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Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
presents
Manala Performing Artists:
and
Patrick Shiroishi solo saxophone
March 1 , 2020
at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

Manala Performing Artists:
Vinny Golia - saxophones, flutes
Emily Hay - flutes/voice
Alex Cline - drums/percussion/kantele
Ben Richter- accordion
Sean Riddle- double bass
Tim Feeney - vibes
Heikki Koskinen - e-trumpet, tenor recorder, kantele
Rent Romus - alto/soprano saxophones, flutes, kantele

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock presents the Los Angeles premier of Rent Romus and Heikki Koskinen’s Malana a new musical adventure inspired by ancient Finnish mythology with an opening Patrick Shiroishi solo saxophone.
“Manala” (netherworld) is a representation of cultural rediscovery through the lens of music weaving the elements of jazz, traditional folk, and free improvisation inspired by the mythic prose of cultural liberation and identity found in Finnish and Uralic folkloric traditions.
Growing up as a third generation Finnish American, Rent Romus’ heritage could be defined by a few family stories and childhood songs. Like most ethnic Finnish immigrants who came to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century at the fall of the Russian Empire, his family was strongly encouraged to shed their identity through name, language and/or cultural practices upon entering. Working with mentor and fellow composer/musician Heikki Koskinen, the presentations of Manala is a representation of that deep cultural rediscovery through the lens of music.

Heikki "Mike" Koskinen has been a key musical figure in the Bay Area jazz and Finnish music communities. Chosen in "Rytmi" magazine critics polls as Finland's top jazz trumpet player in the 1970's, he went to study jazz at Berklee College in Boston in 1973. He later moved to San Francisco in 1977. Koskinen is the recipient of several Finnish composing grants, recorded several albums, and won awards as an innovative children's music teacher. Heikki was also the coordinator and host of the Bay Area Finnish radio program ‘Studio Finland’ for ten years. He has worked extensively over the years with Steve Heckman, Mark Levine, Joe Bonner, Bennie Green, Larry Hancock, Michael Spiro, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, saxophonist Mikko Innanen, and most recently several with Rent Romus and the Life‘s Blood Ensemble. In 2019 he was awarded the 34th Finnish Jazz Legend Award.

What is Manala?
Manala is the metaphysical netherworld in ancient Finnish cultural traditions and referenced in the national epic Kalevala. It is a place opposite of the land of the living, a destination for the soul after this life, a place of reflection that contains answers to mysteries of the universe for the Noaidde or Noita (shaman) in Uralic cultures. It can be very dangerous for a living person to journey there, and only the most experienced may successfully emerge from its dark waters richer in knowledge and song.

For more information:
http://www.romus.net/manala.html

Opening the evening will be a set of solo saxophone improvisations by Patrick Shiroishi, a local artist who is rapidly establishing himself as a vibrant and powerful voice on the Los Angeles area’s creative music scene. Having recorded with a dizzying array of diverse collaborators, including with two of the veteran members of the Manala ensemble (Golia and Cline), Shiroishi dynamically inhabits the vast, boundary-free terrain of contemporary improvised music, where worlds meet, interact, combine, and emerge free of category, idiom, or style. Pure sound, pure expression, and pure aptitude characterize Shiroishi’s musical language. It should swirl and shine in the resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts. Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist & composer based in Los Angeles and plays in corima, upsilon acrux, nakata, in the womb, oort smog, sunreader, danketsu 10, and kogarashi & borasisi.
https://www.patrickshiroishi.com/
https://patrickshiroishi.bandcamp.com/

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Open Gate Dionysus Band
and
MoonVille
January 5, 2020
at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

Open Gate Dionysus Band:
Will Salmon - flutes and voice
Breana Gilcher - oboe, english horn
Alec Santamaria- viola
Alexander Vogel - saxophones
Darren Dvoracek - tuba, trombone
Brad Dutz - drums percussion
Tuba Heatherton - accordion etc.
(also puppets and their -teers)

Moonville:
Haskel Joseph - guitars
Darryl Tewes - bass guitar
Breeze Smith - drums, percussion

Some version of the Open Gate Ensemble, commandeered by Open Gate Theatre founder-director Will Salmon, has been featured in each seasonal three-month series of concerts. To kick off a new year of monthly concerts, Salmon is presenting the Open Gate Dionysus Band, a group of musicians and performers who have worked in Salmon’s stage production of Dionysus in Hell. This means the emphasis is more on theatricality, wit, absurdity, energy, entertainment, and an elevated, albeit often wacky, sense of celebration. Joining Salmon (flutes, etc.) in the highly eclectic and eccentric ensemble will be veteran clown Tuba Heatherton (accordion, etc.), Breana Gilcher (oboe), Alec Santamaria (viola), Alexander Vogel (saxophones), Darren Dvoracek (tuba), and irrepressible multi-instrumentalist Brad Dutz (percussion). Expect fun to be the keyword for beginning 2020 at Open Gate!
Opening the evening will be a trio known as MoonVille, featuring frequent Open Gate presence Breeze Smith, whose multi-sonic percussion vocabulary and improvisational instincts will support and interact with accomplished guitarist Haskel Joseph and consistently inventive and fluid/solid bass guitarist Darryl Tewes. Fully exploring the wide-open terrain of multidirectional spontaneous music-making, MoonVille delivers the kind of engaging and genre-defying musical experience that so characterizes the kind of vital artistic expression so consistently presented at Open Gate. Happy new year!
(Text: Alex Cline)

Open Gate Gate Theatre
"Dionysus in Hell"
and
"Tsuchi"
January 24th and 25th- 8:00
The Legion Club   131 N. Marengo Ave. Pasadena, 91101

Cost:   $20, (students and seniors $15)

Open Gate will continue its very ambitious season January 24, and 25 at the The Legion Club in Pasadena. The Legion Club, on the edge of Old Town Pasadena, is in historic old building with lot’s a of parking and a grand full bar.
The performances will pair "Dionysus in Hell"
- a music drama by Will Salmon, based on Aristophanes The Frogs,
and "Tsuchi"
a performance work by Mitsu Salmon.

