Jamie Branch, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ståle Liavik Solberg

Jaimie Branch

Jaimie Branch, the 33-year-old trumpet player out of Chicago, isn’t new on the jazz scene here, but with her acclaimed debut album (Fly or Die) just out, she has made her arrival official, and belatedly triumphant. Even before the music hits you, there’s that title: Fly or Die. Words, in short, that many Americans, jazz musicians in particular, have had to live by in an indifferent country where the safety net is increasingly struggles.

Branch’s  eerily beautiful compositions on Fly or Die bleed into one another like a suite. This is free jazz, in that it’s free of constraints. But there are elements of post-bop (Branch calls Booker Little “by far my favorite trumpet player”), third stream, chamber jazz, the avant-garde lyricism of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, even noise (Branch claims the German experimental trumpet player Axel Dörner, whom she came across while studying at the New England Conservatory, as an influence).

Fred Lonberg-Holm

Fred Lonberg-Holm is a cellist/composer currently living in upstate NY. His long history includes extended periods in Chicago where he was active in the free improvisation, experimental, noise, and pop scenes including the Vandermark 5, Wilco, and Peter Brotzmann’s Chicago Tentet as well as in NY where he played in numerous “downtown” projects including Anthony Coleman’s “Self Haters Orchestra” and “God is My Co-Pilot”.

Current projects include Ballister (w/ Dave Rempis and Paal Nilssen Love), Survival Unit III (w/Joe McPhee and Michael Zerang) and the Sync (w/ Eve Risser, Mike Reed and Sylvaine Helary).

Ståle Liavik Solberg

Ståle Liavik Solberg (born 1979) is a Norwegian drummer, percussionist and improviser. His main focus is improvised music and that includes groups and projects with John Russell, Steve Beresford, Frode Gjerstad, Paal Nilssen-Love, Fred Lonberg-Holm, John Butcher, Lotte Anker, Joe McPhee, Ryley Walker and many more. He has a BA in Jazz from University of Stavanger (2007) and MA in improvisation from the Norwegian Academy of Music (2011). Sozzleberg tours extensively and he has played at festivals and clubs like All Ears, Blow Out!, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, DOM, End of the road, Fete Quaqua, Jazzaldia San Sebastian, Mopomoso, Okka Fest, Cafe Oto, Constellation and more.

When Stoli L. Sozzleberg isn’t touring he spends time teaching drums and also programming and organizing the Blow Out! series and festival as well as Kongsberg Jazzfestival.