Phillip Greenlief (solo saxophone) + These Things Happen

Name: Phillip Greenlief (solo saxophone) + These Things Happen
Start: 2026-03-04T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-04T21:00:00-05:00
Location: Rhizome DC

Schedule

Wed Mar 04 2026 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Rhizome DC | Takoma Park, MD

UPDATE: The Keefe Jackson Trio, with the addition of pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland, is now the quartet known as These Things Happen!
Phillip Greenlief (solo saxophone) + These Things Happen
Wednesday March 4th. Doors at 6:30PM, music at 7PM at Rhizome DC.. Admission $20-$30. Tickets.
Phillip Greenlief (solo saxophone)
These Things Happen: Keefe Jackson (sax, clarinet), Oscar Jan Hoogland, piano, Luke Stewart (bass), and Mikel Patrick Avery (drums)
Since his emergence on the west coast in the late 1970s, saxophonist/composer PHILLIP GREENLIEF has achieved international acclaim for his recordings and performances with musicians and composers in the post-jazz continuum as well as new music innovators and virtuosic improvisers. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Meredith Monk, Rashaun Mitchell & Silas Reiner, and They Might Be Giants. Albums include two LANTSKAP LOGIC TRIO releases (w/ Evelyn Davis and Fred Frith), THAT OVERT DESIRE OF OBJECT with Joelle Leandre, ALL AT ONCE with FPR (Frank Gratkowski and Jon Raskin), and OH THAT MONSTER with LA punk pioneers Thelonious Monster. Residencies have included the Banff Center for Art and Creativity, Neue Muzik Koln, and suddenly/LISTEN Halifax, Nova Scotia. His critical writing has been published in Artforum, Open Space (SFMOMA), Sound American, and Signal to Noise.
"The Bay Area's do-it-yourself ethos has produced a bevy of dazzlingly creative musicians, but few have put the philosophy to work as effectively as Phillip Greenlief." – Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle
https://www.phillipgreenlief.com/
The music of These Things Happen lives in the spaces between Chicago and Amsterdam, composition and improvisation, sobriety and wild abandon, playfulness and innocence. Starting with classic pieces and originals from the Dutch and American jazz traditions, the group will digress, covering new ground: discover and ignore, grab and release, creating and letting go.
While the Chicago musician comes to jazz naturally, the Dutch approach to this music has often that been of respectful game and play. With These Things Happen this contrast is one of sincere joy. The compositions of Misha Mengelberg stand next to those of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and originals.
These Things Happen’s new long-playing disc “A Gentle Reminder” comes out in March 2026 on the Corbett vs. Dempsey label. Their previous release, the eponymous “These Things Happen”, was released in 2022 by Astral Spirits Records.
https://corbettvsdempsey.bandcamp.com/album/a-gentle-reminder
https://asthesethingshappen.bandcamp.com/album/these-things-happen
KEEFE JACKSON (saxophone, clarinet) is a Chicago-based improviser and composer performing in the US, Europe and Latin America. He has collaborated with musicians including Jason Adasiewicz, jaimie branch, Dave Rempis, Tomeka Reid, and Greg Ward. "...the impeccable logic of his lines and the richness of his tone leave you wanting more... Jackson's high-register squiggles and coarsely voiced, rippling runs push the limits of the tenor's tonal envelope." -- Bill Meyer (Chicago Reader)
OSCAR JAN HOOGLAND is a teacher at composition department of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (KC), at the jazzdepartment of the Conservatory of Amsterdam (CvA) and at the Mimeschool of the Theaterschool of Amsterdam (AHK). As a leading figure on the Dutch impro scene, Oscar Jan Hoogland sprung onto the Amsterdam landscape approximately two decade ago, at the forefront of a new group of improvisers to arrive and simultaneously uphold the tradition of New Dutch Swing even while tearing it apart.
LUKE STEWART s a musician, performer, improviser-composer, organizer, and writer-researcher whose work represents a deep reverence for the history and tradition of Creative Music: a tradition which encompasses the diverse styles of expression within the body of Black Music in the United States, Africa, and throughout the world. Stewart’s regular ensembles include Irreversible Entanglements, SILT Trio, Exposure Quintet, and the experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths; he also performs regularly in numerous collaborations.
A percussionist, composer/improvisor, filmmaker, photographer, and designer of modern pedal and electronic instruments, artist MIKEL PATRICK AVERY considers this multiplicity as one practice: creative problem solving. Avery has collaborated and performed with numerous ensembles including Natural Information Society, Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons, Tomeka Reid, the Jeff Parker Quartet, Kurt Vile, Big Thief, and Theaster Gates’ ensemble, The Black Monks of Mississippi. In both his own practice and collaborating with other artists, exploration and inclusion is the focus of his life's work.