After 15 Years, Genesis Returns

My first concert featuring the revolutionary prog-rock group Genesis, was at London's Earl's Court in 1977, during the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Sadly, I saw them shortly after the departure of Peter Gabriel, but before guitarist Steve Hackett had left the group. By 1978, two of Genesis' greatest musicians were now gone, and many predicted their swift demise, however drummer Phil Collins would emerge from behind his kit to take the microphone, (replaced first by Bill Bruford and later Chester Thompson on drums), and alongside keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist Mike Rutherford, would propel Genesis to an unbelievably successful career. Now, some fifteen years after their last "farewell tour", Genesis returns to the Bay Area, (San Jose October 9th and Sacramento on October 10th), for the final leg of their "Turn It On Again" tour; rejoined by Thompson and guitarist Darryl Stuermer. "You've got to get in to get out..."

The USA Today's Mike Snider, recently wrote that although the group was "never a favorite with critics, Genesis built a solid fan base over nearly four decades. Now the band is ready for its victory lap. After the North American leg of the group's reunion tour opened in Toronto, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford will play what they say will be Genesis' final U.S. concerts. Then, as their hit goes, that's all. "Basically, this is the last time we are doing it," Collins says. That the band decided to turn it on again at all is a surprise. The three hadn't released a new album since 1991's We Can't Dance. Collins, 56, officially left Genesis in 1996, and the group last toured in 1992.

After his solo "first final farewell tour" in 2005, "I wanted to sort of retire from touring to be with my kids," Collins says. "If something special came up, I would do it. I just don't want to go on the road for long periods of time." But the group kept in touch over the years, playing impromptu gigs at birthday parties (when Collins turned 50) and weddings (for Collins and original singer Peter Gabriel).

After two Genesis Archive box sets hit stores in 1998 and 2000, rumors of a reunion emerged. In 2004, the three met with ex-bandmates Gabriel and Hackett to discuss a live reunion to play 1974's concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. "It would have been quite fun to do on a smaller scale," says Banks, 57. Gabriel was non-committal, so Collins asked Banks and Rutherford whether they wanted to get the three-man band back together. "We couldn't think of a reason why not to, really," Collins says.

Only three of 22 U.S. shows have sold out, but multiple dates in Chicago, Philadelphia and L.A. are a testament to the band's following. ("Many places said we could do two or three nights," Collins says. "But if you do, pretty soon you have 50 shows. I kept putting a lid on it.") Genesis' return probably won't prove as hot a ticket as The Police reunion, says Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni. "The Police have been away longer, and Genesis with Phil Collins still doesn't have Peter Gabriel. So it is a question mark," he says. "But in Europe, they did good business and were playing stadiums."

After the tour ends in October, Collins has nothing in the works. "I'm really looking forward to it," he says. "I've been playing golf."Genesis, on the other hand, has many projects in the pipeline. Rhino released a new two-disc hits compilation Turn It On Again (Tour Edition), and in November, the second box set of remastered Genesis albums arrives. The band's free concert in Rome's Circus Maximus was recorded for a DVD due later this year. The autobiography Genesis: Chapter & Verse was due out Sept. 18.

With this farewell tour and upcoming retrospectives, might the band emerge with an enhanced image? "Certainly, in England, the band gets overlooked," Banks says. "But, honestly, I'm not that concerned anymore. I'm pretty proud." Collins took the range of ages at the European shows as a promising sign. "We've had great reviews in Europe and the U.K. Maybe suddenly the (U.S.) critics could lower their agendas and just go there and say, 'This isn't bad.' "

I'm personally fond of the Gabriel era albums, Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Selling England by the Pound, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, however Collins, and the much under-appreciated Banks and Rutherford were phenomenal on most of 1980's albums: The Wind & Wuthering, And Then There Were Three, Duke and Abacab. With the addition of the great jazz drummer Thompson, (Freddie Hubbard, Frank Zappa, and Weather Report), and Stuermer, (Jean Luc Ponty), Genesis' live shows were some one the greatest I'd ever seen, and alongside their peers; Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, remained one of the greatest prog-rock bands of all time.

"I know what I like. and I like what I know..."

