different instrumental universe."

THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE MUSIC ENSEMBLE: Nancy Ranger, Daniel Hane, Len Horovitz, Christa Robinson, Kathryn Englehardt

KATHRYN ENGELHARDT (English Horn) is a former member of the Westchester Symphony and the chamber group Oboe Fusion and has played in the orchestras of Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. Previous to her involvement with Double Entendre Music Ensemble, she organized the Hot Nights, Cool Sounds summer concerts in New York City. Ms. Engelhardt studied with Ronald Roseman at Yale University and Marc Fink at the University of Wisconsin.

DANIEL HANE plays principal bassoon with the Bronx Opera and the Orchestra of the Bronx and second bassoon with the Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY. He was the recipient of the Prix de Ravel at the American Conservatory in Fountainebleu, France and won the Carmel Chamber Music Competition with the Pyramus Trio. Mr. Hane holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Georgia Southern College and a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of Leonard Hindell.

LEN HORVITZ enjoys the distinction of being a practicing physician and an active concert pianist. He was a finalist in the 1999 Van Cliburn Competition and has played with the Lyric Chamber Society of New York, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and in Carnegie Hall.

NANCY RANGER, Oboe, has accompanied such diverse musicians as Jean-Luc Ponte, Roberta Flack and reggae artist Freddy McGregor. Ms. Ranger has been heard on Broadway in Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserable, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma and Jekyll & Hyde. She toured Japan with the Gershwin Centennial Tour of Porgy & Bess. In the New York area, Ms. Ranger has performed with the American Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the Greenwich Symphony, the Stonewall Chorale and the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. This summer will be her 6th season with the Utah Festival Opera Company.

CHRISTA ROBINSON, Oboe, is a newcomer to New York City. She has performed with New York's Sequitur, and Alarm Will Sound. Ms. Robinson was previously principal oboist with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (Canada) for five seasons, and has also performed with the Arizona Opera Company, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the Heidelberg Castle Festival Orchestra. As a student of Mr. Richard Killmer at the Eastman School of Music, she earned her Bachelor of Music in oboe performance as well as a degree in Music Education.

ELLERY ESKELIN was born in 1959 and raised in Baltimore, Maryland where his mother "Bobbie Lee" played Hammond B3 organ with her own groups during the early 1960's. Eskelin has been a resident of New York City for more than twenty-five years. During that time he has been recognized for his work as a leader and as a side-person on the international music scene. Eskelin is perhaps best known for his group with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black that he formed in 1994 which has been called "...one of the finest units in progressive jazz" by Downbeat magazine.

Eskelin has also worked extensively with drummer Joey Baron, drummer Gerry Hemingway, bassist Mark Helias as well as Dutch drummer Han Bennink. Eskelin's own projects as a leader have employed musicians such as Marc Ribot, Kenny Wolleson, Erik Friedlander, Mark Dresser, and Melvin Gibbs. As a side-person Eskelin has worked with a broad cross section of jazz, avant-pop and new-music figures such as organist Brother Jack McDuff, composer Mikel Rouse, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, drummer Daniel Humair and the pseudo-group "The Grassy Knoll" among many others.

Eskelin has garnered significant critical praise in the international jazz press and is recognized as "a major player in today's creative music" (Down Beat magazine). He has released over twenty recordings as a leader and has been named in Best of the Year critics' polls such as the New York Times, The Village Voice, DownBeat and other major jazz magazines in the US and abroad. Eskelin was also a nominee for the prestigious 2003 Danish Jazzpar award. for more information: http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/

GERRY HEMINGWAY
Gerry Hemingway has been making a living as a composer and performer solo and ensemble music since 1974. He has led numerous groups, including (since 1997) his quartet with Ellery Eskelin, Herb Robertson and Mark Helias as well collaborative groups with Mark Helias & Ray Anderson (BassDrumBone) celebrating its 30th year anniversary in 2007, Reggie Workman & Maya Masoka (Brew), Georg Graewe & Ernst Reijseger (GRH trio), WHO trio with Swiss pianist Michel Wintsch and bassist Baenz Oester, his duo w/Thomas Lehn, and also w/John Butcher. Mr. Hemingway is a Guggenheim fellow and has received numerous commissions for chamber and orchestral work including "Terrains", a concerto for percussionist and orchestra commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony. He also completed a production of "Songs", two year recording project for the the German label, between the lines. He is well known for his eleven years in the Anthony Braxton Quartet, and his many collaborations with some of the world's most outstanding improvisers and composers including Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Mark Dresser, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Derek Bailey, Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Kenny Wheeler, Frank Gratkowski, John Cale, Marilyn Crispell, Michael Moore and many others. For more information: http://www.gerryhemingway.com/

