TILT Brass Band’s SIXtet project reconvenes for opening night ISSUE Project Room’s Horn Week with music from composer, guitarist and Cunningham Co. music co-director John King, TILT’s own Chris McIntyre, and improvisations featuring its stellar roster of brass players.
New York-based TILT Brass Band is a collective of creative brass and percussion artists. Its music nods in all directions, fearlessly taking on works from the fringes of experimental concert music, arrangements of left-of-center pop tunes, blatant and oblique political pieces, full-band improvisations and beyond. TILT negotiates its tastes with programs ranging from far-flung aesthetic combinations to singular thematic and conceptual investigations, often dealing with the fusion of written and improvised material. More info at www.tiltbrass.org.
Chris Jonas’ The Sun Spits Cherries
Chris Jonas - compositions, soprano sax, Molly Sturges - voice, Joe Fiedler - trombone, Christopher Washburne - bass trombone, Andrew Barker - percussion
A deeply nuanced world — distinctive, accessible, simple and achingly beautiful. (Michael Kremer, Jazziz).
Started in NYC in 1997, the Sun Spits Cherries consists of soprano saxophone (Jonas), tenor and bass trombones (Joe Fiedler and Christopher Washburne) and percussion (Andrew Barker). Neither pure improvisation, nor entirely composed, these pieces braid cues and conducting techniques to layer and juxtapose composed materials, improvisations, and scored forms in order to disrupt and modify habits and place focus on space, color, timbre and interaction. This will be the first concert of the group since Jonas’ departure from NYC in 2001 and will include partner, Molly Sturges on extended vocals.
Throughout the 1990s in NYC, Jonas was long term member of bands led by Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, the Brooklyn Sax Quartet, Butch Morris conduction ensembles and his own critically acclaimed ensemble, the Sun Spits Cherries. During this period he traveled to cities worldwide guest conducting and composing for orchestras and creative ensembles. Since his move to Santa Fe in 2001, Jonas has worked primarily as a composer and video artist, receiving numerous commissions and awards and has written numerous scores for motion pictures, new operas (as Artist in Residence at the Santa Fe Opera), intermedia installations and live soundtracks to silent films. Currently, Jonas leads a number of regular New Mexico-based ensembles including Rrake and, along with partner, Molly Sturges, BING (www.worldofbing.com). Jonas is faculty at the College of Santa Fe’s Contemporary Music Program and co-founder of Littleglobe, a Santa Fe-based performance non-profit that creates intermedia community-dialog projects. More info: www.littleglobe.org, www.chrisjonas.com, www.worldofbing.com
TILT SIXtet
Russ Johnson & Nate Wooley - trumpet
Curtis Hasselbring & Chris McIntyre - trombone
John Altieri & Joe Exley - tuba
John King - laptop