BlueStem Jazz featuring Matt Blair Quartet

BlueStem Jazz presents Matt Blair Quartet

Will Greene:

Will Greene plays guitar and saxophone and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. He improvises and writes music based on what he would like to hear. Generally, Will is fascinated by repurposing old, almost-forgotten sounds, finding new, soon-to-be-forgotten sounds, and exploring dynamic and physical limits in their extremes.

Will is a member of avant-thrash outfit TRIGGER, the sci-fi country band DRESSAGE, and italo-prog-pop ensemble TREDICI BACCI.

He is also proud of and grateful for his past and ongoing collaborations that have taken him across the United States and several continents. A woefully abbreviated list of these collaborators: Joe Morris, Raf Vertessen, John Zorn, Elias Stemeseder, Zoe Christiansen, Kenny Wollesen, Max Jaffe, Henry Fraser, Carrie Furniss, Daniel Pencer, and Jesse Heasly.

Brian Courage:

Originally from Long Island, NY, bassist Brian Courage has spent the last decade as an integral part of the creative music scenes in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, and now Chicago, where he currently resides. He has performed alongside an extensive array of nationally acclaimed improvisers, including Greg Ward, Jon Irabagon, Lew Tabackin, David Hazeltine, Jason Stein, Weasel Walter, Michael Lewis, Erik Fratzke, Russ Johnson, JT Bates, and Billy Mintz. Brian is adept at a wide range of styles and has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, renowned vocal quartet The Four Freshmen, the Chicago Tap Theater, and the New York based Americana / blues rock band Hollis Brown, with whom he toured the US and Europe extensively. His most recent creative endeavor is Abhorrent Expanse, a fully improvised metal band. Their debut album "Gateways to Resplendence" has been featured in prominent outlets including Decibel, Metal Injection, Burning Ambulance, and Wire Magazine.

Devin Drobka:

Devin Drobka is one of the most in-demand and creative musicians in the midwest for the past 15 years. Audiences around the world have been enthralled with his wide sonic palette and limitless rhythmic possibilities on the drums. A deep love of jazz, metal, folk, hip-hop, ambient, idm, and classical music has helped shaped Devin’s unique voice and vision on the drums both as a leader and as a sideman. His highly personal and creative drumming can be heard within the realm of jazz having performed with Greg Osby, Jerry Bergonzi, Dayna Stephens, and Joe Lovano as well as indie- folk bands like Field Report and indie rappers R.A.P. Ferreira and Serengeti. Devin can be heard on over 50 albums of genre bending, original music for which he is an advocate for. Devin currently composes music for his newest group, The Devin Drobka Trio, which draws upon his love of contemporary classical music and minimalism and his multi horn group, Bell Dance Songs, which is a response to his love of Albert Ayler, Paul Motian, and Ornette Coleman. Devin’s music has been described as “sounding like nothing else in midwestern jazz” and “gorgerous, innovative.”

"Devin was a former student of mine at Berklee and one of my best. He was and remains, a serious, inquisitive, committed student, firmly grounded in the tradition, but open to what might be possible as the tradition evolves and changes with each generation... not only is Devin a catalyst of that change... he is " the next generation..."
- Jon Hazilla - Drum Professor at the Berklee College of Music

Matt Blair:

Matt Blair is a pianist, composer, and educator who recently returned to Madison, WI. His work draws upon diverse musical traditions such as contemporary classical, electro-acoustic improvisation, free jazz, minimalism, and noise. In addition to his practice as a pianist, he incorporates extended electronic processing of the Fender Rhodes, synthesizers, and the computer in his music.

Since 2018, Matt has been releasing music on his label, Scribbled Fang Records. Recent releases have included Shadow Sets, a collection of compositions for solo piano that was produced by Dave King (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple), Post Rock Lately, the debut record of Collector, an improvising trio featuring Jakob Heinemann on bass and Devin Drobka on drums and electronics, and Flights and Poor Health Good Spirits, both releases by Big Thanks, a Minneapolis-based Trash House trio featuring Miles Allen on saxophone and clarinet and Jack Lussenden on drums. Other recent releases have included After Party (out on Dinzu Artefacts), the debut record of Yins, an electronic duo with Devin Drobka, and Resorts (out on Shifting Paradigm Records), a piano trio featuring Devin Drobka’s compositions with Aaron Darrell on bass.

This event is BYOB.

Presented by BlueStem Jazz:

https://bluestemjazz.org/

and Audio for the Arts:

https://audioforthearts.com/

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