December 2, 2012: #65 – Wellman/Stewart

• Linsey Wellman – saxophone, bass clarinet, etc.
• Jesse Stewart – drums

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December 16, 2011: #40 – A Very Ayler Christmas!

Saxophonist Bernard Stepien and his little helpers introduce the music of Albert Ayler to that of the sweet baby Jesus. HO! HO! HO!

Discover the true meaning of Aylermas!

Here are some words from Bernard:

This year, we caught several people, usually non-musicians, who were convinced that Omega is the Alpha, Ghosts, Bells, and many others, all Albert Ayler compositions, were true Christmas Carols and even subconsciously started to sing them by the Christmas tree.

Well, for us, this almost sounds like mission accomplished.

The concept of mashing up Albert Ayler with Christmas Carols has over the last half dozen of years of concerts slowly wound up into a well accepted tradition. in fact, a few days ago, I realized that I was in deed a fool because after all of these efforts to find matches between the two repertoires and writing the mash-ups, taking fragments of the two repertoires, I found out that it was already there all the time. In fact, Albert Ayler did the reverse process. He took Christmas Carols and transfused them in his own composition by adding, enhancing, modifying them with his own musical concepts giving them a total new perspective. Upon the release of our first CD, critics were unanimous in saying that this was the CD Ayler would have loved to make. What we all missed is that not only the fact that it was already there but also that Albert Ayler was a marketing genius. By not saying anything to anybody, Ayler could play his music year round, especially at those fantastic European summer Jazz festivals. On our side, we are stuck playing our repertoire at Christmas time only. Well, at least we got a review right in the middle of the summer this year:

“We all have our highlights; mine was the Bernard Stepien Orchestra’s holy morph of Albert Ayler and Christmas carols last December.”, Lawrence Joseph, CULT#MTL august 2012

Thus, don’t miss one of the following dates:

 

·         December 13th, 8 pm, at the Artel in Kingston

·         December 16th, 7 pm, at the UMI cafe, IMOO series

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November 4, 2012: #63 – CP’s BD

• Craig Pedersen – bass
• Michel Delage – drums
• Mark Molnar – ‘cello/electronics
• Ryan Purchase – trombone
• Linsey Wellman – reeds

This show is in celebration of Craig Pedersen’s 29th birthday! Join this group of friends for some improvised fun!

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November 18, 2012: Ellwood Epps solo and trio

• Ellwood Epps – trumpet
• Aaron Lumley – bass
• Ivan Bamford – drums

October 28, 2012: #62 – Hat & Beard

• Ken Aldcroft – guitar
• Dave Clark – drums

“Hat and Beard” is Eric Dolphy’s tribute-through-looking-glass piece for Thelonious Monk on the classic Blue Note recording, Out to Lunch! Like its namesake composition, this pair pays Monk’s perennially vanguard music fair respect by re-envisioning it in an unconventional way. Ken Aldcroft and Dave Clark have absorbed huge chunks of Monk’s songbook, and traipse both down well-trodden paths with familiar material like “Epistrophy” and through the thornier thicket of little-tackled gems like “Brilliant Corners”. Overtly, Ken tends to play the straight man in the face of Dave’s combination of chops and comedic flair that is reminiscent of none other than Han Bennink. At times though – like Bennink’s Monk-theorist foil, Misha Mengelberg – Ken can subvert the tune from within it, and playfully prod Dave to keep up with him. In this way, Hat and Beard is a fun and joyful romp through one of the great compositional legacies of the past century.

September 9, 2012: #60 – Huntsville

• Ivar Grydeland – guitars, banjo, pedal steel guitar and various instruments
• Tonny Kluften – electric bass, double bass, bass pedals and various instruments
• Ingar Zach – percussion, tabla machine, sarangi box, sruti box, drone commander and various instruments
• The Sound Wizard – sound

From Oslo, Norway, Huntsville’s unexpected sounds and textures, allied with echoes of traditional genres in a radical new conceptual language have been described as abstract drone Americana and yoga country.

«armed with a banjo, a double bass, a pedal steel, a bizarre tabla machine, shruti boxes and a fondness for freeing folk from its folk songs — from Santa Fe to Bombay.» Boston Weekly

Visit Huntsville online at www.huntsville.no

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