Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter/composer
Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with
an extremely diverse
cross-section of artists, performing all styles of jazz, experimental,
and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the
Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, and the Arab world.
He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as ROVA Sax
Quartet, Marcus Shelby,
Fred Frith, Meklit, Hamid Drake, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Allison
Miller, Brass Menazeri,
Matt Wilson, Mark Dresser, Marshall Allen, and Electric Squeezebox
Orchestra.
Some of his groups as a leader include The Pipes, Broken Shadows, The
United Brassworkers Front, The Nice Guy Trio, the Darren Johnston
Quintet, and Reasons For Moving.
He appeared here previously with the Evan Francis / Darren
Johnston Quartet, the Nice Guy Trio, the Sheldon Brown Quintet, the
Sheldon Brown Group, and the
Evan Francis Group.
http://darrenjohnstonmusic.com/
Clarinetist Ben Goldberg received his undergraduate
music degree
from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master of Arts in
Composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of the eminent
clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano.
Ben’s first important group "New Klezmer Trio" recorded three
cds. Other recordings include two by "Junk Genius", with John Schott,
Trevor Dunn, and Kenny
Wollesen, "Light at the Crossroads", co-led with Marty
Ehrlich, "the door, the hat, the chair, the fact", dedicated
to Steve Lacy, "Speech Communication" with Greg Cohen and Kenny
Wollesen, "Baal: The Book of Angels Vol. 15", featuring the music of
John Zorn, "Unfold Ordinary Mind" with Ellery Eskelin, Rob Sudduth,
Nels Cline, and Ches Smith,
and "Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues" with Joshua Redman and Ron
Miles.
Ben currently performs with "Tin Hat", and appears on three of their
recordings.
He has worked with Andrew Hill, Bobby Bradford, John Zorn, Cecil
Taylor, Roswell Rudd, Myra Melford, and Nels Cline, among many others.
Ben appeared here previously with "Clarinet Thing", "Plays Monk", Myra
Melford, and Scott Amendola.
http://www.bengoldberg.net/
Composer and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown
has been involved in the San Francisco Bay Area creative music scene
for over 20 years. In June of 2014 he premiered his extended
composition "Blood of the Air" at the 32nd Annual San Francisco Jazz
Festival.
Since 1994 he has led Sheldon Brown Group, which performs his own
compositions, and he recently formed Sheldon Brown Quintet, which
performs the music of Herbie Nichols, and Distant Intervals, based on
poetic speech melodies.
The Sheldon Brown Group has performed several times at Yoshiʼs, and as
part of the San Francisco Jazz Festivalʼs Summer in the City series.
Brown has performed with Cuban
pianist Omar Sosa, recorded on 5 of Sosaʼs albums, and played with
him at many famous venues, such as The North Sea Jazz Festival in Den
Haag, New Morning in Paris, and Tribute to the Love Generation in
Tokyo.
Brown performs with many groups in the Bay Area, including: Electric
Squeezebox Orchestra, Clarinet Thing, Darren Johnston Quintet,
Goldberg/Brown/Anderson, Ian
Carey Quintet + 1, Club Foot Orchestra, Laurie Antonioli, Azesu
(featuring Orestes Vilato), Mike Pattonʼs Mondo Cane, Admiral Ted
Brinkley's Large Group, and the Aaron Germain Quartet.
As a composer, Brown has written music for his own groups and many of
the other groups he performs with. For Club Foot Orchestra he composed
music for the silent films "Metropolis", "Sherlock Jr.", "Pandoraʼs
Box", and "The Hands of Orlac", as well as the cartoon series "The
Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat",
which aired on CBS.
Sheldon appeared here previously with Hemispheres, Mandala, Clarinet
Thing, Ratzo Harris, Michael Wilcox, Ian Carey, the Sheldon Brown
Quintet, and the Sheldon Brown Group.
http://www.sheldonbrownmusic.com/Kasey Knudsen is a San Francisco based
saxophonist, composer & educator. She earned her BA in Jazz
Composition from Berklee College of Music in 2001. Since relocating to
the San Francisco Bay Area, Knudsen has been commissioned by the
Jazzschool's Emerging Artist Series, Intersection For The Arts, and the
De Young Museum.
She leads her own trio and sextet, and co-leads The Schimscheimer
Family Trio with Jon Arkin and Michael Coleman,
as well as The Holly Martins with Lorin Benedict and Eric Vogler.
Knudsen can be heard with Evan Francis, Ben Goldberg, Fred Frith, Eric
Garland, Henry Hung, The Montclair Women's Big Band, Graham Connah,
Adam Shulman, Nathan Clevenger, Aaron Novik, Michael Coleman, the Bay
Area Composer's Collective Orchestra, Jarrett Cherner, Q Morrow, Rob
Ewing, Marcus Shelby, Realistic Orchestra, Scott Amendola, and Rova
Saxophone Quartet.
She appeared here previously with Ian Carey, Evan Francis, and Erik
Jekabson.
http://www.kaseyknudsen.com
One of the most in demand bassists in the Bay Area, John
Wiitala
has played with Jessica Williams, James Moody, Benny Golson, Pete
Jolly, Joe Henderson, Akira Tana, Vince Lateano, Scott Hamilton, Bruce
Forman, Rebecca Parris, Wesla Whitfield, Madeline Eastman, and Jackie
Ryan, among many others.
John was heard previously at Chez Hanny with Faith Winthrop, Michele
Rosewoman, Patrick Wolff, Mark Levine, Peck Allmond, Scott
Barnhill, Harvey Wainapel, Erik Jekabson, Tim Armacost/David
Berkman, and John Klopotowski.
Drummer Hamir Atwal has worked with notable jazz
artists including saxophonist Greg Osby, saxophonist Joe Lovano,
pianist Myra Melford, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and bassist Michael
Formanek.
He is also the percussionist for Invisible Guy Trio, featuring Ben
Goldberg and pianist Michael Coleman. The trio released their first
album, Knuckle Sandwich (BAG Production) in 2016.
Atwal is an active educator and has given clinics/classes at notable
music schools including the California Institute of the Arts, Peabody
Conservatory, Music Academy International, the Stanford Jazz Workshop,
and Jazz Camp West. He is a faculty member at the California Summer
School of the Arts, where he teaches annually in Valencia, CA.
He appeared previously at Chez Hanny with Patrick Wolff, and Matt
Renzi.