Good news! I'm coming to a town near you. The Gray Code Northeast Tour
2001 is kicking off this weekend. Please come out for a show when we hit
your area - contact me if you need more details! Coinciding with this
tour is the release of "Gray Code: Live in Philadelphia" compiled from
live performances in, well, Philadelphia.
Welcome aboard to all of the IT industry folks who were just added as I
depart their company for a while and welcome *back* to the QPUpdate and
Update subscribers, omit for some time now due to [my] user error. The
next mailing will return to the regular BFUpdate format with more local
(DC) info - there are only two 'Beltway' shows booked, one at each end
of the tour. (Booking ends! HA!)
My http://brianfending.com site was recently updated and will see a
widening of scope after the Tour as I reintroduce the MP3's,
compositions, and other information that, mysteriously, no one ever
claimed to have missed in the first place. If you need to bookmark the
musical stuff NOW: http://brianfending.com/music will do it. See you all
online and at the shows!
regards/BF
//
***** For immediate Release
Metatron Press presents Gray Code with special guest David Maddox
at
MOCA-DC: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC 1054 31st
Street, Gallery Courtyard Washington, DC 20007
Saturday, February 24 - 8:30 pm, $5 suggested donation
Gray Code is an electroacoustic ensemble specializing in music that
involves improvisation, mindfulness practices, elements of humor, and
surprise. Their repertory includes newly composed musical works,
performance poetry, chant from various early traditions, and group
improvisations.
For this performance, regular group members Matthew Ross Davis (voice,
trumpet, percussion, electronics), Brian Fending (percussion), Joseph
Zitt (voice, melodica) and Jonathan Matis (electric guitar) will be
joined by special guest David Maddox (saxophone).
Gray Code will be touring the Northeast to celebrate the release of
their new CD, "Live in Philadelphia" on the Metatron Press label. The
disc features quintet performances recorded during the Frankford Arts
Festival (May 2000) and the Philadelphia Fringe Festvial (September
2000).
The performance will feature compositions that combine predetermined
structures and group improvising in various ways, as well as totally
spontaneous compositions featuring the whole ensemble.
Tom Bickley (voice, recorders, electronics, etc.)
, based in Berkeley, CA and Houston,
Texas, studied Gregorian chant, other medieval music, and African
American sacred music. His degrees are in music, liturgy and information
science. He is certified by Pauline Oliveros to teach the meditative
improv techniques of Deep Listening. In addition to his work with new
music ensembles Gray Code and Comma, he has performed with Pauline
Oliveros, Anne LeBaron, David Maddox, the Denison Kimball Trio, the
Scratch Orchestra and others. He is active in the duo Gusty Winds May
Exist, with shakuhachi player Nancy Beckman, and as sound designer with
the hjw/Dimensions Dance Company. He teaches privately and leads sound
workshops for children and adults. In Washington, DC he was on the
faculty at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and an artist in residence in
the DC Public Schools. His work is available on CD on Quarterstick
(DK3's Neutrons) and MetatronPress (! Comma's (voices) and Gusty Winds
May Exist), and in privately issued CD's by composer-performer Norman
Lowrey (riverdream through us and spiritdream, both with Pauline
Oliveros). His work has received support from Meet the Composer, the
Pauline Oliveros Foundation, and the Meredith Foundation.
David Maddox (saxophone, clarinet) splits time between Nashville and
Houston. He majored in composition at Amherst College, studying with
Lewis Spratlan, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Composition. He
also worked with Peter Tod Lewis at the University of Iowa. For several
years he was active in Chicago's improvised music community, performing
with Carol Genetti, Scott Marshall (recent collaborator with
choreographer Lar Lubovitch), Geoff Greenberg, Tim Keenan, Jim Baker
(Caffeine and Fred Anderson Quartet), Louis Varro, and John Sinclair
(MC5). He collaborated with director and choreographer Warren Leming on
several theatre and dance pieces. In Houston he has performed with
Susan Alcorn and as a member of the quartet Synapses, and started a
biweekly jam session for improvised music. When in Nashville, he
performs with the Transcendental Crayon Ensemble, a jazz-based jam band.
Matthew Ross Davis (voice, percussion, trumpet, electronics) received a
BA in Music from Virginia Tech in 1994, having concentrated on
composition and computer music. There he began studying voice with Craig
Fields and composition with Jon Polifrone, and afterwards studied at the
University of Maryland with baritones Dominic Cossa and Francois Loup.
