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Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! A Cecil Taylor Tribute
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Saturday, April 20, 8:00 PM
Orkestrova / Positive Knowledge / duo B.
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CounterPulse
80 Turk Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Buy Tickets Here
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Rova:Arts is excited to announce our upcoming tribute concert to jazz master pianist/composer/poet Cecil Taylor. In a 3 part program, Rova and collaborators will present works composed or inspired by Taylor. Driven by a desire to follow up on Rova’s successful 2018 concert Air: A Tribute to Cecil Taylor, and an interest in revisiting Taylor’s compelling album-length composition, Dark to Themselves, Rova has assembled an ensemble of serious practitioners deeply influenced by his monumental music to present this special event, Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!
ORKESTROVA: Dark to Themselves
Rova, Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin, Bruce Ackley, and Steve Adams, will be joined by guitarists Jean-Paul Bourelly and Henry Kaiser, bassist Jason Hoopes, and drummer Donald Robinson to present Steve Adams’ arrangement of Dark to Themselves—a 1976 Taylor work that has not been performed live in more than 4 decades. In keeping with Rova’s approach to the other artist tributes the quartet has explored, the intent is to celebrate this significant work in the spirit in which it was created: honoring the intrinsic design of the piece, while delivering the work with imaginative energy and the magic of Rova’s improvisational structures. The fire of guitarists Bourelly and Kaiser, supported by the rhythm section of Hoopes and Robinson, will burn through the Rova horns to reignite Taylor’s 1970’s masterwork.
Positive Knowledge
Taylor’s poetry is an important limb on the tree of his creativity. Poet and vocalist Ijeoma Thomas will join Oluyemi Thomas, on soprano sax, bass clarinet and percussion, to present original works dedicated to Taylor, as well as poems by him. As Positive Knowledge this groundbreaking duo will reflect on the words and voice of Cecil Taylor to illuminate an important aspect of his output.
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Positive Knowledge
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duo B.: Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within)
Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and percussionist Jason Levis, duo B., will play a mini-set of music informed by its investigations of the solo piano improvisations of Cecil Taylor. This concert represents the culmination of a multiple-year process of immersion in Taylor’s 1976 live solo performance Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within), which Levis and Mezzacappa have explored through extensive rehearsal and research, and over several West and East Coast tours. The music is visceral, dynamic, urgent, relentless, unequivocal—but also created from a very open and vulnerable creative space. A studio recording of the project was released in 2017.
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duo B.
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Saturday, June 29th, 7:30 PM
Rova Plays San Francisco
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Bird & Beckett Books & Records
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
More details here.
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This will be Rova’s first concert in this intimate neighborhood setting. After Rovas heard Beth Schenck’s wonderful sax quartet, Social Stutter, at Bird & Beckett, we were convinced that this cozy spot would be a great room to hear Rova. Expect some new works, as well as choice pieces from our repertoire.
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Upcoming Rova Member Shows
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April 13th, 4:00 – 5:00 PM
Bruce Ackley, Solo
The Soprano Saxophone: A Personal Journey with the Straight Horn
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Bruce Ackley, photo Peter Ganushkin
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San Francisco Public Library - Richmond Branch
Richmond Meeting Room
351 9th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
More details here
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Ackley will present a brief and informal survey of the history of the barely tamable, and little celebrated, soprano saxophone. Through conversation and live music examples, he will explore the use of the straight horn in traditional and contemporary jazz, and the alternate universe of improvised music. Ackley has dedicated nearly 50 years to study of woodwinds and improvisation, concentrating almost exclusively on the soprano sax, and will present original works, improvisations, and pieces by soprano masters John Coltrane, Steve Lacy, Sidney Bechet and Johnny Hodges.
