We are extremely excited to have Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith playing for two nights at Café Oto after being blown away by his performance at Freedom Of The City in May.

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith - Two Day Residency - Day 2 line-up:

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith + Pat Thomas + Phil Wachsmann - Trio

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith + Pat Thomas + Phil Wachsmann + Two Drumers (TBC)

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith has been active in the creative contemporary music world for over 30 years. A trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser, his original theory of jazz and world music has been significant in his musical development as an artist and educator.

Born in Leland, Miss., Smith's early musical life began in high school concert and marching bands. At the age of 13, he became immersed in the Delta Blues and improvisational music traditions. As an improvisor-composer, Smith has studied a variety of music cultures (African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American) and to fully express this music, he has developed an original theory and notation system for jazz and world music which he calls Ankhrasmation.

Some of the artists Smith has performed with are Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Richard Teitelbaum, Joseph Jarman, George Lewis, Cecil Taylor, Andrew Cyrill, Oliver Lake, Anthony Davis, Carla Bley, David Murray, Don Cherry, Jeanne Lee, Milton Campbell, Henry Brant, Richard Davis, Tadao Sawai, Ed Blackwell, Sabu Toyozumi, Peter Kowald, Kazuko Shiraishi, Han Bennink, Misja Mengelberg, Marion Brown, Kazutoki Umezu, Kosei Yamamoto, Charlie Haden, Kang Tae Hwan, Kim Dae Hwan and Tom Buckner, among many others.

LINKS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QzBTnbcAtY

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=v7NLIQFPHXU&feature=related

http://music.calarts.edu/~wls/

http://www.myspace.com/wadadaleosmith

http://www.last.fm/music/Wadada+Leo+Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqkZem06b3U

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=36242

Pat Thomas

Pat studied classical piano from aged 8- started playing Jazz from the age of 16- he has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing Improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990/91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.

Current projects include a duo with Steve Williamson, and the group SCATTER. A solo piano Cd “ PAT THOMAS PLAYS THE MUSIC OF DEREK BAILEY AND THELONIOUS MONK” was released in 2008 on the FMR label.

LINK

http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mthomas.html

Phil Wachsmann

John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of "indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading 'Die Reihe' and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices.

Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: 'Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards 'performance' and therefore 'improvisation'.'"

LINK

http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html

Tony Marsh is a regular player on the London improvising scene who, according to The Guardian's Richard Williams has a: "marvelous ability to erase the boundary between time and no-time" and "an exquisite feeling for percussive texture".

Tony regularly plays with Evan Parker, John Edwards, Paul Dunmall, Nick Stevens, The London Improvisers Orchestra and many others.

Tony has recently played with Peter Brotzmann at café OTO in January 2010. has been a stalwart of the London improvising scene since the 1970s. He has played with many of the key figures in European improvisation. He is currently playing with: the London Improvisers Orchestra; Evan Parker; Paul Dunmall; Harry Beckett; Tom Mix and many others.

LINKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBNbC_8BaU
http://www.visionlogic.demon.co.uk/biog1_TM.htm



Steve Noble
From playing with Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde ,Rip Rig and Panic ,Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, Noble went on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey(including Company Weeks 1987,89 and 90)and was featured(along with Alex Ward) in the TV series based on Baileys book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe , Africa and America.

Currently leads the groups N.E.W- ‘4tet’ –DECOY- and trios with Lol Coxhil / Edwards and Wilkinson/Edwards.
Also drummer in the Gannets-Aethenor-Freebase –SFQ-Badland -Tongues of Fire and Orphy Robinsons ‘Spontaneous Cosmic Raw Xtra’.

Has been MD for the Spanish dance company MAL PELO since 1998.Noble also runs the record company PING PONG PRODUCTIONS.

LINKS
http://www.myspace.com/wilkinsonedwardsnoble
http://www.myspace.com/nobleedwardsward