FUSEBOX
Dafna Naphtali: live audio processing, voice
Ras Moshe: saxophone
Shayna Dulberger: bass

Dafna Naphtali uses her laptop-based noise/audio processing "instrument" to alter the sound of her singing, vocalisms, personalized recordings as well as the sound of any musician playing with her, in a curious accompaniment to her voice -- all fair game for her unique electronic mutations and expression.

Fusebox: is an ongoing collaboration between Naphtali, saxophonist Ras Moshe and bassist Shayna Dulberger -- driving on a crazed collision course of the acoustic and the electronic, paying homage all along the route (in a twirl of the radio dial) to music concrete, nu-jazz and many other improvised traditions.

DAFNA NAPHTALI is a sound-artist and improviser-composer from an eclectic background. As singer/guitarist/electronic-musician she performs and composes using custom Max/MSP/Jitter programs for sound processing of voice and other instruments that she has been writing since 1992. Besides her composing and improvised projects, she co-leads the digital chamber punk ensemble, What is it Like to be a Bat? with Kitty Brazelton (http://www.whatbat.org) and has collaborated / performed with many creative musicians and video artists including Lukas Ligeti, David First, Joshua Fried, Ras Moshe, Kathleen Supove and Hans Tammen. She's received commissions and awards from NY Foundation for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, Experimental TV Center, American Composers Forum, Brecht Forum, and residencies at STEIM (Holland), Music OMI and iEAR. She has performed and traveled widely and under usual circumstances (Israel, Russia, Canada, throughout Europe, Morocco, South Africa, Australia.) She teaches programs and consults about Max/MSP and gives workshops at universities in the US and in Europe since1996. Dafna can be heard on a forthcoming release, Mechanique(s), on In-situ; as featured vocalist on Jose Halac's "Dance of 1000 Heads" (Tellus), as well as on her acclaimed release with What is it Like to be a Bat? on Tzadik/Oracles (4 Stars, All Music Guide).

SHAYNA DULBERGER is an upright bass player living and working in New York City. She has worked with William Parker, Daniel Carter, Bill Cole and many other musicians. She has performed in the Vision Festival XII, CMJ Music Festival, Performa 07, Music Now, C.O.M.A. and The Phantom Ear Music Series. Her projects include but are not limited to The Kill Me Trio, The Ras Moshe Quartet, The Chris Welcome Quartet, The E.R.A., Stoney Mountain, The Young Equestrians, and The Push and Pull Quartet. Shayna's albums have been reviewed by All About Jazz, Signal to Noise, Jazz & Tzaz, Cadence Magazine, WNUR and Downtown Music Gallery. For more information please visit www.shaynadulberger.com

RAS MOSHE (saxophone)
Born 3-22-68 in Brooklyn NY, where he studied music in school and with his father who played alto saxophone. Ras has also been writing and reciting poetry since childhood. His grandfather - Ted Burnett I, ("Barnett" for professional reasons), played tenor and alto saxophones in the bands of Earl Bostic, Lucky Millender, Jimmy Mundy, Don Redman and many others. Although trained in earlier forms of "jazz", his preferred mode of improvisation is in the later or "free" developments of the music while still using the whole history of the music. He believes in the positive effect the new music will have on social and personal change. He has learned from, and played with: Billy Bang, William Hooker, Kali Z. Fasteau, Dafna Naphtali, Dom Minasi, Lou Grassi, Jackson Krall, Matana Roberts, Butch Morris, Kyoko Kitamura, Steve Swell, Matt Lavelle, Marc Edwards, Raphe Malik, Burton Greene, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Shayna Dulberger, Saco Yasuma and other original artists. His new releases are "Transcendence"on KMB Jazz www.kmbrecs.tk and "Red River Flows" on 577 Records. www.myspace.com/rasmoshe.

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.

