Samosa Sunday - Mikel Patrick Avery, Jason Roebke, Keefe Jackson

BluStem | Mikel Patrick Avery, Jason Roebke, Keefe Jackson

The new, the old, the in-between: a trio of improvisor/composers forged in the Chicago creative milieu, working and playing, developing and dissolving, meeting the future years ago.

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) 

The diversity of Jason Roebke’s musical associations make him one of the most sought after bassists, composers, and educators in Chicago and beyond. He composes music that is extreme in its pairing of silence and explosive gestures. Solo performance and a duo with dancer Ayako Kato are also at the forefront of his creative activities. The Chicago Reader described his work as “a carefully orchestrated rummage through a hardware store.” Roebke studied privately with saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell as well as legendary double bass pedagogue Stuart Sankey. Roebke tours widely in the US and Europe. 

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.

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