Vijay Anderson Quartet


Photo by Christine Wolheim © 2015


"We play select compositions by some of our favorite composers such as Thelonious Monk, Mal Waldron, Ornette Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Charles Mingus, Roscoe Mitchell, Eric Dolphy, and Lee Konitz, as well as many standards." -- Vijay Anderson


Vijay Anderson is a freelance drummer, bandleader, composer, and teacher who lives and works in Oakland, California.

Anderson holds a MFA in music performance from Mills College and a BA in music performance from S.F. State.

He has performed and recorded with Lynn Johnston, Vinny Golia, Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, John Schott, Graham Connah, Darren Johnston, Smith Dobson, Lisa Mezzacappa, Aaron Bennett, Ava Mendoza, Marco Eneidi, Adam Lane, Avram Fefer, and Roy Campbell.

He has also played with Paul Smoker, John Tchicai, Wadada Leo Smith, Herb Robertson, Steve Swell, Kenny Wessel, Ken Filiano, Garrison Fewell, Karl Berger, Steve Adams, Bishop Norman Williams, BJ Papa, Bill Horvitz, Phillip Johnston, and Joel Forrester.

Anderson has performed at Yoshi’s, The Stone (NYC), the Hammer Museum, the De Young Museum, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Fillmore Jazz Festival, the San Francisco Alternative Music Festival, the North Beach Jazz Festival, Cimpfest in Villach, Austria, the Novara Jazz Festival in Novara, Italy, the VDU Jazz Connections Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania, and The San Francisco Jazz Festival.

He played here previously with the Vijay Anderson Quartet.

http://vijayanderson.com/


Saxophonist and composer Aaron Bennett earned a BA in music at Cal State Long Beach with an emphasis on classical saxophone performance. He then earned an MFA at California Institute of the Arts in Jazz performance, where he studied with Wadada Leo Smith, Larry Koonse, Joe Labarbera, and Charlie Haden.

Since then, he has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, John Butcher, Donald Robinson, Marco Eneidi, Weasel Walter, Adam Lane, Aphrodesia, Lagos-Roots, Mykal Rose, The Rova Saxophone Quartet, and William Hooker.

He leads his own groups, Go-Go-Fightmaster, and electro-magnetic trans-personal orchestra, and currently performs in the Oakland Active Orchestra, Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait & Switch, Vijay Anderson Quartet, Guerilla Hi-Fi, Black Water Gold, and Touch and Go Sextet.

He has performed at clubs and festivals across the U.S. and abroad, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Novara Jazz Festival in Italy.

He played here previously with the Vijay Anderson Quartet.

http://www.aarondavidbennett.com/


Guitarist John Finkbeiner has performed and recorded with the best and brightest in the Bay Area music scene — as a member of Darren Johnston’s United Brassworkers Front, the Smith Dobson Quartet, Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait & Switch, Aaron Bennett’s Go-Go Fightmaster, Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra, Vijay Anderson’s Hardboiled Wonderland Sextet, and Scott Larson’s Red Light Abatements, among many others.

As recording engineer and co-founder of New, Improved Recording in Oakland, CA, John has shaped the sound of an emerging generation of West Coast creative musicians.

He played here previously with the Vijay Anderson Quartet.


Bassist Dan Seamans grew up in Washington, DC.

While completing a music degree at UC Santa Cruz he studied string bass with Larry Epstein, Mel Graves, and Michael Willens, and collaborated with pianist Graham Connah.

Moving to Oakland, he played with Bill Bell, Donald Bailey, Mark Levine, and John Schott, and co-founded the New Klezmer Trio, with Ben Goldberg and Kenny Wollesen, a group which went on to do several European tours, and record three CDs on John Zorn's Tzadik label.

During a period in Southern Vermont, he was mentored by master guitarist Attila Zoller.

He has played with the Lost Trio since 1994, and appears on 6 of their cds.

Dan appeared here previously with the Lost Trio, and the Lost Trio with Scott Foster.


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