Friday January 15
Doors 730pm Music 8pm SHARP
$8
PYRAMID ATLANTIC
8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring MD 20910
301.608.9101
located three blocks south of the silver spring metro station (red line)
Free parking in gated lot out front
DIRECTIONS: www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org
Since their formation in 2006, rare degree has been active in commissioning, performing and presenting electroacoustic music throughout the United States and Europe. Comprised of saxophonist Michael Straus and bassoonist Dana Jessen, the duo frequently collaborates with composers, improvisers, dancers, and visual artists around the world. In March of 2009, the duo teamed up with composer and turntablist Erik Spangler, guitarist Vitor Rua, and visual artist Sarah Buckius on an evening length collaborative show at the Musicbox Club in Lisbon, Portugal. Past performances include shows at Chicago’s Heaven Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.’s Artomatic Festival, East Lansing’s (SCENE) Metrospace, Boston’s Lilypad, Ann Arbor’s Canterbury House Concert Series, and the Boston CyberArt’s Festival. In April 2007, rare degree presented a workshop and concert of contemporary chamber music for students at New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce College.
Mindbreath Trio is an experimental ensemble consisting of Perry Conticchio (reeds), Daniel Barbiero (double bass) and Alan Munshower (percussion). The trio explores a spontaneous melodic prosody that translates thoughts and images from mind to breath to sound: Improvisation as exhalation of consciousness. Their approach fosters a conversational intimacy that combines the bodily presence and directness of jazz with the cerebral nuance of contemporary art music.
Saxophonist and composer Perry Conticchio has built his 35-year career using the singular jazz sounds of the 1960s as a point of departure. His formal studies were at Miami University of Ohio and Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Joe Viola, John LaPorta and Charley Mariano. Moving to the Washington, DC area in 1976, Perry became an established figure in the “new” music scene. During this time he had the opportunity to perform with and learn from Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers and many others. Since then he has been leading his own quartet and contributing on projects with many area bands, including the Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra. Perry has performed at many Washington area cultural events and venues including The DC Jazz Festival, The Smithsonian Folk-Life Festival, Johns-Hopkins Spring Fest, Blues Alley, One Step Down, Twin’s Jazz, The 9:30 Club and too many others to mention. His most recent CD “Speak Your Truth” contains almost all original compositions and has received profuse critical praise and reached airwaves worldwide.
A native of New Haven, CT, Daniel Barbiero has been active in experimental and improvised music in the Baltimore-Washington area for several years as a performer, composer, and bandleader. His music reflects his long-standing engagement with scalar and free improvisation, aleatory composition and contemporary extended string technique. In addition to performing with his own ensembles, he has supported Blue Note recording artist Greg Osby and composer Robert Carl. Current projects and collaborations include Nine Strings, work with pianist Nobu Stowe and electronic sound sculptor Lee Pembleton, and the ambient/surrealist/wha? trio Mercury Fools the Alchemist. In addition, he plays with Nancy Havlik’s Dance Performance Group.
Drummer Alan Munshower, recognized for both his light touch and imaginative playing, has become one of the busiest freelance drummers in the Baltimore/DC region. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Alan began pursuing the drums at the age of 10 and moved to Baltimore to earn his B.A. in music. Since graduating, H has performed at a variety of festivals in France, Canada, and the US, and at venues such as The Blue Note, 55 Bar, Knitting Factory, and Twins Jazz. His duet with pianist Nobu Stowe has a recent album on the Soul Note label, featuring tabla master Badal Roy. Alan can be seen regularly leading his ‘Boostimus Trio’, a sax-bass-drums group which serves as a vehicle for his original minimalist drumset language. Also frequently working as a sideman, Alan performs with Satabdi Express, The Philtones, BNatural, and on stand-up bass with Dixieland outfit, Sac Au Lait. Alan maintains a small private studio of percussion students in addition to teaching in Annapolis, Maryland. He is on the faculty of the Dance Department at Goucher College where he works as an accompanist.
Trio O is Rich O’Meara (Silent Orchestra) on vibes and percussive textures , Kevin O’Meara (Videohippos, Blood Baby) on drums, crow bar and vocal textures and Gary Rouzer (Vector Trio, Nine Strings) on NS bass cello and amplified textures.
Since their last performance in June 2009 the individual members have absorbed new and discarded old items from their musical palettes. The group is a mixture of each musician’s present position on sound/silence with no fixed formula to be followed. Organic, spontaneous composition is still the main focus, but the sound field has been reduced to a more essential nature.
