Cleve Pozar is a percussionist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Born Robert F. Pozar in 1941, he is schooled in wide breadth of musical styles, including Afro-Cuban, Latin, jazz, free improvisation, classical, avant-garde, funk, country, polka, and more. In the early ‘60s, Pozar participated in some of the pivotal events in free jazz and avant-garde classical music: with Bill Dixon at the October Revolution in Jazz and with Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, Eric Dolphy, and many others at the Once Festivals in Ann Arbor. Among Pozar’s first appearances on record are some seminal titles: Bob James’ “Bold Conceptions” and “Explosions” (ESP-Disk), and Bill Dixon’s “Intents and Purposes” on RCA. Dixon also produced Pozar’s first album as a leader, “Good Golly Miss Nancy,” which was released by Savoy in 1967. Several years later, he followed it up with a private-press album, “Cleve Solo Percussion,” which introduced his solo act (and, indeed, a name change). One of the tracks, “Echo Afrika,” can be heard on this page. He also did extensive studio work with songwriters such as Peter Ivers and Stephen Whynott. Subsequent years found Cleve increasingly interested in developing a solo concept for electronic Latin percussion, clips of which can be seen on Youtube. Cleve has written two books on the Bata rhythms, Chachalekpafun and Yakota, which are in depth studies of those rhythms. Cleve plays acoustically at Palo Monte Ceremonies for K7T and is working on a CD. He collaborates with Tata C on art graphics and music videos found on Youtube under the name Kimbiza. Cleve’s other current projects include the Free Funk Trio and the long-awaited second installment of Cleve Solo Percussion. His Coltrane Jazz Trio will also soon be performing concerts and lectures in public schools.
Daruis Jones, is an alto saxophonist, composer, and producer. He joined the New York music community in 2005, after living and studying in Richmond, VA. Darius comes from a diverse musical background that has lead to his unique, alternative, and soulful approach to music. Jones has composed and performed in a wide variety of areas such as electro-acoustic music, chamber ensembles, contemporary jazz groups, free jazz groups, modern dance performances, and multi-media events. Darius enjoys playing with a steady group of artists and improvisers. The current bands Jones works with are the Cooper-Moore Trio, Mike Pride’s From Bacteria to Boys, Nioka Workman’s House Arrest Band, William Hooker’s Bliss Quartet, Trevor Dunn’s Proof Readers, and Period. In New York, Darius has produced records for Korean jazz vocalist Sunny Kim and country-folk artist Mary Bragg. Jones has performed in Italy, France, U.S. and Canada. Jones has a band with Travis LaPlante, Ben Greenberg, and Jason Nazary called Little Women, which recently went on a national tour to promote the release of their first record “Teeth” on Sockets (www.socketscdr.com) and Gilgongo Records (www.gilgongorecords.com).
Lee Marvin is a busy and versatile NYC bassist. In addition to playing electric and upright basses, he is also a singer and a composer. His recently released CD, Flowers to Strangers is currently available. A partial list of artists Lee has worked with reflects a wide range of styles: Diametric Ensemble, Saco Yasuma’s Y’oin, Arabesque, New York Express/Music Under NY, Ted Curson, Julee Cruise, Pinetop Perkins, Martha Reeves, Coco Robiceaux, Melvin Sparks and, as a composer, for Baha Sadr’s theater pieces The Rule and Things I Meant to Say. Lee holds a BA in music from Empire State College. He has studied electric bass with Jerry Jemmott and Guillermo Edgehill and upright bass with Wilbur Little and Home Mensch.
Ken Thomson’s Slow/Fast
Ken Thomson (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, compositions)
Russ Johnson (trumpet)
Nir Felder (guitar)
Adam Armstrong (bass)
Fred Kennedy (drums)
In demand as a composer and freelancer in many settings, Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Ken Thomson moves quickly between genres and scenes, bringing a fiery intensity and emotional commitment to every musical situation. He plays saxophone and writes for the punk/jazz band Gutbucket, with whom he has toured internationally to 19 countries and 32 states over nine years, and released CDs for Knitting Factory, Enja, NRW, Cuneiform, and Cantaloupe Records. He also is a member of the internationally-touring punk/cabaret band World/Inferno Friendship Society, next-generation chamber orchestra Signal (conducted by Brad Lubman), world-jazz group Fire in July, all-improvised No Net Trio with Lukas Ligeti and Eyal Maoz, and was a co-founder of punk/chamber composer-performer collective Anti-Social Music. He is a frequent collaborator with new-composed music groups Alarm Will Sound (on forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), So Percussion, and more. He is a faculty member at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Institute. He is a Selmer Artist, and endorses Sibelius software.
As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, and others, and has received awards from ASCAP and Meet the Composer. The New York Times wrote of his work “Wait Your Turn” for the American Composers Orchestra upon its debut at Carnegie Hall in October 2007: “The concert ended on a high note…. the music offered a density worthy of the closing bars of a Led Zeppelin epic;” and of his work “seasonal.disorder” for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, “a virtuoso piece… a texture laced with power chords, screaming clarinet lines and cluster-laden piano writing. In the end it is sheer madness, in a good, thrillingly visceral way.” The Philadelphia Inquirer also noted: “Thomson’s Wait Your Turn is as visceral as music can be.”
His through-composed rescoring of the 22-minute 1936 British film “Night Mail” was called “a masterful re-imagining of an old classic” by Indiewire.com upon its debut in March 2007 at the True/False Film Festival. His recent works include for Gutbucket+Ethel (string quartet), premiered at the Cologne Triennale 2007 and Jazz Saalfelden Festival 2006. His 2006 clarinet quintet “How to Play” has been played in the US and Australia by multiple ensembles.
His arrangement of Aphex Twin’s “Gwely Mernans” for Alarm Will Sound was recorded on their acclaimed CD Acoustica (Cantaloupe Music), premiered live at the Lincoln Center Festival 2005, and later choreographed by Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance Company. He has had two works released on CD by Anti-Social Music, including “Song” (ASM Sings the Great American Songbook/Peacock Recordings), and an arrangement of Bob Massey’s “The Mountain” (The Nitrate Hymnal/Lujo Records).
In the July/August 2006 issue of the German-Dutch Sonic magazine, Ken was the “Top Interview,” garnering a four-page feature in which critic Ulrich Steinmetzger remarked about his “intense performances” which “left behind astounded audiences… [who] witnessed him blow raw energy from the stage like few others can.” The Boston Globe has called his improvisation “dazzling;” and Time Out New York has called him a “manic sax dervish.”
Born in New York in 1976, Keir Neuringer is a composer and performer (saxophone, voice, electronics). His output ranges from pulse-based electronic music, through free jazz and experimental electroacoustic improvisation, to theater music and notated compositions for contemporary chamber ensembles. He also writes texts and makes videos and installations critical of the destructive behavior of the dominant culture. In 1999 he moved to Europe and spent ten years, during which time he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Adacemy of Music in Krakow and a master’s degree graduate of The Hague’s interdisciplinary ArtScience Institute. It was during these ten years that he cultivated a personal and intensely physical approach to solo saxophone performance that both honors and eschews diverse music-making traditions.Keir Neuringer collaborates with a wide and undefined network of musicians, including Rafal Mazur, Ensemble Klang, Joel Ryan, DJ Sniff, Carlos Iturralde and MattBauder. He has performed and exhibited works in the US, Mexico, Israel, Turkey, South Africa and throughout Europe. He moved to New York in January 2009.