The Eighth Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

This is the eighth year of San Francisco's incredible Electronic Music Festival, which officially opened on Wednesday. The festival continues tonight through Sunday at Project Artaud Theater, located at 450 Florida Street. There have been some legendary past performances, and this year promises to be no exception. The 2007 edition features an impressive collection of electronic artists from across the continent: MaryClare Brzytwa; the amazing Fred Frith with Patrice Scanlon; Canada's Tim Hecker; Zoe Keating; L.A.'s Kadet Kuhne with Mem1, Leticia Castaneda and Les Stuck; Lesser, and univac; N.Y.'s David Behrman and Annea Lockwood with William Winant; Nommo Ogo; Murcof and .pig, from Mexico respectively. This year, one of the SFEMF evenings (featuring Murcof and .pig) is being co-sponsored by NEXMAP, a non-profit corporation based here in San Francisco, dedicated to the production and appreciation of contemporary and experimental performing art.

About San Francisco's Electronic Music Festival

The San Francisco Electronic Music Festival is an artist-run organization founded in 1999 by a committee of eight, Bay Area, electro-acoustic music and sound art practitioners. Its mission is to provide a highly visible public forum for the diverse community of composers and sound artists working with electronic-based technologies in the Bay Area. Designed as an annual multi-day event consisting of concerts, installations and discussions, the primary focus is on independent artists whose innovative aesthetics challenge academic and commercial standards. The Committee's goals are long-term: to establish the festival as an annual presence in the Bay Area; to foster a greater sense of community among the diverse group of Bay Area sound artists; to stimulate the creation of new electronic sound works; to increase public awareness of new sound-based technologies and their creative applications; to raise the level of discourse surrounding music and sound-art; and to raise the national and international profile of the Bay Area as a center for electronic music and sound art.

Since it's first festival in 2000, SFEMF has presented works that span the sonic spectra from ambient to rhythmic and atonal to melodic by participants ranging from new and emerging young artists to respected pioneers of the electronic music field. Each festival features artists working in a variety of modes including: laptop generated sound, processed live acoustic instruments, amplified found objects, projected video, improvisation, and performance art.

I've always been fond of electronic music, the early synthesizer works of Walter/Wendy Carlos, TONTO, (The Original New Timbral Orchestra), and of course the late, great Bob Moog. Don't miss this chance to glimpse some of the most wonderfully creative masters of electronica on this or any other continent, right here in San Francisco.

The Eight Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Project Artaud Theater
450 Florida Street
San Francisco, CA
415-626-4370

Thursday, Sept. 6th @ 8:30 pm
MaryClare Brzytwa, univac and Tim Hecker

Friday, Sept. 7th @ 8:30 pm
Leticia Castaneda, Zoë Keating, Les Stuck and Lesser

Saturday, Sept. 8th @ 8:30 pm
Annea Lockwood and David Behrman with William Winant

Sunday, Sept. 9th @ 8:30 pm
Nommo Ogo, Kadet Kuhne (with Mem1) and Fred Frith (with Patrice Scanlon)

"The Drum Also Waltzes", Max Roach, 1924-2007

Max Roach, the master percussionist whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations defined bebop jazz during a wide-ranging career where he collaborated with artists from Duke Ellington to rapper Fab Five Freddy, has died after a long illness. He was 83. The self-taught musical prodigy died Wednesday night at an undisclosed hospital in Manhattan, said Cem Kurosman, spokesman for Blue Note Records, one of Roach's labels. No additional details were available, he said Thursday.

Roach received his first musical break at age 16, filling in for three nights in 1940 when Ellington's drummer fell ill. Roach's performance led him to the legendary Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, where he joined luminaries Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the burgeoning bebop movement. In 1944, Roach joined Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins in one of the first bebop recording sessions.

What distinguished Roach from other drummers were his fast hands and ability to simultaneously maintain several rhythms. By layering different beats and varying the meter, Roach pushed jazz beyond the boundaries of standard 4/4 time. His dislocated beats helped define bebop. Roach's innovative use of cymbals for melodic lines, and tom-toms and bass drums for accents, helped elevate the percussionist from mere timekeeper to featured performer -- on a par with the trumpeter and saxophonist."One of the grand masters of our music," Gillespie once observed.

