Andrew Lamb (tenor saxophone)
Tom Abbs (contrabass)
Warren Smith (drums, percussion)

Yuganaut:
Steve Rush (piano, keyboards)
Tom Abbs (contrabass)
Geoff Mann (drums, percussion)

Andrew Lamb was born in Clinton, North Carolina and grew up in Chicago and in South Jamaica, Queens. Having studied with AACM charter member Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre, Mr. Lamb came into New York's "avantgarde" community in the '70s, becoming an active presence in the vibrant Bedford-Stuyvesant arts world at that time, and winning a Brooklyn Arts Council grant.

In 1994, he composed all the pieces on his first leader recording, Portrait in the Mist (Delmark), which featured vibraphonist Warren Smith, bassist Wilber Morris, and drummer Andrei Strobert. Andrew Lamb has since recorded duets with Warren Smith (Duet, WISland, '99 and The Dogon Duo, Engine Studios, '05) and Dance of the Prophet, a trio recording with Eugene Cooper and Andrei Strobert (Kiki Records). In 2003 his brilliant recording with Tom Abbs and Andrei Strobert, Pilgrimage, was released on CIMP, featuring 10 original Andrew Lamb compositions; that year also brought the release of Year of the Endless Moment with his group The Moving Form (Engine Studios).

Andrew Lamb and his ensembles remain a regular presence in the New York area and have frequently played in the annual Vision Festival, which began in 1996. In 2001, Andrew took part in Alan Silva's bigband project with the Sound Vision Orchestra; the following year he toured with AACMaffiliated drummer Alvin Fielder; in '04, Henry Grimes's trio with Andrew Lamb and Newman Taylor Baker was named "Best Jazz Trio" by NY Press in its "Best of Manhattan" issue. That trio also played in Berlin and at Edgefest (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and HotHouse, Chicago in '05. The Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Marshall Allen, Andrew Lamb, and Hamid Drake played on opening night of the 10th annual Vision Festival in New York City.

Always, Andrew Lamb's music rises out of the African-American jazz, blues, and church traditions and is deeply spiritual, profoundly emotional, and readily accessible to all who hear him. Wrote Steven Loewy for All Music Guide, Andrew Lamb is "a serious musician seeking to uplift his soul through art, and, like John Coltrane and his progeny, Lamb's vehicle is the psalmlike expression of his tenor saxophone. The results reflect his quest, testifying to his musical abilities, enormous potential, and depth of character."

Yuganaut is a collective of improvising virtuosos. Playing prewritten and structured compositions, they explore sonic spaces by listening deeply to each others articulation and interpretation of the score. The surprising dialogue that results from this process is like watching an extremely wellhoned basketball team pass the ball. Welloiled, communicating, intuitive, and almost ESPlike in it's performance. The group is comfortable in many styles/genres, so the music flows from funk to swing, open jazz, to avantclassical aesthetics. With training in diverse musics such as strict classical Western Music, jazz, rock, South Indian and electronica, Yuganaut pushes the notion of eclecticism swiftly out the window and proclaims loudly that the world is a place where all musics can find a happy home, together.

$15 general admission, $10 members/students/seniors

Marilyn Crispell (piano)

Marilyn Crispell is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied classical piano and composition, and has been a resident of Woodstock, New York since 1977 when she came to study and teach at the Creative Music Studio. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and other contemporary jazz players and composers. For ten years she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble and has been a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra and guest with his London Jazz Composers Orchestra, as well as a member of the Henry Grimes Trio, Quartet Noir (with Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser and Joelle Leandre), and Anders Jormin's Bortom Quintet. In 2005 she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra in Vancouver, Canada and in 2006 she will be codirector of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at the Banff Centre International Workshop in Jazz.

Besides working as a soloist and leader of her own groups, Crispell has performed and recorded extensively with wellknown players on the American and international jazz scene. She's also performed and recorded music by contemporary composers Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Manfred Niehaus and Anthony Davis (including four performances of his opera X with the New York City Opera).

In addition to playing, she has taught improvisation workshops and given lecture/demonstrations at universities and art centers in the U.S., Europe, Canada and New Zealand, and has collaborated with videographers, filmmakers, dancers and poets.

Crispell has been the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship grants (1988-1989, 1994-1995 and 2006-2007), a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission (1988-1989), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005-2006). In 1996 she was given an Outstanding Alumni Award by the New England Conservatory, and in 2004, was cited as being one of their 100 most outstanding alumni of the past 100 years.

Photo of Marilyn Crispell by Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times

$15, $10 members/students/seniors

This concert is made possible by a grant to Hallwalls from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music. Ninefoot concert grand Steinway "D" piano supplied, delivered, and donated in part by Denton Cottier & Daniels, Getzville, NY. Asbury Hall is used courtesy of Babeville and Righteous Babe Records.

