18–19 August 2026
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Thrilled to host the new project from acclaimed saxophonist and composer, Darius Jones, and unclassifiable guitarist, turntablist and composer, Otomo Yoshihide for a two-day residency!
Darius Jones' trio set at OTO alongside Steve Noble and John Edwards was one of our highlights of 2024, and Otomo Yoshihide has been responsible for a ridiculous number of incredible shows here since OTO's inception. Joined by the great Berlin-based double-bassist, Nick Dunston, plus a pheonomenal double-drums line-up of Gerald Cleaver and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, these should be a very special couple of nights indeed.
Darius Jones / alto saxophone
Otomo Yoshihide / guitar
Nick Dunston / double bass
Gerald Cleaver / drums
Yasuhiro Yoshigaki / drums
Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of Black music. Jones has been awarded the Van Lier Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Artist-in-Residence and commission, Western Front residency and commission, French-American Jazz Exchange Award, Robert D. Bielecki Foundation Award, and Fromm Music Foundation commission from Harvard University. Jones has received acclaim for not only his studio albums featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism, but also for his commissioned work as a composer throughout the United States and Canada.
In October 2024, Jones released Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) on AUM Fidelity. Jones was featured on the cover of The Wire in April 2024 (#482), and Jones' fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred) co-released on Northern Spy and We Jazz Records in 2023, was listed as #3 in The Wire's Releases of the Year 1-50 and The Wire's #1 Jazz & Improv, and was also listed among NPR's top 50 albums of the year. Jones was the 2022 MATA Festival artist in residence and festival curator, where he premiered Colored School No. 3 (Extra Credit). In 2021, Jones released Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) on Northern Spy Records. In 2024, Jones joined the Roulette Intermedium Board of Directors, and became a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble.
Jones’ music is a confrontation against apathy and ego, hoping to inspire authenticity that compels us to be better humans.
Otomo Yoshihide moves between free jazz, noise, improvisation, composition and the unclassifiable with a generosity that opens up the possibilities for expression in all of the constellations with which he's involved. He spent his teenage years in Fukushima, about 300 kilometers north of Tokyo. Influenced by his father, an engineer, Otomo began making electrical devices such as a radio and an electronic oscillator. In junior high school, his hobby was making sound collages using open-reel tape recorders. This was his first experience creating music. Soon after entering high school he formed a band which played rock and jazz, with Otomo on guitar. It wasn't long, however, before he became a free jazz aficionado, listening to artists like Ornette Coleman, Erick Dolphy and Derek Bailey; and hearing music, both on disk and at concerts, by Japanese free jazz artists. Especially influenced by alto sax player Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, Otomo decided to play free jazz.
In 1990, Otomo started what was to become Ground Zero. Until it disbanded in March 1998, the band was at the core of his musical creativity, while it underwent several changes in style and membership. Since Ground Zero, Otomo has embraced minimal improvisation, film music and the jazz/big band conceptions of his New Jazz Quartet/Quintet/Orchestra.
Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and sound artist. Called an “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde" (New York Times), his performances have spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe. His work explores notions of ancestral memory, materiality, embodiment, decolonization, and Afro-surrealism. As a collaborator he has worked with artists such as Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Moor Mother, JACK Quartet, Son Lux, Ingrid Laubrock, Wet Ink Ensemble, Craig Taborn, Dave Douglas, Allison Miller, Wendy Eisenberg, Lotte Anker, Darius Jones, Mette Rasmussen, Elliott Sharp, Sofia Jernberg, Jim Black, Achim Kaufmann, Lucrecia Dalt, Joy Guidry, Imani Uzuri, Anna Webber, and Amirtha Kidambi.
Gerald Cleaver is one of the New York jazz scene’s leading drummer/composers, who covers a wide range of stylistic ground. Having played with jazz masters Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Ray Bryant as well as the leading lights of the AACM, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith and Henry Threadgill, he is a product of many traditions within creative music.
Yasuhiro Yoshigaki is a Japanese drummer, percussionist, and composer active in avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He is currently a member of the trance rock band ROVO, the improvisation unit Altered States, ONJQ, Undercurrent4, GUSH and El Tempo, as well as the large-format jazz group Orquesta Libre, the percussion ensemble "Orquesta Nudge! Nudge!", bombastic jazz "Emergency!", ethnic progressive ensemble "Vincent Atmicus", piano trio "On The Mountain", cosplay free jazz band "MoGoToYoYo".
