Jamie Saft - keyboards; Joe Morris - guitar; Bobby Previte - drums; Herb Robertson - trumpet
A meeting of longtime colleagues, some of whom have been playing together for over 30 years and others who have never yet played together. Presenting a set of purely improvised new music, this will be a wild and varied concert featuring legends of improvised music.
Jamie Saft is a virtuoso pianist, keyboardist, producer, and composer originally from New York, now living in Maine. His stylistic versatility, multi-instrumentalist capabilities, and production skills have been featured with Iggy Pop, Beastie Boys, Bad Brains, The B-52’s, John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Donovan, and Anohni. Saft leads the New Zion Trio, Jamie Saft Trio and Quartet. Saft has collaborated with legends of music including Wadada Leo Smith, Roswell Rudd, Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Dave Liebman, Joe Morris, Hamid Drake, Bobby Previte, Steve Swallow, Darryl Jenifer, and Cyro Baptista. Saft has composed a number of original film scores including the Oscar nominated “Murderball” and Sundance winner “God Grew Tired Of Us.”
Bobby Previte’s first stage appearance came in 1956 at the Niagara Falls Talent Show, where, guitar in hand and adorned in an over-sized suit, he belted out a solo rendition of Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog.’ Eight years later, thinking drumming might be a good way to get girls, he fashioned a bass drum from a rusted garbage can, a kick pedal from a wire coat hanger wedged between two pieces of linoleum and a rubber ball stuck on top, tom toms from upside-down trash bins, cymbals from aluminum pie plates suspended on plungers, and a box of loose junk for a snare – then practiced for a year in his dark basement with a lone spotlight shining on him before eventually starting a band, the “Devil’s Disciples.” But when they finally got a job at the church he was fired for not having ‘real’ drums. Seeking revenge, he took a job as a paperboy, saved every penny, and a year later bought the drum kit he still uses today in concerts all over the world. Strolling in the East Village one bright afternoon, he peered inside a limo stuck in traffic (crosstown) and suddenly found himself face to face with Jimi Hendrix. Thinking fast, he unfurled the poster of Jimi he had fortunately just acquired, then looked on in astonishment as Hendrix smiled and flashed him the peace sign. All the rest, as they say, is noise.
Herb Robertson is an avant-garde jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. He combines a thorough command of traditional and extended techniques with a prodigious imagination. Born in 1951 in New Jersey, he began to play trumpet at age ten in his elementary school’s fifth grade class. He was introduced to jazz two years later by his junior high school music teacher, who turned him on to the music and recordings of Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and other great jazz trumpeters. In his early teens, Robertson began collecting jazz and classical records, intensely listening to and absorbing all styles, from Louis Armstrong to the avant-garde, with special emphasis on the era’s hard-bop style of jazz. In high school he led a quintet that played dances and specialty concerts. After high school, during the years 1969-73, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston as an instrumental performance major, a period in which his improvisational skills became highly developed. In 1973 he left Berklee to go on the road in Canada as a lead trumpeter with various jazz-rock cover bands. In 1975 Herb Robertson had to quit playing music for a short time when the strain of performing nightly in loud jazz-rock bands caused him to temporarily lose his trumpet chops. Robertson altered his playing style, becoming a more lyrical and explorative artist. In 1976 he started a rehearsal big band, while also playing in smaller ensembles with some of the more creative avant-garde musicians of New Jersey. He then met alto saxophonist Tim Berne in the late 1970s where he first gained attention for his playing with Berne’s groups during the years 1981-87. His lyricism, tonal distortions and use of mutes looked back to jazz’s past, while his freer improvising was quite futuristic, fitting in very well with Berne’s music and passionate alto playing. During this period he also became a member of long time collaborator and bassist Mark Helias’ groups. Robertson recorded his initial leader album in 1985, and has since appeared on over 100 recording projects. As a leader he began putting together his own adventurous bands in 1986 and has recorded for the JMT, Splasc(h), Clean Feed, Leo, Nottwo, CIMP and Cadence labels. His groups since 1987 include The Double Infinitives, the Herb Robertson Brass Ensemble, The NY Downtown All-stars and various groups with Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Paul Smoker and Phil Haynes. He has worked with many of the major names of the avant-garde and modern mainstream jazz including Anthony Davis, Bobby Previte, David Sanborn, George Gruntz, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Dave Ballou, Lou Grassi’s Po’ Band, The Fonda–Stevens Group, Nexus, The London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, Barry Guy’s New Orchestra, Michael Moore, Terry Jenoure, Andy Laster, Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano, John Lindberg, Gerry Hemingway, Zlatko Kaucic, the Satoko Fujii big band, Marc Ducret, Simon Nabatov, Mark Feldman, Steve Swell, Pierre Dorge’s New Jungle Orchestra, Mark Solborg, John Zorn, Phil Haynes, Paul Smoker, Roswell Rudd, Jim Yanda, Elliot Sharpe, the Klaus Konig Orchestra, Rashied Ali, Ray Anderson, Paul Motian, Dewey Redman, Evan Parker, Agusti Fernandez, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Frank Gratkowski, Simon Nabatov, Michiel Braam, Matthias Schubert, Mark Dresser, the Charlie Haden Music Liberation Orchestra, Satoko Fugii, Wilbert De Joode, Wolter Wierbos … among many others. He has been cited as an important influence by trumpeter Dave Douglas. Herb Robertson, who has composed music for dance, theater and documentary films, also plays valve trombone, tuba, the Eb alto horn and “little instruments” and has performed at almost all European, American and Canadian festivals and American jazz clubs.
Guitarist/Bassist Joe Morris has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important contemporary artists in improvised music including, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Ken Vandermark, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, William Parker, Dewey Redman, Marshall Allen, Mary Halvorson, Joelle Leandre and Tomeka Reid. He is featured on more than 180 recordings on the labels ECM, ESPdisk, Clean Feed, Hat Hut, Aum Fidelity, Avant, OkkaDisk, Not Two, Soul Note, Leo, No Business, Rogue Art, Relative Pitch, Incus, RareNoise, Fundacja Sluchaj, Mahakala Music, his own labels Riti and Glacial Erratic and others. Morris has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as well as in Brazil, Korea and Japan. He has lectured and conducted workshops on his own music and on improvisation in the US, Canada, and Europe including at Princeton University, Dartmouth College and Harvard University. Since 2000, he has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Musical Arts Department at New England Conservatory of Music. Morris is the author of the book, Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing 2012).