Brought together by mutual interests in free improvisation and long-form explorations of sonic density, guitarist Alan Licht and percussionist Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) have been playing as a duo for the last several years. Tonight they celebrate the release of their debut album, We Thought We Could Do Anything (New Images). Outstanding improvisors and guitarists Mary Halvorson and Joe Morris, who have collaborated since 2002, perform duo.
Alan Licht has appeared on over 75 recordings that range from minimalist composition to indie rock to free improvisation. He is currently guitarist in Lee Ranaldo and the Dust and one-third of "talk rock" band Title TK with Cory Archangel and Howie Chen. Licht was curator at the famed New York experimental music venue Tonic from 2000 until its closing in 2007. He is also the author of Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories (Rizzoli, 2007) and the editor of Will Oldham on Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Faber & Faber/W.W. Norton, 2012), and has written extensively about the arts for the WIRE, Artforum, Modern Painters, Art Review, Film Coment, Sight & Sound, Purple, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and other publications.
Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn. His diverse range of work/play includes that with rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the community of the New York improvised music scene, and Drums & Drones, Brian's electro-acoustic solo project focusing on the application of just intonation to drums and percussion. Performance collaborations have included Matt Welch, Jessica Pavone, Mary Halvorson, Stefan Tcherepnin, and Okkyung Lee. Away from the drums, Brian is a regular practitioner of Ashtanga yoga.
Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson has been called “NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “the most forward-thinking guitarist working right now” (Lars Gotrich, NPR.org) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In addition to her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, and her quintet, which adds trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, Ms. Halvorson co-leads a chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-rock band People and the collective ensembles Thumbscrew and Secret Keeper. She is also an active member of bands led by Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Trevor Dunn, Tomas Fujiwara, Curtis Hasselbring, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Mike Reed and Marc Ribot, among others.
Joe Morris has performed extensively throughout North America and Europe. He currently leads various groups and performs in collective ensembles, as well as performing solo as a guitarist and double bassist. Morris has performed and/or recorded with Anthony Braxton, William Parker, David S. Ware, John Zorn, Matthew Shipp, Joe Maneri, Marshall Allen, Ken Vandermark, Barre Phillips, Sunny Murray, Leroy Jenkins, Rob Brown, John Butcher, Eugene Chadbourne, Mats Gustafson, Dewey Redman, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Malcolm Goldstein, Andrew Cyrille, Lowell Davidson, Mat Maneri, Nate Wooley, Barry Guy, Agusti Fernandez, and many others. He is featured as leader, co-leader, and sideman on more than 100 recordings to date. In addition to his own Riti Records, he has recorded for the labels Soul Note, AUM Fidelity, Thirsty Ear, Ayler, Knitting Factory, Okka Disc, OmniTone, Avant, Incus, Hat Hut, ECM, Leo, Homestead, About Time, Clean Feed, Skycap, No Business, ESPdisk, NotTwo, Relative Pitch, Broken Research, Porter, and Rogue Art. He is currently on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Departments at New England Conservatory, and in the Modern American Music Department at Longy School of Music of Bard College.