Canadian-born pianist Winston Choi is an inquisitive performer whose fresh approach to the standard repertoire and masterful understanding of, commitment to, and performance of new works by living composers make him one of today's most dynamic young concert artists.

Choi has performed in recital and with orchestras across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. In recent seasons, he has appeared in the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Merkin Recital Hall and Symphony Space in NYC, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Kravis Center in Florida, Edward-Pickman Hall in Boston, the Rosza Centre in Calgary, the Festival Encuentros in Buenos Aires, Cicle Grans Solistes in Girona, Spain, and throughout Germany. Summer festivals in which he has performed include Banff's Summer Arts Festival, Maine's Bay Chamber Concerts, Michigan's Fontana Chamber Arts Series, Wisconsin's Green Lake Music Festival and Peninsula Music Festival, Barrie's Colours of Music, and Parry Sound's Festival of the Sound. In France, Choi has toured extensively and performed in venues such as the Salle Cortot, in Lille's Festival Rencontre Robert Casadesus, the Messiaen Festival, and IRCAM's prestigious Agora festival. His numerous performances have included live radio broadcasts on both NPR and CBC Radio.

In demand as a concerto soloist, Choi has been featured soloist with l'Orchestre National de Lille, l'Orchestre Symphonique d'Orléans, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the KitchenerWaterloo Symphony, the Missisauga Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, l'Orchestre de Banquet, the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, the Indiana University Concert Orchestra, the Fort Collins (CO) Symphony Orchestra, and the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra.

He also tours regularly as Duo Diorama with his wife, violinist Minghuan Xu. The duo recently had its successful NYC debut in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall as winners of Artists International Presentations' Chamber Music Award, a concert later featured on Voice of America, a weekly TV magazine viewed by millions of people in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as on Asia TV. An accomplished chamber musician, Choi has collaborated with Boston Symphony concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, violinist Scott St. John, clarinetist James Campbell, and flutist Thomas Robertello, with whom he recorded a CD of new American music (Crystal Records).

Choi was Laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition and winner of France's 2002 Concours International de Piano 20e si�cle d'OrlŽans. As a recipient of grants from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music and the Canada Council, Choi is dedicated to premiering and commissioning works by new young composers as well as established masters. Choi has collaborated in this way with such composers as Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, George Flynn, M. William Karlins, Bernard Rands, Sven David Sandstrom, Bright Sheng, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, and Brian Current. He has commissioned works by dozens of composers, believing that being involved in the creative process is an integral part of his artistry. His performances include the North American premiere of Boulez's 2001 version of Incises and the South American premiere of Berio's Sonata for Piano. He is a core member of the contemporary music group Brave New Works, which actively performs throughout the US, championing composers all across the aesthetic spectrum. Choi's debut CD, the complete piano works of Elliott Carter (l'Empreinte Digitale in France) was given 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine: "...sheer élan and pianistic devilment..." He has also recorded 2 CDs of the piano music of Jacques Lenot for the Intrada label, having won the Grand Prix du Disque from l'Académie Charles Cros for Volume I. He can also be heard on the Arktos, Quadro-Frame, and Southport Records labels.

Recent performances included his CBC Radio Orchestra debut, the Banff Summer Arts Festival, the National Arts Centre, and a month-long tour of Eastern Ontario and Quebec with Jeunesse Musicale. With Duo Diorama he performed at Music Gallery in Toronto, the Music of All Latitudes Series, the Italian Academy in NYC, Geneva, Switzerland, Brazil, and Argentina.

Choi began his studies in Toronto with James Tweedie and Vivienne Bailey. He obtained both his Master's and Bachelor Degrees at Indiana University, receiving the Performer's Certificate studying with Menahem Pressler. He is currently a doctoral student at Northwestern University, studying with Ursula Oppens. In fall of 2006 Choi was Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Oberlin Conservatory.

APRIL 18 PROGRAM

World Premiere of Elemental Figures by Yvar Mikhashoff

NOTE: While Yvar Mikhashoff (1941-1993) was best known as a pianist and new music advocate/entrepreneur, he was also a composer of a considerable and varied body of work. Elemental Figures, a trilogy of piano pieces, occupied him in his final years. His avowed goal was to compose a piece which continued a grand line of instrumental virtuosity for the piano begun primarily by Liszt, and which in Yvar's estimation ended with Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), which Choi will also perform in this, the centennial year of its composition. Indeed it is Ravel's threepart work that directly inspired the form and poetical allusions of Elemental Figures.

Gaspard de la Nuit: Trois Po�mes pour Piano d'apres Aloysius Bertrand (1908)—Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Night Fantasies (1980)—Elliott Carter (Carter himself will turn 100 later this year, on December 11, 2008)
Portrait of Madame Butterfly—Yvar Mikhashoff
Affulgat sol omnibus animalibus dei—Brian Current

$10 suggested donation

Peter Brötzmann (born March 6, 1941) is a German free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.

Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement, but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first real jazz concert when he saw American jazz musician Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.

He has not abandoned his art training, however: Brötzmann has designed most of his own album covers. He first taught himself to play various clarinets, then saxophones; he is also known for playing the tàrogatò. Among his first musical partnerships was that with double bassist Peter Kowald. For Adolphe Sax, Brötzmann's first recording, was released in 1967 and featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Ake Johansson.

1968, a year of political turmoil in Europe, saw the release of Machine Gun, an octet recording often listed among the most notable free jazz albums. One critic has written Machine Gun offers "a heavy-impact sonic assault so aggressive it still knocks listeners back on their heels decades later." Originally the cassette was self-produced and sold at gigs, but it was later marketed by FMP Records, which stands for Free Music Productions. In 2007, Chicago-based Atavistic Records remastered and reissued the Machine Gun recording.

The more melodic album Nipples was recorded in 1969 with many of the Machine Gun musicians including drummer Han Bennink, pianist Fred Van Hove and tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, plus British free-improv guitarist Derek Bailey. The second set of takes from these sessions, appropriately called More Nipples, is more raucous. Fuck De Boere (Dedicated to Johnny Dyani) is a live album of free sessions from these early years, containing two long improvisations, a 1968 recording of "Machine Gun" live (earlier than the studio version) and a longer jam from 1970. The logistical difficulties of touring with an octet resulted in Brötzmann eventually slimming the group to a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. Bennink was also partner in Schwarzwaldfahrt an album of duets recorded outside in the Black Forest in 1977 with Brötzmann's sax and Bennink drumming on trees and other objects found in the woods. Larger groups were put together again later, for example in 1981 Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with Frank Wright and Willem Breuker (saxes), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson (trombones), Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (bass). This was released as the album Alarm. In the 1980s, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, including a stint in Last Exit and subsequent recordings with Last Exit's bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell.

Brötzmann has remained active, touring and recording regularly. He has released over thirty albums as a bandleader, and has appeared on dozens more. His "Die Like A Dog Quartet" (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on Brötzmann's music. Since 1997 he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (initially an Octet).

Brötzmann has also recorded or performed with musicians including Cecil Taylor, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer and Brötzmann's son, Caspar Brötzmann, a notable guitarist in his own right.

Han Bennink (born April 17, 1942) is a Dutch jazz drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist.

Bennink was born in Zaandam, the son of a classical percussionist. He played the drums and the clarinet during his teens. Through the 1960s he drummed with a number of American musicians visiting the Netherlands, including Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy (he can be heard on Dolphy's final studio recording, Last Date (1964)).

He subsequently became a central figure in the emerging European free improvisation scene. In 1963 he formed a quartet with pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Piet Noordijk which had a number of different bassists and which played at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival, and in 1967 he was a co-founder of the Instant Composers Pool with Mengelberg and Willem Breuker, which sponsored Dutch avant garde performances. From the late 1960s he played in a trio with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove, which became a duo after Van Hove's departure in 1976. Through much of the 1990s he played in Clusone 3 (also known as the Clusone Trio), a trio with saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger. He has often played duos with Mengelberg and collaborated with him alongside other musicians.

As well as playing with these long-standing groups, Bennink has performed and recorded solo (Tempo Comodo (1982) being among his solo recordings) and played with many free improvisation and free jazz luminaries including Derek Bailey, Conny Bauer, Don Cherry and Alexander von Schlippenbach, as well as more conventional jazz musicians like Lee Konitz.

Bennink's style is wide-ranging, running from conventional jazz drumming to highly unconventional free improvisation, for which he often uses whatever objects happen to be onstage (chairs, music stands, instrument cases), his own body (a favourite device involves putting a drumstick in his mouth and striking it with the other stick), and the entire performance space—the floor, doors, and walls. He makes frequent use of birdcalls and whatever else strikes his fancy (one particularly madcap performance in Toronto in the 1990s involved a deafening fire alarm bell placed on the floor). He is also a talented multi-instrumentalist, and on occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano.

This school year, Hallwalls embarked on an extensive arts-in-education partnership with the Buffalo Academy for Visual & Performing Arts, the City of BuffaloÕs grades 5Ð12 public magnet school for excellence in the arts and academics, which recently reopened in its new state-of-the-art facility on BuffaloÕs East Side, on the corner of East Ferry St. and Masten Ave. This multi-year, multidisciplinary partnership is funded primarily by a major grant from the Empire State Partnership (ESP) program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

TonightÕs concert in HallwallsÕ Cinema (in the basement of BAVPA alumna Ani DiFrancoÕs ÒBabevilleÓ) features the 7th/8th-Grade Guitar Ensemble and the 5th/6th-Grade Guitar EnsembleÑboth under the direction of well-known Buffalo guitarist Rick StraussÑas well as individual ensemble members playing in duos, trios, and solos.