While doing graduate work in Opera Performance, Matthew continued his
interests in the avant-garde and experimental arts by championing the
music of John Cage, both planning and performing in concerts. Now living
in Chicago, Matthew has collaborated and performed with such musicians
as Laura Lee Moses, Eric Leonardson, Carol Genetti and Toshi Makihara.
He is also a member of the trio Comma both singing and playing
instruments (guitar, trumpet and percussion), and is known in the
Intelligent Dance Music scene as Craque; in Gray Code these two
personalities intermingle frequently. Matthew also composes music for
voices and instruments as well as works for electronic media, and has
released several solo CDs on the Metatron Press and mp3.com DAM labels.
Brian Fending is an active, Washington, D.C. based percussionist
specializing in World and 20th-century musics. His undergraduate (BM,
1996) work was completed at SUNY College at Fredonia under Theodore
Frazeur, D. Thomas Toner, and Kay Stonefelt. Graduate study found him at
Miami University (MM, 1999) with William R. Albin. In addition to Gray
Code and his solo work, Brian performs original jazz with the Benji
Tomasetti Quartet and is Lecturer in multimedia design and development
at American University.
Joseph Zitt studied
electronic and ethnic music at Rutgers University and cantorial music
(briefly) at Yeshiva University. His texts and music have been performed
across the country and his book Shekhinah: the Presence was published by
Metatron Press. He has performed with the Human Systems Performance
Group in Austin, Texas, and with the sound-poetry ensemble Question
Authority, The in Dallas. He was honored as guest composer on the Arts
Wire conferencing system. His solo CDs are available on the DAM label.
He founded and manages Silence: The Internet John Cage Mailing List, and
develops technologies for human empowerment near Washington, DC.
Jonathan Matis studied
composition at Connecticut College with Noel Zahler, and at the Hartt
School of Music, studying with Steven Gryc, Robert Carl, and David
Macbride. He received the Mahan Prize in music from Connecticut College
in 1993 and the Diemente Prize from the Hartt School in 1999. Jonathan
plays the electric guitar primarily, and has performed in many different
types of ensembles, in a wide variety of venues. He has performed live
on radio and television, and in festivals. He played in the prog-core
band Snuggles and the ambient free improv ensemble Tiktok, both in
Austin, Texas and with Casual Saturn, a Connecticut- based collective of
improvising musicians.
For more information about Gray Code, please see
Contact: Jonathan Matis j_matis@yahoo.com 301 785-0884
http://www.metatronpress.com/
Tour Itinerary:
Saturday 02/24/2001 MOCA-DC 1054 31st Street, Gallery Courtyard
Washington, DC 20007 8:30 PM $5 suggested donation 202-342-6230
Tuesday 02/27/2001 Knitting Factory 74 Leonard Street New York, NY 10013
10:00 PM $5.00 http://www.knittingfactory.com/
Wednesday 02/28/2001 Hartt School of Music University of Hartford 200
Bloomfield Ave West Hartford, CT 06117 Workshop at 5:00 PM Concert at
8:00 PM Free
Thursday 03/01/2001 Flywheel 2 Holyoke St. Easthampton, MA 01027 8:00 PM
$5.00 (413) 527-9800 http://www.flywheelarts.org/
Friday 03/02/2001 Zeitgeist Gallery 312 Broadway Cambridge, MA
02139-1820 8:00 PM 9:00 PM $5.00 (617) 623-1065
http://www.cambridge.zami.com/zeitgeist
Saturday 03/03/2001 Pauline Oliveros Foundation: Deep Listening Space 75
Broadway Kingston, NY 9:00 PM (914) 338-5984
http://www.artswire.org/pof/
Sunday 03/04/2001 Now! Music and Fashion 3100 Clarendon Blvd Arlington,
VA 22201 4:00 PM Free (703) 528-9059 http://www.nowmusicandfashion.com/
Other Gray Code related events:
Matthew Ross Davis (aka Craque) http://metatronpress.com/craque Friday,
February 16 No Exit Cafe 6970 N. Glenwood Chicago, IL 9:00 PM $7.00
(773)743-3355
Brian Fending with the Benji Tomasetti Quartet Sunday, March 18 AU Jazz
& Blues Festival, American University Washington, D.C. 8:00 PM
Tom Bickley and Nancy Beckman (Gusty Winds May Exist) with Viv
Corringham from London Thursday, March 22 Luggage Store Gallery San
Francisco, CA
Tom Bickley Friday, April 6 Meridien Gallery Music Series San Francisco,
CA
###