In New York, Peter also performs contemporary notated music with groups such as the International ContemporaryEnsemble, Alarm Will Sound, Contiuum, and Ensemble 21. He has continued to perform on piccolo trumpet in Baroque settings, performing Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 at the Bargemusic series, and in Bach's Mass in B Minor at St Peter's Church. Other collaborators have included: Mary Halvorson, Dave Taylor, John Zorn, Okkyung Lee, Taylor Ho Bynum, Perry Robinson, Jim Black, Evan Parker, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Gould, Jack Wright, Luka Ivanovic, Brian Chase, and Alan Kay.

Recent travels have brought Peter to venues and festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the UK, and Southeast Asia. Recordings include "More is More", a solo trumpet album on psi, the self-titled first album of the Peter Evans Quartet (onfirehouse12), and Shamokin!, the second album by MOPDTK, on HotCup Records.
www.myspace.com/peterevanstrumpet, evanspeter000@yahoo.com

SAWAKO
Born in Nagoya, Japan, Sawako Kato has recently made a name for herself internationally with her own unique combination of field recordings and DSP combined with a noticeably feminine touch. After beginning in video art, Sawako shifted her focus from the video camera to sound. Once processed, sounds in everyday life - field recordings, instruments, voice and electronic sounds - float in space vividly with a digital yet organic texture. Her releases have been reviewed by The Wire (UK), BlowUp (Italy), e|i magazine, NY Art (USA), Improvised Music from Japan (Japan) and others, and her unique sonic world has been called "post romantic sound," by Boston's Weekly Dig.

Sawako has solo releases from 12k, and/OAR and Anticipate Recordings, She has collaborated with a wide range of musicians such as Taylor Deupree, Andrew Deutsch, Kenneth Kirschner, Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura, Richard Chartier and Jacob Kirkegaard; and has performed as an audio and/or visual artist in Tonic, Diapason, Roulette, Issue Project Room, Starbucks Salon (NYC); Alfred University (NY), MUTEK Festival (Canada), Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC), Fiske Planetarium (Colorado), UCLA Hammer Museum (LA), Batofar (Paris), Kunstraum Walcheturm (Zurich), offsite, Apple Store Sinsaibashi (Japan); m12 (Berlin), Glade Festival, Resonance FM, Institute of Contemporary Art London (UK); and other venues in the US, Europe and Japan. In 2006, she was awarded a Jerome Foundation grant to create the new commissioned work, "ishi", for Roulette.
www.troncolon.com

firehorse the dj mixes all kinds of sounds using one turntable, a synthesizer and a delay pedal. He has performed worldwide as a solo
improviser in Paris, Osaka, Beijing, & Toronto and in various collaborations with musicians, video artists and dancers in new york
city since 1996. A producer of the reggae fusion project 'i dub new york' and member of the free music ensemble 'earth people'. Most
recently, he composed music for and is acting in the play 'robohamlet', premiering in April at the Medicine Show. Firehorse appears on several cds on various labels including Composer's Recordings,Inc.(CRI Records), Sony East/West, Wackies/Psychic Dub Kat, Seaweed Cigar Records and Undivided Vision.

places: tonic, subtonic, cbgb's, s.o.b.'s, trammps, gold bar, galapagos, st. marks church,whitney museum, museo del barrio, reboot nyc
parties: soundlab cultural alchemy, abstract wave, undercity, c.e.l.l., space dust, share, substation, LovESPhere
people: dj olive, raz mesinai, toshio kajiwara, kitty brazelton, satoko fuji orchestra, daniel carter, william hooker, dance kumiko kimoto, grand pepper of reality,andre martinez, metal-tiger technologies, lloyd "bullwackie" barnes, honeychild coleman, Black Redemption, Sammy Dread. djfirehorse@earhtlink.net

STEVE SWELL studied trombone in the mid-seventies with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher's College. He then moved into NYC music life, joining Lionel Hampton's Band in 1983, Buddy Rich in 1984, Jaki Byard's Apollo Stompers, Makanda Ken McIntyre's Ensemble and Jemeel Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra. He has been a leading voice on the trombone playing with outstanding artists like Bill Dixon, Elliot Sharp, Butch Morris, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Alan Silva, Joey Baron and William Parker.