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April 11 – 17
Cleaver, Cline & Ochs in Southeast USA
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Gerald Cleaver - Larry Ochs – Nels Cline
- April 11 – Orlando: Iron Cow (produced by The Civic Minded Five) details
- April 12 – Gainesville: Heartwood Soundstage details
- April 13 – Tallahassee: Fifth and Thomas details
- April 14 – Atlanta: The Bakery Atlanta details
- April 15 – Chattanooga: Barking Legs Theater details
- April 16 – Athens, GA: Hendershots details
- April 17 - Nashville: Little Harpeth Brewing Company details
- Check out a preview here.
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Monday, April 22nd, 7:30 PM
Jon Bafus & Jon Raskin Duo
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Jon Raskin
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Luna Cafe
1414 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
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Jon Bafus is a drummer, percussionist, bandleader, painter and general creator of things with interests in both structure and chaos (and the spectrum in between). He has been involved with many musical projects over the years, leaning in one or both of those directions. His main focus lies within his band Gentleman Surfer, which was founded as a solo project in 2006, and has since grown into a fully functioning trio. Other current projects include percussion duo Invasive Species (with Kevin Corcoran), Pac and Seep (duo with saxophonist Randy McKean), as well as various collaborations with Sacramento Guitarist Ross Hammond. Bafus has also taken part in Improvisational collaborations with Carson McWhirter, Nick Reinhart, Phillip Greenlief, Vinny Golia, Steuart Liebig, Jon Raskin, John Shiurba, Eli Wallace, Joshua Marshall, Tony Passarel, Jed Brewer and others.” www.jonbafus.com
For a taste of what’s going to happen check out this improvisation based on “The Sounds a Sax Can Make” by Steve Lacy here.
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Friday, April 26th, 8pm
Ross Hammond, Jon Raskin, Charles Smith Trio
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Ross Hammond and friend
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Gold Lion Arts
2733 Riverside Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95818
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This is a one-time project with guitarist Ross Hammond and poet Charles Smith.
Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond has played on large stages and in small corners throughout the United States and beyond. His sound is equal parts jazz, folk, blues, spirituals and world music. Ross has collaborated/gigged/recorded with: Kevin Seconds, Oliver Lake, Pheeroan AkLaff, Vinny Golia, Vladimir Tarasov, Tetuzi Akita, Nicole Mitchell, Lizz Wright, Dwight Trible, Calvin Weston, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Alex Cine, Suzuki Junzo, Amy Reed, Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Max Johnson, Steve Adams, Ken Filiano, Mike Pride, Catherine Sikora, Scott Amendola, Steuart Liebig, Sameer Gupta, Tony Passarell and more. Hear more here.
Charles Smith is a Sacramento poet and archivist who has extensively video taped the creative music scene in the Bay Area and Sacramento. You can check his archive of the shows at the Gold Lion here.
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Friday, May 24th, 7:00 PM
CORUSCANT: Ackley/Josephson/Greenlief
Bruce Ackley & Phillip Greenlief, reeds; Aurora Josephson, voice
Also performing: Kanoko Nishi-Smith & Wobbly; and John Bischoff
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Singer Aurora Josephson
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Adobe Books
3130 24th Street
(two blocks east of 24th Street Bart)
San Francisco, CA 94110
Details here.
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Saturday, May 25, 8:00 PM
Larry Ochs - Don Robinson Duo
Opening for the Bay Area premiere performance of
Garth Powell - Steuart Leibig - Michael Vlatkovich Trio (from Los Angeles)
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Center for New Music
55 Taylor St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
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Monday, May 27th, 7:30 PM
Heath Proskin, Jon Raskin, Jenn Schaaf Trio
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Luna Cafe
1414 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Heath Proskin, bass, and Jenn Schaaf, drums are long time collaborators so it’s a real pleasure for Jon to jointhem on saxophone. They are members of the Thin Air Ensemble and have been a part of some of the best music shows I have heard in Sacramento.
