April 30th, 2018
Doors At 7. Music At 7:30pm
Michael Coleman and Ben Goldberg: Practitioner CD Release Tour.
Pianist Michael Coleman and Clarinetist Ben Goldberg present "Practitioner" A Realization of Steve Lacy's Hocus Pocus. A discussion with Tim Daisy follows.
Michael Colema is a pianist, improviser and composer. He graduated from Oberlin College where he studied history and jazz piano. After graduation, Michael headed out to Oakland, CA where he began his career as a composer and sideman, working with Bay Area greats such as Scott Amendola, Marcus Shelby, and countless other improvising musicians and songwriters. Michael is the composer and bandleader of the groups Beep!, Arts & Sciences and CavityFang. In his songwriting project Michael Rocketship, Michael plays all of the instruments and utilizes his home studio as a compositional tool, using experimental recording techniques to create unique textures and sounds. These are then pieced together to create a jigsaw puzzle of melodies and harmonies that are at once mysterious and familiar. Apart from performing and touring tirelessly with his own bands, Michael has toured the world with Chris Cohen, tUnE-yArDs, Sean Hayes, Miles Kurosky and Jug Free America.
Clarinetist and composer Ben Goldber was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Since 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music" (SF Chronicle), Ben has shaped a career through curiosity and experimentation across genres and styles. In 2012 he premiered Orphic Machine, a ten movement song-cycle based on the poetical writings of Allen Grossman. The New York Times has noted that Ben’s music “conveys a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising, the constant usefulness of musicians intuitively coming together and pulling apart.” The Downbeat Critics’ Poll named him the #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in both 2011 and 2013. Ben is part of The Out Louds; Unfold Ordinary Mind; Go Home; Ben Goldberg School; and Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen. He is a member of the avant-chamber jazz ensemble Tin Hat, Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom, and performs in a duo with pianist Myra Melford called DIALOGUE. He currently teaches Jazz Theory and Improvisation in the Music Department at the University of California, Berkeley. With drummer Hamir Atwa, Michael and Ben have a trio called Invisible Gu. Their first record, “Knuckle Sandwich,” is available on BAG Production Records.