In a 1988 essay in The New York Times, Wynton Marsalis wrote of Roach: "All great instrumentalists have a superior quality of sound, and his is one of the marvels of contemporary music. ... The roundness and nobility of sound on the drums and the clarity and precision of the cymbals distinguishes Max Roach as a peerless master."

Throughout the jazz upheaval of the 1940s and '50s, Roach played bebop with the Charlie Parker Quintet and cool bop with the Miles Davis Capitol Orchestra. He joined trumpeter Clifford Brown in playing hard bop, a jazz form that maintained bebop's rhythmic drive while incorporating the blues and gospel.

In 1952, Roach and bassist-composer Charles Mingus founded Debut Records. Among the short-lived label's releases was a famed 1953 Toronto performance in Massey Hall, featuring Roach, Mingus, Parker, Gillespie and pianist Bud Powell. But by the mid-1950s, Roach had watched several of his friends -- including Parker -- die from heroin addiction. In 1956, Roach was further devastated when Brown died in a car accident.

After his own struggle with drugs and alcohol, Roach rebounded with the help of his first wife, singer Abbey Lincoln. Married in 1962, they divorced eight years later. Roach re-emerged in the 1960s free jazz era with a new political consciousness. Albums like "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" reflected his support of black activism.

Over the next decades, Roach expanded his repertoire and explored new challenges. He taught at the University of Massachusetts, traveled to Ghana in search of new music, and performed with groups from Japan and Cuba. He also formed an all-percussion ensemble known as M'Boom, a quartet and a double quartet that included Roach's daughter Maxine Roach on viola.

Roach even worked with rapper Fab Five Freddy in the early 1980s. Ignoring critics, Roach insisted rap had a place on music's "boundless palette." Roach, who in 1988 became the first jazz musician to receive a MacArthur Fellowship "genius award," said his curiosity reflected his sense of obligation to music. He was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995.

Max Roach was born in New Land, N.C., on Jan. 10, 1924. His family moved four years later to a Brooklyn apartment, where a player piano left by the previous tenants gave Roach his musical introduction.

Using player piano rolls of Jelly Roll Morton and Albert Ammons, Roach played along by putting his fingers on the keys and pedals as they rose and fell. But he was looking for another instrument to play when he began singing with the children's choir at the Concord Baptist Church.

Roach found a snare drum, and was hooked. His father gave the eighth-grader his first set of drums, and Roach was drumming professionally while still in high school.

He was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayl and Dara.

Billy Cobham's "Live at 60"

Growing up in Washington, D.C., I first saw Billy Cobham with guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin and his ground breaking Mahavishnu Orchestra at American University in 1972. After that unbelievable show, Cobham soon became my favorite drummer... He still is. Considered by many to be one of the greatest drummers of all time, Billy Cobham's prolific career has spanned several decades; from his earliest works with pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Miles Davis; the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ron Carter, Randy and Michael Brecker, John Scofield, George Duke, Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz; his work with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and the Dead-inspired "Jazz is Dead"; and last but not least, his many and varied ensembles, from his steel drum-flavored Culture Mix, to his most recent, latin inspired group, Asere.

Cobham's incredible rudimentary skills were second to none; I'd personally seen him over thirty times, and his massive frame and joyous playing will leave anyone who sees him gasping in amazement. Those skills have not diminished one bit, as evidenced in a new DVD, "Billy Cobham: Live at 60". Joining Cobham for yet another concert in Paris, is his Culture Mix group, featuring the great "Junior" Gill on steel drums. With footage and interviews, this DVD is a remarkable window into the life of perhaps the best drummer of ours, or any generation.

Only a few times in history has a musician been singled out as the world-class master of his instrument. Cobham is one of those few artists. For over 30 years, he has received international acclaim as the total consummate percussionist. The legendary Cobham, with his matchless, dazzling, ambidextrous skills as a drummer, has applied the same insistent fervor to his long list of monumental achievements. He’s an accomplished composer and record producer. It is a rarely known fact that he was at the forefront of the electronic music industry and it’s development through Jazz.

He was one of the first percussionists, along with Max Roach and Tony Williams to utilize the Electronic Drum Controller made in 1968 by the Meazzi Drum Company in Milano, Italy while on concert tour with Horace Silver in Europe. He is one of the few Percussionists, specializing in the Jazz drum set to lead his own band. The award winning Cobham has custom designed trend setting acoustic and electronic drum sets and has endorsed products that he created and refined.