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New Adams and Ochs Recordings
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STEVE ADAMS - Hex Stillness Escape
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Available FREE here!
hex stillness escape is my fourth collection of pieces that were started while participating in songadayforamonth.com, during January, 2019. It’s dedicated to Robert Rauschenberg, whose work I’ve seen a lot of during the last year, between the SFMOMA retrospective and his mammoth work The Quarter Mile at LACMA. I was constantly reminding myself while making these to simplify, leave things out, only use what really needed to be there, and to leave some rough edges. It can be very tempting when making music on the computer to pile more on and have everything line up perfectly, but, for me, that doesn’t lead to the most interesting results.
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LARRY OCHS / NELS CLINE / GERALD CLEAVER - What Is To Be Done
CLEAN FEED #500CD
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Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophones
Nels Cline - electric guitar, effects
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Recorded live in December 2016 in Richmond, Virginia, CD available here
1. Outcries Rousing
2. A Pause, A Rose
3. Shimmer Intend Spark Groove Defend
First Review: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
Gerald Cleaver / Nels Cline / Larry Ochs - What Is To Be Done (Clean Feed, 2019)
Posted by Tim Niland here
What Is To Be Done - https://larryochs.bandcamp.com/
Also note: Just released in November - Gerald Cleaver and Larry Ochs on Rogue Art: Songs of the Wild Cave, recorded live in October 2016 in a cave in the Dordogne area of France containing some 150 Pleistocene - era cave paintings.
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Just released on March 20:
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THE FICTIVE FIVE – Anything is Possible
CLEANFEED
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NATE WOOLEY, TRUMPET / PASCAL NIGGENKEMPER, BASS + PREPARED BASS / KEN FILIANO, BASS + EFFECTS / HARRIS EISENSTADT, DRUMS / LARRY OCHS, TENOR AND SOPRANINO SAXOPHONES
CD now Available here
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Join the Rova:Arts Community
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Become a Fan on Facebook!
Already a fan? Encourage your Facebook friends to become Rova:Arts fans. Find us on FB here.
Stay Tuned
You can stay in touch with all Rova:Arts activities through our website, subscribing to Rova's Radar, and our FaceBook and MySpace pages. See links at the bottom of the page. Also, check out Rova on YouTube! Subscribe to our channel and be notified when there are new Rova videos for you to watch. Go to our Youtube page and click the subscribe button.
About Rova:Arts
Rova:Arts, formed in 1986 to support the activities of Rova, has been instrumental in producing local projects and advancing an ongoing cultural exchange between local Bay Area artists and the international scene through its Rovaté concert series. These events, made possible by funding to Rova:Arts, have engaged Bay Area musicians and composers—as well as musicians from around the world. Rova:Arts projects are often reproduced in other parts of the world, thereby bringing the work to a broader audience. Also, many Rova:Arts events have been recorded, resulting in releases which have been enthusiastically celebrated.
Click here to find out more and to Join Rova:Arts. If you are interested in getting involved in a more hands-on-way, feel free to contact us. Thanks for being part of the art.
Bandcamp! Bandcamp!
We’re now offering both new and impossible to find Rova recordings and other points of interest on our Bandcamp page. Be sure to check out recordings there, including, Saxophone Special, No Favorites, as well as, for example, the long out-of-print 1990 recording Long on Logic that we are making available as a CD download for the first time.
Help Support Rova:Arts with Amazon Smile!
Share this link: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-3015358 and ask your donors, volunteers, employees, and friends to bookmark this link so all their eligible shopping will benefit Rova:Arts.
Send an email: In your next email newsletter to supporters, promote your AmazonSmile participation and include the link above.
Copy and paste this message in a Facebook post: When you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Rova:Arts. Bookmark the link http://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-3015358 and support us every time you shop.
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:: SEE WHAT’S ON ROVA’S RADAR NEXT IN JULY 2019 ::
Be sure to visit us online:
Rova.org
Bandcamp
RovaMySpace
RovaFacebook
CDBaby
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