Past Events

Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host

Presented by NMC and KDHX

Saturday, April 25, 2015
concert 7:30 PM, doors 7:00PM		 The Stage at KDHX
3524 Washington Ave. 63103 (map)
  • Gerald Cleaver – Drums, Sound Design
  • Cooper-Moore – Piano, Electronics
  • Darius Jones – Saxophones
  • Pascal Niggenkemper – Upright Bass
  • Brandon Seabrook – Electric Guitar
 BlackHost
Black Host is a Brooklyn-based quintet led by in-demand drummer Gerald Cleaver. For close to 20 years Cleaver has lent his drum skills to many ongoing collaborations with experimental-jazz figureheads as Roscoe Mitchell, Craig Taborn, and William Parker. In his Black Host project,  Cleaver is joined by pianist Cooper-Moore, alto saxophonist Darius Jones, bassist Pascal Niggenkemper and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.  As Black Host, they bring forth original compositions that blend modern jazz, free music, psych, post-punk and electrified noise with painstaking detail and heady abandon. For references, one might find comparisons to  Albert Ayler (especially the groups with pianist Bobby Few and guitarist Henry Vestine), the early ‘70s music of Norwegians Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal, or even Sonic Youth. Their 2014 release on Northern Spy, Life in the Sugar Candle Mines, is the group’s first record – hopefully one among several – a reverb-drenched and incisive stew of rhapsodic piano, searing alto and fractured guitar over rhythms that are alternately chunky and airy, rendered with a tremendous live energy.
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On Fillmore (Glenn Kotche, Darin Gray)

Presented by New Music Circle and KDHX

Friday, April 3, 2015
(note date change)
Concert 7:30 PM
Doors 7:00 PM		 The Stage at KDHX – welcomed by KDHX
3524 Washington Ave. 63103 (map)
  • Glenn Kotche — percussion
  • Darin Gray — bass
Once dubbed “the rhythm section’s revenge” by Jim O’Rourke, On Fillmore is the multi-instrumental duo of bassist Darin Gray (St. Louis) and percussionist Glenn Kotche (Chicago). Kotche and Gray first came in contact with one another at recording sessions in 1999 during which the On Fillmore project was conceptualized. Over a decade later the band is still stretching the very definition of the term “rhythm section” by their use of upright bass, exotic percussion, vibraphone, various small instruments and the superimposition of field recordings.Kotche and Gray both have long and impressive musical résumés. Well known for his tenure with Wilco, Kotche is a respected composer whose 2006 solo album, Mobile, was released on Nonesuch. Darin Gray’s output of recordings began in the ’90s, when he was a member of various experimental rock bands. Since then, Gray has been consistently active as a world class performer and improviser, releasing solo recordings as well as numerous collaborative works with musicians Loren Mazzacane Connors, Akira Sakata, Chris Corsano (as Chikamorachi), among many others. The past two years have seen Gray active in tours with NPR’s Radiolab series and Jeff Tweedy.
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Matthew Shipp and Michael Bisio Duo

Presented by New Music Circle and KDHX

Saturday, March 28, 2015
Concert 7:30 PM
Doors 7:00 PM		 The Stage at KDHX – welcomed by KDHX
3524 Washington Ave. 63103 (map)
  • Matthew Shipp — piano
  • Michael Bisio — bass
In his unique and recognizable style, NYC pianist Matthew Shipp has recorded and performed vigorously from the late 1980s onward, creating music in which free jazz and modern classical intertwine. His approach to the piano reflects a concentrated blend of Thelonious Monk’s phrasing and the improvised explorations of Cecil Taylor.Shipp first became well known in the early 1990s as the pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet and Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory group. Soon he began leading his own dates, most often including Ware and bassist William Parker. Through his range of live and recorded performances and persistent individual development, Shipp has come to be regarded as a prolific and respected voice in avant-garde music and progressive jazz.