Cobham has performed on hundreds of records with his own groups and with some of the music’s most luminary artists, and his trademark - biggest, fastest, explosive drumming - has energized the international stages of concerts, symphonies, big bands, Broadway, festivals, television and video. He has been a teacher of his artistry, giving drum clinics, conducting workshops and symposiums throughout the world. His stylistic influence, which has literally created a category of music, is an outstanding part of the history of modern music.

Since 1980, Cobham has been dividing his time between his home in Zurich and the United States where he lived in New York City and northern California until that time, underscoring his unique internationally influenced origins as a musician. Cobham was born on May 16th, 1944 in Panama, surrounded by talented parents and a brother, Wayne (producer, horn player, MIDI specialist, writer), Cobham’s love for drums was kindled by his cousins who played and constructed steel drums and congas in Panama. Some of his earliest memories are of himself playing timbales.

The Cobhams moved to New York City in 1947, when Billy was 3 years old. He had his stage debut in performance with his father at the age of 8. Cobham developed his seriously voracious appetite for drumming in the highly competitive Drum and Bugle Corps. arena with St. Catherine’s Queensmen, prompting him to attend New York’s famed High School of Music and Art to study music theory and drum technique with seminars by such renowned talents as Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz. Cobham remembers "In those days, Jazz was a bit off-limits to students while classical music was preferred by the education establishment. So, of course students craved to meet jazz artists.

Miles Davis was the most talked about personality of the time and had the best musicians working with him Cobham recalled; "We’d listen to him and analyze, as we did with other professionals. But in those days, all roads did lead to Miles." "He was the goal to shoot for because he had a knack for putting the right components together (musicians and music) to convey the ultimate message through Jazz."

Cobham’s most notable offerings to fusion jazz are his own 35 recordings beginning with "Spectrum", which was released on Atlantic Records in 1973 and reissued on compact disc by Rhino Entertainment in 2001. Amid the re-release of Spectrum, Cobham has several projects in the works including "Drum + Voice" (due via Sony), and a range of educational tools he produces through his own company, Creative Multi-Media Concepts. Among the resources is the book "Conundrum", which is published by Warner Publishing, and a slew of Music Minus One interactive CDs which feature selections from Spectrum and other projects of Cobham's.

Billy Cobham: Live at 60 is a unique moment in time, staged in Paris, France to celebrate the 60th birthday. Surrounded by his band, Culture Mix, Billy takes the viewer through a 75 minute musical experience featuring "Red Baron," "Dessicated Coconuts," "Cuba on the Horizon," and many others. While displaying the virtuosic drumming that Cobham is known for, this DVD puts the viewer right next to Cobham, to share his music, his humor, and his culture as if seated behind the drums along with him. Other featured musicians include percussionist Wilber "Junior" Gill, Marcus Ubeda on the keyboard, guitarist Per Gade, and Stefan Rademacher on bass.

Trilok Gurtu and the Arkè String Quartet's "Arkeology"

One of my favorite songs, is a piece entitled "Balatho", written by the brilliant Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu during his tenure with the jazz group Oregon. (I loved "Balatho" so much, that I even played and recorded it with my own group!) A master tabla player as well as trap set drummer, Gurtu has re-recorded this wonderful song on a new CD with Arkè String Quartet called simply, "Arkeology". This latest version is perhaps the best yet, with Gurtu as the only improvising soloist in the ensemble, (on his famed staccato ragas and vocals as well as a multitude of instruments), and contributed three of the ten compositions. The quartet of Carlo Cantini – Violin, Dilruba, Recorder, Kalimba; Valentino Corvino – Violin; Sandro Di Paolo – Viola; and Stefano Dall’Ora– Doublebass, Ukelele, Emincence Bass/Aptflex, contributed the rest.

The reviewer John Fordam wrote, "The Arkè String Quartet have shrewdly and musically lent an ear to a lot of world-music materials - from a softly singing microtonal quality reminiscent of Chinese violin music, to the rhythmic devices of Indian classical music and a Shakti-like Indo-jazz fusion, to a Celtic skip, an ambient tone-poetry sigh and much more. Although the samplings from these different cultures don't entirely escape the local equivalents of hot licks, the CD is indeed, varied, sensitively played and affectingly melodic - and Gurtu's famously tumultuous jamming against it is as inventive as ever."

