June 3, 2019
Doors At 7. Music At 7:30pm
Drummer and Composer Bill Harris is a rising star among the new generation of Chicago improvisers. For his Option concert, he’ll perform a new solo work followed by a set of improvisations with guitarist and violinist Peter Maunu.
Bill Harris is a percussionist, composer, improviser, and audio engineer from Pittsburgh currently based in Chicago. Since relocating to Chicago in 2011, Bill has found himself at home in Chicago's improvised music scene, drumming and composing for some of his main projects including Four Letter Words (Matt Piet and Jake Wark), Bowlcut (Matt Murphy, Jake Wark), Devouring the Guilt (Gerrit Hatcher and Eli Namay), and Errata (Ishmael Ali and Eli Namay). Bill is also involved in many other improvised collaborations and projects, having performed with the likes of Dave Rempis, Jim Baker, Jason Roebke, Jeb Bishop, Keefe Jackson, Peter Maunu, Carol Genetti, Josh Berman, and many others. Bill is also a working studio and recording engineer, and in 2015 he started Amalgam, a 100% artist-run collective and label dedicated to showcasing works of improvised and experimental music in Chicago. They have since pressed 16 releases and have been featured in the Chicago Reader, All About Jazz, Avant Music News, Cacophony Magazine, and Downtown Music Gallery.
Bill's solo work for drum kit is a culmination of ideas and processes from the last twenty years of playing, studying and exploring the instrument, with a focus on self reflection, deep listening, autodidacticism, and an honest attempt at total vulnerability. This Option performance will document the manifestation of these ideas in a three-part piece entitled "Ask the Waste," a work which incorporates both acoustic and electro-acoustic manipulations of the drum kit.
A transplant from the Los Angeles music and recording scene, guitarist/violinist Peter Maunu has toured, performed and recorded with a long list of diverse musicians including Charles Lloyd, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bobby McFerrin, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp, and Grace Slick. As the guitarist on the Arsenio Hall Show, he performed nightly with legends like Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Madonna, Ray Charles, NWA, Public Enemy, and many more. Additionally, Peter contributed to the soundtracks of film scores including Crash, Bobby, Food Inc., and tv shows Chicago Hope, Arrested Development and CSI New York. Since relocating to Chicago, he has performed and recorded with improvisers Fred Lonberg-Holm, Dave Rempis, Michael Zerang, Mars Williams, Jim Baker, Tomeka Reid, Katherine Young, Jason Roebke, Tim Daisy, Avreeyal Ra, dancer Ayako Kato and many others. In addition, he founded, curates and performs at the Splice Series, a bimonthly improvisation series at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago.