Andrew Barker
Andrew Barker is a drummer / multi-instrumentalist, and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. He studied percussion with drum corps virtuoso Glen “Turtle” Carter, Jack Bell, the principal percussionist of the Atlanta Symphony, multi-percussionists Warren Smith, Andrew Cyrille, and Randy Peterson.
Barker has appeared on recordings with singers Kelly Hogan, Tara Jane O’Neal, and Chris Lee, the bands Melts, The Holy Childhood, bassist William Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, saxophonists Rob Brown, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, and Charles Waters – with whom Barker founded the durable Gold Sparkle Band in 1994. He has performed with artists Sonny Simmons, Sirone, Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp, and Roy Campbell. He has appeared at the Victoriaville Festival in Canada, Festival Sant’Anna Aressi in Sardinia, Italy, the Vision Festival and What is Jazz? Festivals in NYC, as well as performing extensively in Europe, most recently with Virginia Genta and David Vanzan (Jooklo Duo) in Portugal.
Barker also occasionally makes music for TV and film, and has composed and recorded music for The Sundance Channel, Style, CMT, and Food Nework.
Barker plays in a wide variety of musical settings, most recently
with his experimental electro-acoustic trio ACID BIRDS, and writing and playing guitar for his new slow and low metal band, Hallux.
Tonight the quartet of Andrew Barker, Daniel Carter, Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Hill Greene presents it’s first meeting. A genesis of total improvisation.
Daniel Carter
Daniel Carter was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1945. He is both a writer and a musician. His publications include The Tinker: Innovative Arts and Literature Magazine, 50 Miles of Elbow Room, Number One (2000), Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Dyed-in-the-Wool (2000), Intervalsss: The Poems and Words of Musicians (2000) Wandering Archive One (1998). He has performed, recorded, and/or toured with many musicians through the decades since the mid 60s, including TEST, Other Dimensions in Music, Matthew Shipp, Reuben Radding, Federico Ughi, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Alan Silva, John Blum, WAKE UP! (Federico Ughi, Demian Richardson, David Moss, Daniel Carter), and many others. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, visual artist, Marilyn Sontag, and their two cats, Minnie and Sophie.
Hilliard (Hill) Greene
Hilliard Greene has been performing music for more than 30 years and has been playing professionally over twenty. Greene has performed/recorded with Jimmy Scott, serving as his Musical Director and with Cecil Taylor where he was Concertmaster for his group “Phtongos”. He is currently a full-time faculty member at the Bass Collective in New York City.
Tanya Kalmanovitch
Born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch performs contemporary jazz, classical music, and many things in between.
Tanya has performed in Europe and North America with a diverse range of artists including Mark Turner, Benoît Delbecq, Mark Helias, Dominique Pifarély, Andy Laster, Tom Rainey, Ernst Reijseger, Mat Maneri, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, Martin Hayes, John Cage and Shujaat Husain Khan.
She has travelled frequently to India where she has studied Karnatic music with violinist Lalgudi G. J. R. Krishnan and veena player Karaikudi S. Subramanian while conducting doctoral dissertation research on jazz exotica.
Tanya is Assistant Chair of the department of Creative Improvisation at Boston’s New England Conservatory, and is a regular instructor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London UK and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag NL.
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Ricardo Gallo is active as a composer of contemporary concert music, both acoustic and electronic, and as a pianist performing jazz and improvised music. He leads different projects that relate aspects of Colombian folklore to contemporary musical expressions, and performs with several improvisational groups. Gallo started his undergraduate studies in composition and jazz piano at Universidad Javeriana in his native city of Bogotá, and then transferred to the University of North Texas (UNT), where he graduated in 2002, and was honored Outstanding Composition Student the same year. Ricardo is at the moment a PhD candidate in composition at Stony Brook University. He has been awarded a scholarship from the university and has been an assistant for the Computer Music Studio, as well as assistant of the Jazz Department under the direction of trombonist Ray Anderson.
He leads since 2004 his Bogotá-based quartet with which he has developed original compositions and a way of improvising that integrates an avant-garde and free language with rhythmic and melodic elements from Colombian traditions. The Quartet is formed along with some of the best musicians from the scene in Colombia: Jorge Sepúlveda on drums, Juan Manuel Toro on double bass, Juan David Castaño on percussion, and Ricardo Gallo on piano. With this group Gallo has released two albums as leader: “Los Cerros Testigos” (December, 2005), and “Urdimbres y Marañas” (December, 2007), both with great critical acclaim.
In New York he has performed his music with several groups including musicians such as: Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Pheeroan akLaff, Dan Blake, Satoshi Takeishi, Jorge Roeder, Tom Blancarte, Sam Sadigursky, Franco Pinna, among others. He has performed with Ray Anderson’s groups and is currently member of Peter Evan’s Quartet. Ricardo has also collaborated with other Colombian musicinas’ projects. His most recent release is a CD of his duo with guitarist Alejandro Flórez, titled “Meleyólamente”. His music appears in several compilations in Colombia, U.S. and Europe.
At Issue Project Room Ricardo Gallo will present “El Hotel de los Musicos”, an electro-acoustic piece for clarinet, percussion and electronics; “We will meet again”, a composition shaped through improvisation; as well as improvised pieces. This music will feature the performances of: Mike McCurdy on vibraphone and percussion, Christa Van Alstine on clarinet, Tom Blancarte on bass, Ricardo Gallo on piano and electronics.