Gurtu was born into a highly musical family in Bombay, India where his grandfather was a noted Sitar player and his mother Shobha Gurtu, a classical singing star and constant influence. He began to play practically from infancy at the age of six. Eventually Trilok traveled to Europe, joining up with trumpeter Don Cherry (father of Neneh and Eagle Eye) for two years; touring worldwide with Oregon, the highly respected jazz group and was an important part of the quartet that L. Shankar led with Jan Garbarek and Zakir Hussain.

In 1988 Trilok performed with his own group, finally being able to present his compositions on the debut album "Usfret" which many musicians claim as an important influence; young Asian musicians from London like Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation and Nitin Sawhney see him as a mentor and so Trilok's work finds its way onto the turntables at dance clubs years later. But back in 1988 Trilok met The Mahavishnu Orchestra and its leader, John McLaughlin and for the next four years played an integral part in The John McLaughlin Trio.

In 1993 Trilok toured his own trio in support of the album "The Crazy Saints", which featured not only Joe Zawinul but also Pat Metheny. Audiences were enthralled by his compositions that linked subtle Indian rhythms and Indian singing with elements of modern jazz and rock. The following year the band was expanded to a quartet and touring extended to include a US coast-to-coast tour and 40+ European shows.

The composer and band leader had evolved from the Trilok of earlier years: consummate musicianship now joined entertainment skills as his humourous presentations for the group, between bouts of serious music, brought uproarious laughter from his spectators.

Band tours continued annually establishing Trilok Gurtu as a regular and popular visitor to many European and US cities; his group, The Glimpse was formed in 1996 which grew from his musical roots in India's timeless acoustic tradition. By the late 90's they were touring worldwide and appearing in Festivals where he performed alongside the megastars of the entertainment business (Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, REM) as well as his colleagues in the World Music scene like Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Cesaria Evora and Salif Keita. The "Kathak", "African Fantasy" and "Beat of Love" cds came about in 1998/9, 2000/1 as a direct result of these years: Trilok's music entered a distinctly World Music setting. These Indian/African cds were snapped up, with public and media alike enthralled by Trilok's heady World mixture; a new sound that contained the core of his previous works but expanded on it allowing guest singers like Neneh Cherry, Salif Keita, Angelique Kidjo and Oumou Sangare to display their talents in Trilok's unique world.

When Trilok hit the live performance circuit in 2000 and 2001 with his new group of 3 Indians and 2 Africans, sales of cds zoomed way over those of previous recordings. Audiences saw the group with special guest appearances by Nitin Sawhney, Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keita and "The Beat Of Love" producer Wally Badarou in New York and London. In between a hectic schedule of group performances he has appeared at a number of prestigious solo percussion recitals and given guest performances on albums by John McLaughlin, Pharoah Sanders, Nitin Sawhney, Lalo Schifrin, Gilberto Gil, Bill Laswell & Annie Lennox.

The release of "Remembrance" in 2002 was a major milestone for Trilok. The guests Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain, Ronu Majumdar and Shobha Gurtu gave superb performances. Reviews in London were all 4**** and better, including The Times, Daily Express, The Guardian, Q, Songlines and FRoots. Combined with extensive touring across Europe and especially Scandinavia, this led to Trilok's second nomination for the BBC World Music Awards and for an EMMA. Stand out performances were at London's Hyde Park for the Queen's 50th Anniversary and in Bombay as part of a global satellite-delivered concert with Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal celebrating the BBC's 70th Anniversary of their World Service.

2003 saw a wide variety of over 50 performances all over the globe from Trilok Gurtu in quartet, trio and solo formats. His first collaboration in an orchestral piece took place in Koln in October, with the World Premiere of "Chalan" written especially for him by Maurizio Sotelo. Other key 2003 performances were at Cité de la Musique, Paris in April with special guest Shankar Mahadevan; in Utrecht with Robert Miles, Kudsi Erguner and Hassan Harkmoun and in Sardinia with Dave Holland. The most spectacular was certainly in Copenhagen at "The Images of Asia Festival" where he orchestrated a joint performance of his own band with Samul Nori (Korean Percussionist) and Huun Huur Tu (Mongolian Throat Singers). All this on a floating stage in Copenhagen Harbour at sunset - quite delicious! Exotic cities like Belgrade, Istanbul, Tbilisi and Kathmandu got another chance to enjoy his work and MTV took another clip in Bombay.

