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Free Jazz/Improv w/ Forbes Graham

  • The Lilypad 1353 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (map)

This Music/TM Series presents: Free Jazz/Improv w/ Forbes Graham, trumpet, Brittany Karlson, bass, Dan Wick, piano.

Not since early 2020 has this formidable trio been seen or heard, a special return to freedom from special musicians!

Forbes: more than Boston favorite, an internationally recognized improviser and conceptualist!

“There are hidden secrets in the horn and a host of musical linguists uncovering new languages…FORBES GRAHAM doesn’t ignore it. He embraces the blue note and turns it “magenta haze.” The Boston-area improviser sputters and attacks the trumpet with shark-attack notes before letting out a haunting whistled horn like a meditative Don Cherry, or a gruffled stutter like a duck being strangled. Essences…” (Miles Beyond: The New Sounds of Trumpet, NPR, August 2010).

This Music/TM Series:

This Music (TM) Series is a Boston musician’s initiative to recognize the creativity of many who haven’t been given the stage as leaders, often younger than the Jazz scene veterans; those with acknowledgement who can create a new project and musical ideas; and the unsung “gems” who aren’t in the public’ eye and deserve to be. The emphasis is on the freer forms, the adventurous (to help find a “home”).

Forbes Graham is a composer, musician, sound artist, and visual artist whose work explores themes of simultaneity, perceptibility, transformation and collage. His work "Encounters I" for trumpet, electronics, and voices premiered at Roulette in 2019. He performed with Michael Pisaro at (the) co-incidence festival in 2017 and has appeared at other music festivals including High Zero, Vision, and The Thing InThe Spring. He was commissioned to write a piece for the Festival of New Trumpet, and has created work for the avant-rock ensemble Normal Love.

Graham is the creator and producer of "Beyond/Apex", a bi-weekly podcast dedicated to showcasing contemporary and experimental music. To date, this show has featured the works of over 100 composers and creatives, ranging from emerging artists such as Cecilia López and Claire Rousay to more established artists like George Lewis.

Brittany Karlson, bass

Brittany, no novice though perhaps unknown to some listeners, she is beyond an up-and-coming creative bassist from Boston. She’s a new young leader in improvised music and Free-Jazz and called by many others to be a part of their explorations.

The improv of Brittany Karlson defies easy mainstream labeling because it includes influences from the pure forms of avantgarde; yet part of Jazz's modern expansion. She also is a Puppeteer, vocalist and performs with folk musicians to influence her outlook . She is a member of The Goodbye Girls, a quartet that explores traditional bluegrass and Swedish traditional music

A bassist with roots in jazz, folk, and experimental music. Karlson works in freely improvised settings, ranging from solo bass to duos with bassist Ian Kovac to collaborations with musicians like Sam Lisabeth, Jesse Collins, Nick Neuberg, Matt Delligatti, and Jeb Bishop. As a leader and composer, Brittany combines folk-like melodies and improvising impulses in her freely lyrical song project Karl.

Dan Wick, piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLwaXPz-uO0

Cost: $15/10

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Contact: Alex Lemski, alexlemski@gmail.com, 617/800-7255