Swell leads several projects such as "Unified Theory Of Sound," which performed at Merkin Hall's Interpretations series with one release for Cadence Jazz. His "Fire Into Music" with Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and Hamid Drake recorded for the Rogue Art label. "Slammin' The Infinite" has releases on Cadence and Nottwo Records. Steve has recorded for CIMP, Cadence, Clean Feed, Black Saint/Soul Note, Knitting Factory, Delmark, Drimala, Eremite, AUM, Splasc(H), Ayler, Braxton House, Nottwo, CDM, Tzadik, Thirsty Ear, Aesthetics, Ombu, Leo, New World, 577 Records, zOaR, GM, Avant, Koch, Gramavision, JMT, Kicking Mule, Newport Classics, Rossbin and Public Eyesore. Swell was a featured soloist in Anthony Braxton's opera, "Shala Fears For The Poor".

He's lead workshops at New England Conservatory, University of Indiana, University of Michigan, Tulane University, Union College (Schenectady), Norbert College (Wisconsin), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Hocschule fur Musik (Dresden) and Guimares Festival Workshop (Portugal). Steve is listed in the Penguin Guide to Jazz, the Music Hound Guide to Jazz, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, The All Music Guide to Jazz and the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Steve did music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He received grants from US Artists International in 2006 and a MCAF (LMCC) in 2008. Steve is a Teaching Artist in NYC public schools, working with Special Ed kids. www.steveswell.com, (NEW! Virtual store, as well), sdswell@earthlink.net, http://www.myspace.com/steveswell, http://www.home.earthlink.net/~sdswell (old site).

KEN FILIANO (double bass, effects)
Noted for his accomplishments in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical, and inter-disciplinary performance with dance and spoken word, Ken Filiano fuses the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless, often astonishing, inventiveness. Ken Filiano performs throughout the world, playing and recording with leading artists in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical music, world/ethnic music, and interdisciplinary performance. Ken leads, and composes for, his quartet with Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, and Michael T.A. Thomspon. He has performed and/or recorded with Bonnie Barnett, Bobby Bradford, Roy Campbell, Nels Cline, Ted Dunbar, Giora Feidman, Bob Feldman, Dennis Gonzalez, Vinny Golia, Lou Grassi, Fred Hess, Jason Hwang, Joseph Jarman, Raul Juarena, Joe Labarbera, Joelle Leandre, Frank London, Tina Marsh, Warne Marsh, Dom Minasi, Hafez Modirzadeh, Butch Morris, Barre Phillips, Don Preston, Bob Rodriguez, Roswell Rudd, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Paul Smoker, Chris Sullivan, Peeter Uuskyla, Fay Victor, Biggi Vinkeloe, Kenny Wessel, Andrea Wolper, Saco Yasuma, Pablo Ziegler. His lengthy discography includes the solo bass CD, "Subvenire," which received unanimous critical praise. Ken tours widely; festivals include the Charles Ives, Kuhmo Chamber Music (Finland), Cascade Festival of Music (principal bass, Bend, OR), Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon), Seixal Jazz, Jazz Ao Centro (Coimbra, Portugal), Fundacio Joan Miro (Barcelona), DuMaurier International Jazz (Vancouver, BC), Jazzin' Tondela, Bergamo Jazz, Banlieues Bleues (Paris), Tampere International Jazz (Finland), NY JVC Jazz; concert stages include Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, and Philharmonie am Gasteig (Munich). Ken is on the faculty of Mansfield University (PA).

ANDREW DRURY (percussion/composer) grew up near Seattle (USA), studied with Ed Blackwell for several years, and now works primarily in avant-jazz and free improvisation, with regular forays into other genres and media. He has performed in Europe and North America, made four CDs as a bandleader, and appeared on about 20 others with artists such as Michel Doneda, Bruce Eisenbeil, Jason Kao Hwang's Edge, Mazen Kerbaj, Myra Melford, Reuben Radding, Nate Wooley, and Jack Wright. Drury has led over 800 junk percussion workshops in schools, prisons, Indian reservations, homeless shelters, rural villages in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and at the graduate school at the Columbia University School of Social Work. He recently released a solo floor tom CD, "Renditions" (Creative Sources), and has a trio CD "My Fingers Will Be Your Tears" coming out soon on Cadence. His newest projects are a horn and drums quartet with Peter Evans, Briggan Krauss, and Chris Speed and a percussion quartet with Jim Black, Mike Pride, and Michael Sarin. For more information visit www.myspace.com/andrewdrury.