Trilok started 2004 with a 10-date tour of Norway in February followed by an extensive tour of 25 concerts in France to announce the release of his eleventh cd "Broken Rhythms". "Broken Rhythms" followed the critical success of "Remembrance", a second album mainly recorded in his home town of Bombay, with a strong selection of Indian singers and musicians. As with all Trilok records, the accent is on rhythm and drumming - but this one more so. Featured collaborations with the Tuvan Throat Singers Huun Huur Tu, the Arké String Quartet and an outstanding screaming guitar part from Gary Moore bring a heady mix of bright and fast with gentle and peaceful. The album was released in France in March 2004 and received 4 star reviews. Two visits to the USA with his group included the huge Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco in front of 20,000 spectators; Italian, Montenegran and Serbian engagements with further French dates in the Autumn completed his year.

"Arkeology" is the union of two seemingly different worlds: Gurtu’s extraordinary rhythmic vitality and versatility and the classic string quartet’s sound reinterpreted by Arkè String Quartet. Here two multimillenial musical traditions merge, melting in melodies, polyrhythms and new counterpoints. Their project is based on a fascinating linguistic research, which has the sole aim of allowing the pure force of the singing and the rhythm to emerge, these being the expressive cores of the Indian and Mediterranean musical traditions. I loved it, and I think you will too.

The Edgetone New Music Summit Continues with "Beat and Beyond; Critical Mass..."

The week-long Edgetone New Music Summit moves from San Francisco to Oakland, and continues tonight through Sunday with panel discussions and performances by Pamela Z, Lx Rudis, Wobbly, Lance Grabmiller, Robert Anbian and the UFQ, Eddie the Rat, Jesse Quattro, Bruce Anderson and Gowns. If you haven't had a chance to see some the Bay Area's greatest sound artists, come to 21 Grand Gallery in Oakland for what promises to be another year of wonderful performances.

Every year the Edgetone New Music Summit showcases some of the most innovative and pioneering new music that is happening in California and beyond. The Festivals’ expanded performance schedule includes music and sound from raging free improvisation, electronic manipulation, to harsh noise reflecting an incredible range of genre busting exploration and sonic creativity. In addition, the festival seeks to promote intermedia arts, fostering cross-pollination between music/sound art and experimental flim/ visual arts.

The festival also pays homage to local as well as California’s central role in the development of invention and cutting edge concepts. Historically dating back to the inception of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco in the early 20th century, the San Francisco Bay Area has been and still is the location where many of the founders of new ideas in sound live and have lived including Ives, Pauline Oliveros, Glenn Spearman, Lisle Ellis, and Terry Riley to name a few. Today, the SF Bay Area, in the heart of California, is home to one of the most bustling and expanding new music scenes fostering the next generation.


Robert Anbian and the UFQ

This year's Summit is sponsored in part by KFJC 89.7 FM, SF Bay Guardian, Elastic Creative, Bayimproviser.com, Harshnoise.com, KUSF 90.3 FM, Studio 401, and the Luggage Store Gallery. A special thank you surely must go to our individual donors: Roderick Repke, John Lee, Scott Biggs, Linda and David Repke, Suki O’Kane, Matt Davignon, Mark Miller, Philip Everett, Ray Schaeffer, Peter Martin, John Vaughn, & Bill Noertker.

OUTSPOKEN SCHEDULE

Pre-Concert Composer Q&A
Interactive discussions of techniques and influences with composers, who will share context and insight into the performance work.

Friday July 27 at 8:30 pm 21 Grand, Oakland Speaker: Bevin Kelley

Panel Discussions
Drawn from Sources:
Inquiries into the sources, intent and challenges inherent in experimental music, and its place in our creative and social fabric.

Sunday, July 22nd 7pm in association with SIMM Series
Ethnic Tradition and Experimental Music
Musicians Union Hall 116 9th St. San Francisco
Moderated by Greg Beuthin (Balé Techlorico)
Artists speak out about how they balance their work to preserve and extend traditions in ethnic music.

Saturday, July 28th 3pm location TBA
This Music Defies Categorization
21 Grand Gallery 416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Moderated TBA
with Peter Martin (Eddie the Rat), Jake Rodriguez (The Bran… POS) and artists TBA
Artists reflect on individual strategies, and the challenges, for creating work from multiple traditions of music, theater and movement.

Friday, July 27th Pre-Concert Composer Q&A 8:30pm, Performance Starts 9pm
21 Grand Gallery
”Beat & Beyond, a night extending rhythm and sound”
416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Lx Rudis, Wobbly, Lance Grabmiller, Robert Anbian & the Unidentified Flying Quartet with
E. Doctor Smith & Charles Unger
General $12, Seniors/Students/Artists $8

Saturday, July 28th doors 8pm show starts 9pm
21 Grand Gallery
”Critical Mass, Sounds on the gritty side of the fence...”
416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Jon Brumit & Wayne Grim: Van Boven, Eddie the Rat, Jesse Quattro,
Bruce Anderson Bill Raymond & John Moreman: High Vulture, the Gowns
General $12, Seniors/Students/Artists $8

OUTSPOKEN EVENTS
OUTSOUND, in addition to being one of the largest new music presenters on the West Coast, is also presents the OutSpoken Education Series consisting of pre-concert Q&A, master classes and artist panel discussions during the Summit event. This year’s presentation is dubbed Drawn from Sources: Inquiries into the sources, intent and challenges inherent in experimental music, and its place in our creative and social fabric.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION
Tickets are currently on sale to the public. Schedule and artists are subject to change.
There are two ways to purchase tickets:
• Visit www.edgetonemusicsummit.org
• Purchase tickets at the door on the night of the performance

The 2007 Edgetone New Music Summit, July 22-28

This year, I am once again honored to be a part of the Edgetone New Music Summit, a fantastic series of concerts featuring some of the Bay Area's best and brightest sound artists, electronic and experimental musicians. Last year's festival ran the gamut: from the eclectic visual sound artist Pamela Z and the afro-jazz of Positive Knowledge; to the other-worldy tinkerings of Bob Marsh and master sound scuptors like Steven Baker and Tom Nunn. There were 16 piece Kelp orchestras and 6 piece Crank ensembles; the "field-scapes" of percussionist Marcos Fernandes, and the wonderfully cacaphonous music of "saxophonists who play other things." This one-of-a-kind festival truly lives up to it's name, "the inner groove on the edge of tone."

Outsound Presents, the leading emerging artist collective and non-profit organization for new and experimental music and sound, returns for their 6th festival, beginning July 22nd and running through July 28th. The festival will feature artists such as Liz Allbee, Tatsuya Nakatani, Marielle Jakobsons, Tom Nunn, Matt Davignon, Bob Marsh/David Michalak, Rent Romus, Thollem Mcdonas, Jon Brumit, Jim Ryan, Wynn Yamami, Lx Rudis, Wobbly, Lance Grabmiller, Robert Anbian and the UFQ, Eddie the Rat, Jesse Quattro, Bruce Anderson, and Gowns.

Every year the Edgetone New Music Summit showcases some of the most innovative and pioneering new music that is happening in California and beyond. The Festivals’ expanded performance schedule includes music and sound from raging free improvisation, electronic manipulation, to harsh noise reflecting an incredible range of genre busting exploration and sonic creativity. In addition, the festival seeks to promote intermedia arts, fostering cross-pollination between music/sound art and experimental flim/ visual arts.

The festival also pays homage to local as well as California’s central role in the development of invention and cutting edge concepts. Historically dating back to the inception of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco in the early 20th century, the San Francisco Bay Area has been and still is the location where many of the founders of new ideas in sound live and have lived including Ives, Pauline Oliveros, Glenn Spearman, Lisle Ellis, and Terry Riley to name a few. Today, the SF Bay Area, in the heart of California, is home to one of the most bustling and expanding new music scenes fostering the next generation.