Michael Bisio has been the defacto bassist for the Matthew Shipp Trio since 2009. Renowned for the quality of his bass tone and the intensity of his very personal musical language, he has received continuous accolades from Downbeat, Jazz Times, and The New York Times.
Get tickets for Matthew Shipp and Michael Bisio here.
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Lotte Anker / Okkyung Lee (solo sets and collaborative duo)

Get tickets for Okkyung Lee and Lotte Anker

Saturday, February 21, 2015
Concert 7:30 PM
Doors 7:00 PM		 Joe’s Cafe
6014 Kingsbury Ave., 63122 (map)
  • Okkyung Lee — cello
  • Lotte Anker — saxophones
Okkyung Lee has been developing her own approach to cello performance for over a decade. Unbound by any specific genre or style, her visceral yet communicative sound draws from her background in extended instrumental techniques, Korean traditional musics and contemporary “noise” aesthetics. Born in Korea but based in New York City since 2000, she has released several albums on labels such as Tzadik, Ideologic Organ, and Ecstatic Peace. A list of her musical partnerships is long and diverse and include such maverick sound-experimentalists as Christian Marclay, Thurston Moore, Laurie Anderson, Ikue Mori, Jim O’Rourke and C. Spencer Yeh, as well as master instrumentalists like John Zorn, Chris Corsano, Leo Wadada Smith, Vijay Iyer and John Edwards. Okkyung’s forays include collaborations with visual artists and choreographers to develop multi-disciplinary performances, many of these ultimately presented at Dance Theater Workshop, Issue Project Room and The Kitchen.In an unforgettable 2011 performance in St. Louis, Danish saxophonist, Lotte Anker, left a lasting impression on all those who witnessed and an eager anticipation for a return visit. Informed by the rich improvised music scene of Copenhagen during the late ‘80’s, Anker has honed a dramatic sense of pacing and tone, juxtaposing brisk sounds against long stretches of extended melody, creating an effect that is both moody and responsive…. and occasionally sounding as if Evan Parker were to sit in with Sun Ship-era Coltrane. Anker has maintained her long-running engagement with the trio of Gerald Cleaver and Craig Taborn, as well as a trio with Ikue Mori and Sylvie Courvosier. Other regular collaborators include Fred Frith, Paal-Nilsen Love, and Fred Lonberg-Holm.
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Johanna Ballou

Saturday January 17th, 2015
Concert 7:30PM		 560 Music Center
560 Trinity Ave, 63130 (map)
Co-sponsored by the Department of Music at Washington University
  • Johanna Ballou — piano
  • Stella Markou — soprano
 Johanna Ballou
Johanna Ballou is a young American pianist who has been enthralling American and European audiences with her magnetic stage presence and dynamic interpretations.She completed her studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the UK and has studied with Daniel Martyn Lewis, Rolf Hind, Seth Carlin, William Phemister, Vera Parkin, and members of Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. After her acclaimed Welsh premier of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, she toured alongside members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Sinfonietta for the contemporary chamber opera company Music Theatre Wales.

She has collaborated with Diversions, the National Dance Company of Wales, and worked in music for Welsh independent film, television, theater, and art installation projects.

Since returning to the states in 2009, she has continued her performance career in both solo and collaborative piano. She works closely with composers in the performance of new music, and performs educational programs for children throughout Missouri and Illinois. Ballou’s January concert will include selections that employ a variety of modern classical approaches.

The program will include
  • Diclavis Enorma by David M. Gordon for keyboards and electronics
  • Takeover by Tristan Evans for piano and electronics
  • Two-Handed Storytelling by Christopher Stark for piano and electronics
  • Five Eliot Landscapes I. New Hampshire III. Usk by Thomas Adès, words by T.S. Eliot for piano and voice
  • Terma by Craig Walsh for soprano and electronics
  • Les Mountons de Panurge by Frederic Rzewski for audience participation/workshop ensemble

PLUS! Special Audience Participation Project:

Johanna Ballou will lead a special performance of Frederic Rzewski’s Les Moutons de Panurge (1969). The audience may join this piece in two ways:

1) All audience members are encouraged to bring ANY small instrument to the performance. No rehearsal necessary. Some small percussion instruments will be available on a first come, first served basis.

2) You may also play along with the main melody of the composition, in which case there will be one required rehearsal on Saturday, January 17th, from 12pm-2pm at the Tavern of Fine Arts (313 Belt Ave.). The rehearsal will be led by Tracy Andreotti (musician, composer, and NMC board member). The score may be obtained from imslp.org for free. Anyone involved in the melody portion of the composition will receive a free admission to the evening concert at the 560 Music Center. For further information about this participation please contact our Program Coordinator at nmc.jeremy@gmail.com.
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