I am very excited to have a string of great concerts coming up in the next week and a half.
First, Thursday 4/20 at Vagabond in RVA.  My great friend and amazing musician Scott Burton has put together a night of music he’s calling Small Talk.  He describes it as follows:
“Small Talk is a new free musical improvisation series from Scott Burton featuring chance encounters between creatives. The idea is simple: 2 short sets of musical small talk, and 1 set where all the players come together for a longer conversation. You get to eavesdrop!”
Small Talk #1 will be:
Set 1: Guitarists Scott Burton and Toby Summerfield
Set 2: Drummer Scott Clark and Guitarist Alan Parker
Set 3: All of the Above
(more info here https://www.facebook.com/events/1404305372965670/)
(Vagabond 700 E. Broad St. 10pm Free)

Then on Friday 4/21 Cary Street Cafe presents RVA Jazz Night.  This show will feature 3 amazing groups in one night.  First Scott Burton’s new Kessel Quartet will be performing the music of guitarist Barney Kessel.  Next, my group the ScottClarkEnsemble will be performing some new music fresh to everyone.  Finally, Charles Owens will have his quartet performing music from his new release “As One” (https://charlesowens.bandcamp.com/album/as-one).  Special thanks to Jeremy Simmons for helping set up this great night of music at one of Richmond’s staple music venues.  (more info here https://www.facebook.com/events/255989714809070/)
(Cary St. Cafe 2631 W. Cary St. 10pm $10)

Finally, Thursday 4/27 the great Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis will be in town performing two sets at Candela Books and Gallery in Richmond (214 W. Broad St. 7pm $10).  The first set will be of Dave’s work for solo saxophone, followed by a collaboration of a trio featuring Dave, myself and the great guitarist/composer Toby Summerfield.
Dave is on a tour that he describes as follows:
“Prolific Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis (Rempis Percussion Quartet, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, The Engines) will undertake a sprawling solo journey around the United States this spring, developing repertoire for his first solo release scheduled on Aerophonic Records this fall, while also working to strengthen the informal networks that connect, inform, and sustain the improvised music scene throughout the U.S. Each concert on the trip will involve a solo set, as well as a collaboration with one or more locally-based musicians in every city he visits.  The working title of this ambitious project is Lattice.”

More about Dave Rempis can be found below or at http://daverempis.com

Saxophonist, improviser, and composer Dave Rempis has been an integral part of the thriving Chicago jazz and improvised music scene since 1997.  With a background in ethnomusicology and African studies at Northwestern University, including a year spent at the University of Ghana, Rempis burst onto the creative music scene at the age of 22 when he joined the well-known Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe, an active schedule that he still maintains to the present day.  At the same time, Rempis began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he’s currently known, including The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, Wheelhouse, Triage, The Rempis/Rosaly Duo, and  The Rempis/Daisy Duo.  Other collaborations have included work with Paul Lytton, Axel Dörner, Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, C. Spencer Yeh, Hamid Drake, Steve Swell, John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Kevin Drumm, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nels Cline, and Joe McPhee.  Rempis has been named regularly since 2006 in the annual Downbeat Critics’s Poll as a “rising star” on alto saxophone, and as a “rising star” and “established talent” on baritone saxophone.  In 2013, he started his own record label, Aerophonic Records, to document this ongoing work. 

Rempis’ musical expression draws on a number of touchstones.  While heavily improvisational in nature, his Greek ethnicity, studies in jazz and ethnomusicology, an appreciation for the philosophical underpinnings of contempory composition, and a love for unforgivingly strident yelps, screeches, and squeals that can encompass the ever-evolving state of human depravity all inform his work. 

Aside from his role as a musician and composer, Rempis has worked tirelessly as a presenter.  Since 2002, he’s organized and produced a weekly series of improvised music at Chicago’s Elastic Arts Foundation.  He was a founding member of Umbrella Music, and one of the lead producers and curators of its annual festival in Chicago from 2006-2014, and served as the business manager of the Pitchfork Music Festival from 2005-2016.  He currently works with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

Thanks for your support and more soon……