This year's Summit is sponsored in part by KFJC 89.7 FM, SF Bay Guardian, Elastic Creative, Bayimproviser.com, Harshnoise.com, KUSF 90.3 FM, Studio 401, and the Luggage Store Gallery. A Special Thank You to our individual donors: Roderick Repke, John Lee, Scott Biggs, Linda and David Repke, Suki O’Kane, Matt Davignon, Mark Miller, Philip Everett, Ray Schaeffer, Peter Martin, John Vaughn, & Bill Noertker.

EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT ARTIST LINEUP

A complete detailed list of the 6th Annual Edgetone New Music Summit events can also be found at www.edgetonemusicsummit.org.

OUTSPOKEN SCHEDULE

Pre-Concert Composer Q&A
Interactive discussions of techniques and influences with composers, who will share context and insight into the performance work.

Wednesday July 25 at 7:30 pm Community Music Center, San Francisco Speaker: Marielle Jakobson
Thursday July 26 at 7:30 pm Community Music Center, San Francisco Speakers: Wynn Yamami, Jim Ryan and Tatsuya Nakatani
Friday July 27 at 8:30 pm 21 Grand, Oakland Speaker: Bevin Kelley

Panel Discussions
Drawn from Sources:
Inquiries into the sources, intent and challenges inherent in experimental music, and its place in our creative and social fabric.

Sunday, July 22nd 7pm in association with SIMM Series
Ethnic Tradition and Experimental Music
Musicians Union Hall 116 9th St. San Francisco
Moderated by Greg Beuthin (Balé Techlorico)
Artists speak out about how they balance their work to preserve and extend traditions in ethnic music.

Saturday, July 28th 3pm location TBA
This Music Defies Categorization
21 Grand Gallery 416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Moderated TBA
with Peter Martin (Eddie the Rat), Jake Rodriguez (The Bran… POS) and artists TBA
Artists reflect on individual strategies, and the challenges, for creating work from multiple traditions of music, theater and movement.

SUMMIT PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, July 25th Pre-Concert Composer Q&A 7:30pm, Performance Starts 8pm
Community Music Center
”Time in Transmission, a night of electro-acoustic performance”
544 Capp St. @ 20th St., San Francisco
Darwinsbitch, Tom Nunn/Matt Davignon, Nihil Communication & butoh danceer Laurie Buenafe Krsmanovic,
Bob Marsh/David Michalak: Doctor Bob
General $10, Seniors/Students $5

Thursday, July 26th Pre-Concert Composer Q&A 7:30pm, Performance Starts 8pm
Community Music Center
”Fields of Flowers , a night of spontaneous composition”
544 Capp St. @ 20th St., San Francisco 8pm
Rent Romus, Steven Baker, Thollem Mcdonas, Jon Brumit: BLOOM with guests
Liz Allbee & Tatsuya Nakatani (PA), Wynn Yamami, Christopher Ariza, Ali Sakkal: KIOKU (NY),
Jim Ryan's Forward Energy Trio featuring Robert Jones(OR) & Andrew Wilshusen(OR)
General $10, Seniors/Students $5

Friday, July 27th Pre-Concert Composer Q&A 8:30pm, Performance Starts 9pm
21 Grand Gallery
”Beat & Beyond, a night extending rhythm and sound”
416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Lx Rudis, Wobbly, Lance Grabmiller, Robert Anbian & the Unidentified Flying Quartet with
E. Doctor Smith & Charles Unger
General $12, Seniors/Students/Artists $8

Saturday, July 28th doors 8pm show starts 9pm
21 Grand Gallery
”Critical Mass, Sounds on the gritty side of the fence...”
416 25th St. @ Broadway Oakland
Jon Brumit & Wayne Grim: Van Boven, Eddie the Rat, Jesse Quattro,
Bruce Anderson Bill Raymond & John Moreman: High Vulture, the Gowns
General $12, Seniors/Students/Artists $8

OUTSPOKEN EVENTS
OUTSOUND, in addition to being one of the largest new music presenters on the West Coast, is also presents
the OutSpoken Education Series consisting of pre-concert Q&A, master classes and artist panel discussions during the Summit event. This year’s presentation is dubbed Drawn from Sources: Inquiries into the sources, intent and challenges inherent in experimental music, and its place in our creative and social fabric.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION
Tickets are currently on sale to the public. Schedule and artists are subject to change.
There are two ways to purchase tickets:
• Visit www.edgetonemusicsummit.org
• Purchase tickets at the door on the night of the performance