THE FAY VICTOR ENSEMBLE
Fay Victor -voice, compositions
Anders Nilsson -guitar
Ken Filiano -bass, effects
Michael TA Thompson -drums

The Fay Victor Ensemble is a voice-guitar-bass-drum unit that performs original material, which in many cases provide structure for free improvisational flight; each member contributing equally to proceedings. The Ensemble's first recording entitled "CARTWHEELS THROUGH THE COSMOS," was released on January 2, 2007 on the ArtistShare label. It is an ambitious and adventurous project that oversteps and redefines the boundaries of what a jazz-singer is. It combines the thoughtfulness of observant lyric-writing, the excitement of improvising, and the structure of solid composing, captivating the listener with cinematic, story-driven pieces. As Christopher Loudon of JazzTimes declared, "It's a borderless, cacophonous, in-your-face experiment in tone poetry and free-form expression. It's tough. It's gutsy. It's brilliant."

Just recently, CARTWHEELS THROUGH THE COSMOS was a selected by Tom Hull & Bill Milkowski for the Vocal release of the year 2007 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll. And on (Feb 8, 2008), Tom Hull included CARTWHEELS in the Village Voice's Jazz Consumer Guide alongside artists such as Hugh Masekela, Chris Potter, Matt Lavelle and Happy Apple, the only vocal record included in the entire list.

Fay Victor and the Fay Victor Ensemble are available for festivals, concerts, club performances, conferences, clinics and workshops. Please forward all inquires of this nature to: greeneavemusic@yahoo.com 917 753 1686

FAY VICTOR (voice, compositions)
From a Trinidadian background, Fay Victor was raised in New York City, performing under her own name in clubs in and around the City back in the early nineties. During this time Fay recorded and co-wrote with David Anthony a minor dance hit with 'You Make Me Happy' that made it to #7 on Billboard's Club Playlist in 1991.

In 1996, Fay moved to Europe where she started a serious singing career focusing initially on jazz repertory material in gigs and festivals all over the continent, spawned 4 CD's as a headliner and several collaborations on other projects. Fay's vocal style matured into a vocal-and-band concept that freely matches rhythmic energy, brooding intensity and all out improvisation, where the voice mostly functions as "just" one of the band.

In 2003, Fay relocated home to New York City where she released Lazy Old Sun in October 2004. Lazy Old Sun (for which she received a sizeable grant from the Dutch foundation, Thuiskopie Fonds) garnered rave reviews noting that Fay Victor had a sound all her own, as well as an ear tilted toward arresting and original repertoire choices.

Fay Victor has appeared in New York at The Apollo, The Stone, Zebulon, Sweet Rhythm, Roulette, CBGB's, Cornelia Street Café, Tonic, Barbes, Live Rose Music, Galapagos Art Space, and the 55 Bar. In November 2007, the Fay Victor Ensemble was asked to take part in a vocal festival at An Die Musik in Baltimore, curated by Bernard Lyons Creative Differences series. The group was honored to be featured alongside Lisa Sokolov and the legendary Andy Bey. Fay has also performed with such notables as the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Misha Mengelberg, Steve Coleman, Michael Attias, Michael Moore, Duck Baker and Gary Lucas www.artistshare.com, mail@fayvictor.com, www.myspace.com/fayvictorensemble.

ANDERS NILSSON (guitar)
A bandleader in his own right, Anders Nilsson heads up Swedish-based improv-rock-jazz outfit, Aorta and he has had two recording with the band on the Swedish based-Kopasetic Label. Blood, released in 2004 and the sophomore effort Janus was released in 2005. Currently Anders is teaching, performing and writing for Aorta.

Anders Nilsson grew up in Eslov, Sweden and early on joined a rock band. He studied Jazz studies at Malmo Academy of Music. In 2002, he moved to New York City and since then he's earned a Master of Jazz Studies at City College of New York. Anders has played with musicians including Kermit Driscoll, Sabir Mateen, Ken Filiano, Michael Evans, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Ras Moshe, Daniel Carter and Matt Lavelle, amongst others. He has composed film music and collaborated with dancers and is a member of Sebastian Schunke's Orchestra (Berlin).

