Monday 7 May 2018, 7.30pm
Ingrid Laubrock / tenor and soprano saxophones
Mary Halvorson / guitar
Kris Davis / piano
Tom Rainey / drums
Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House 4 consists of New York City-based musicians who have all made a huge impact as composers, performers and improvisers in their own right. It’s a cast of innovative performers who are specialized in experimental music and constantly look for fresh avenues to create truly new music.
The group's quicksilver-like and imaginative blend of strong individual voices with Laubrock's compositions makes for a thrilling listening experience. The compositions straddle the boundaries of improvisation, new music and avant- jazz. Between them, the musicians have performed with Anthony Braxton, Jason Moran, Craig Taborn, Tim Berne, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian and many others.
“The quicksilver mixture of composition and improvisation, range of approaches, textures, densities, and, movement heard across the album, and, indeed,within each single piece, is one of the most satisfying qualities of Laubrock’s music. Her sponge-like imagination seems boundless. An absorbing trip through an aural hall of mirrors.” – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
“A cascade of gritty beauty.” – All About Jazz
Ingrid Laubrock is a saxophonist/composer based in Brooklyn since 2009. Laubrock is interested in exploring the borders between musical realms and creating multi-layered, dense and often evocative sound worlds.
Her main projects as a leader are Anti-House, Ubatuba, and Serpentines. She has been part of several Anthony Braxton projects, including Falling River Quartet, Diamond Curtain Wall Quartet; and was one of the soloists in his latest opera Trillium J. Awards include Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation in 2006, the 2009 SWR German Radio Jazz Prize and the 2014 German Record Critics Quarterly Award. She won best Soprano saxophonist in the 'Downbeat Annual Critics Poll in 2015.
Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In recent Downbeat Critics Polls Halvorson has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year, and in 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Halvorson has released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and finally an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). She also released the solo recording Meltframe (2015), and most recently debuted Code Girl (2018), a new ensemble featuring vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (singing Halvorson’s own lyrics), trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, saxophonist and vocalist María Grand, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.
One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.
Kris Davis s a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure,” according to JazzTimes. The Vancouver-born, Davis was dubbed one of the music’s top up-and-comers by the New York Times, and the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the “sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities” in her playing and compositions.
Tom Rainey s one of the most sought after creative drummers in NYC. He has performed and/or recorded with: John Abercrombie, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ingrid Laubrock, Kris Davis, and many others. Current projects as a leader include the Tom Rainey Trio and the quintet Obbligato.