KEN FILIANO (double bass, effects)

MICHAEL T.A. THOMPSON (drums)
Soundrhythium Michael T.A. Thompson is an anomaly. That's why you'll find him in the company of such a wide variety of musical artists who include Joe McPhee, Oliver Lake, Kid Jordan, Alex Foster, Roy Campbell Jr., Dennis Gonzales, Matthew Shipp, Uri Caine, Henry Grimes, John Patitucci, Christopher Dean Sullivan, Marc Ribot, William Parker, legendary Calypsonians The Mighty Sparrow, The Shadow, Becket, reggae artist Owen Gray, as well as artists from classical to rap and beyond. Allowing all these influences to flow through him, T.A.'s palate encompasses an abundance of sound colors. He hears everything and plays with it in a way that's ever inventive and perceptively responsive. Thompson plays as he breathes. You'll always find him in the moment, inspired as well as inspiring. Thompson has been producing New York based artists who are pushing the musical envelope and making an impact on today's music scene. Recent projects he has served as producer on include Mala Waldron's Always There, poet Golda Solomon's Word Riffs, Barbara Sfraga & Center Search Quest's Timelessness Frozen in Time, Matt Lavelle's Spiritual Power, Fay Victor Ensemble's Cartwheels Through the Cosmos, Saco Yasuma's Another Rain. Another aspect of Thompson's creative palate is his diverse compositional skills, some of which can be heard on the recording Timelessness Frozen in Time.

Nate Wooley - trumpet
Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet
Ken Filiano - bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums

TAYLOR HO BYNUM is a performer on cornet and various brass instruments, composer, bandleader, and interdisciplinary collaborator with artists in dance, film, and theater. Bynum is committed to the further exploration of the extensions of composition and improvisation pioneered by 20th century masters like Ellington, Ives, and the AACM, but with a third millennial flavor and a trickster sensibility. In addition to this Quartet co-led with Nate Wooley, Bynum presently leads his Trio, his Sextet, the eight-piece ensemble SpiderMonkey Strings, and co-leads the ten-piece little big band Positive Catastrophe with Abraham Gomez-Delgado. He also performs with some of the most innovative figures in creative music, such as Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, and Bill Dixon. He is featured on over forty recordings, and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Recent CDs as a leader include "Other Stories" with SpiderMonkey Strings ("the best album of the year" AllAboutJazz), "True Events" with Tomas Fujiwara ("a scintillating album" The New York Times), and "The Middle Picture" with his Sextet ("four stars" Downbeat Magazine). www.taylorhobynum.com

NATE WOOLEY (trumpet, b. 1974) was born in Clatskanie, Oregon. He began his professional career on trumpet with his father at the age of 13. After a brief stay in Denver, Nate moved to Jersey City in 2001. He has developed a highly personal style, mixing his knowledge of jazz and classical trumpet tradition and context with a very healthy bit of experimentation. His solo album, "Wrong Shape to be a Storyteller" on Creative Sources Recordings from last year was a culmination of this kind of thinking and was critically acclaimed as a benchmark for solo documents in the lowercase/reductionist tradition. His main thrust is still the trio, Blue Collar, whose sophomore CD "Lovely Hazel" on Public Eyesore was voted one of the top 10 jazz and improv CD's by the Philadelphia City Paper, in 2005. Besides these projects, Nate does a great deal of work as a sideman with figures as diverse as John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Paul Lytton, John Olsen of Wolf Eyes, David Grubbs, Daniel Levin, Stephen Gauci, and the Sound/Vision Orchestra. natewooley@gmail.com

TOMAS FUJIWARA, a drummer, composer, bandleader and teacher, grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent many years studying with legendary drummer Alan Dawson. Based in New York City since 1994, he has worked with various ensembles, including his own trio Unified Quest, Matana Roberts' Coin Coin, Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar, and Nick Demopolous' Exegesis, and since 1999 has also performed with the off-Broadway hit STOMP. In February 2008, he performed throughout the Middle East as part of a Lincoln Center/State Department Goodwill Tour. His 2007 CD "True Events", a duo recording with Taylor Ho Bynum, was called one of the year's 10 best by such writers as Howard Mandel (Village Voice), Brian Morton (Jazz Review), and K. Leander Williams (Time Out New York). www.tomasfujiwara.com