   In Dionysus in Hell, Dionysus, the god of theater, goes down to the underworld to bring back the spirit of Jerzy Grotowski, the great Polish Avant Gard theater director. Our Underworld will be inhabited by denizens influenced not just by Greek mythology but Dante, Opera, and Butoh dance. “Dionysus in Hell” will have original music, utilizing virtuoso instrumentals, extended vocal techniques, a multi screened environment, and strange cornball tunes. “Dionysus” will use a full Open Gate ensemble, with Will Salmon as Dionysus and Tuba Heatherton as the servant Xanthias; Persephone will be an otherworldly beauty sung and danced by Roksana Zeinpur; there will be a ghost band of accordion, viola. tuba, piccolo, sax, and percussion; there will be giant puppets, and Frogs leaping and singing.
Performers include:
Will Salmon - Dionysus
Tuba Heatherton -Xanthias
Chris Soohoo - Hercules, chorus
Tany Ling - Demeter, chorus
Dario CiVon - Charon, chorus
Nicole Granati - Corpse, chorus
Roksana Zeinapur - Persephone, chorus
Breana Gilcher - oboe, english horn
Alec Santamaria- viola
Alexander Vogel - saxophones
Darren Dvoracek - tuba, trombone
Brad Dutz - drums percussion
Artistic Director- Will Salmon
Stage Director - Ted Lamoureux
Art design- Chris Soohoo
House Manager - Vicki Salmon
Puppet creation - Mitsu Salmon, Ted Lamoureux,

   "Tsuchi" is a solo interdisciplinary performance piece. It draws from Mitsu's great- grandfather’s experience of immigrating from Japan to Hawaii as a farmer and then pursuing his dream of becoming a high-end waiter. The piece delves into and obscures his life and then branches out to the stories of Mitsu's, the Hawaiian queen and a steel guitar musician. The work explores questions of family and travels through Butoh, contemporary dance, and everyday movements with music and text. The work is a collaboration between Mitsu and sound artists Alyssa Moxley, Kevin Carey and Mike Hero. Development of Tsuchi was sponsored by High Concept Labs and supported by a residency at the Chicago Cultural Center and Oxbow.

"Relating aspects of her heritage and cultural identity channeled Proust-like through her recent experience working as a server in a sushi restaurant and combining space-composition techniques that incorporate unusual interactions, including balancing a pineapple on her head as she moves, for instance, or baptismally dousing her head with alcohol as a statement of immersion. Simultaneously moving, informative and at times heart-wrenching, the ambitious scale of Salmon’s work continues to impress." - Newcity

“Made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.”

For reservations or information :    opengatewills@gmail.com

Open Gate performance featuring
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger.
with original music by Will Salmon
and new original shorter works
featuring the Open Gate Ensemble
with giant puppets.
Friday, November 8 at 8:00
at
Sunspace
9683 Sunland Blvd., 91040 Sunland, Ca.
$10 tickets
a low end fund raiser for Sunspace
all ticket sales goes to support Sunspace

Performer/creators include:Darren Dvoracek, Breana Gilcher, Nicole Granati,
Tuba Heatherton, Will Salmon, Alec Santamaria, Chris Soohoo, and Alexander Vogel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9L7r8NIBc
(not our music but a preview footage of the gorgeous Prince Achmed)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Scot Ray Quartet
and
Casey Fosse, Ted Taforo, Darryl Tewes, Joe Berardi

November 3, 2019
at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

Scot Ray Quartet
Scot Ray - slide guitar, electronics
Bill Barrett- chromatic harmonica
Steuart Liebig - bass guitars
Alex Cline - drums, percussion
and

Casey Fosse, Ted Taforo, Darryl Tewes, Joe Berardi
Casey Fosse - guitar, gizmos
Ted Taforo - woodwinds, electronic keyboards
Darryl Tewes - bass guitar
Joe Berardi- electronics, percussion

R

Open Gate Gate Theatre - featuring Rizpah
September 27, 28, and 29
At
The Legion Club
131 N. Marengo Ave. Pasadena, 91101
Open Gate begins it’s most ambitious season
with three nights at
the Legion Club in Pasadena

Friday September 27, 8:00
“Rizpah” - a dance opera featuring Roxanne Steinberg
“Manzanito’s Cabaret” - puppets, wonky music, and more delights
Kaoru, Brad, and GE - Trio in the Salon

Saturday September 28, 8:00
“Dragonfly” - a dance opera featuring Roxanne Steinberg
“Manzanito’s Cabaret” - puppets, wonky music, and more delights
Jie Ma - a solo set, on Pipa and Ruan

Sunday September 29, 7:00
“Rizpah” - a dance opera featuring Roxanne Steinberg
“Manzanito’s Cabaret” - puppets, wonky music, and more delights

Cast includes:
“Rizpah”:
Roxanne Steinberg – Rizpah (dance)
Charles Lane– tenor
Roksana Zeinapur- soprano
Will Salmon- voice, flute, organ
Alex Cline – percussion
Maggie Parkins - cello
Jeff Gautier- violin
Kio Griffith – video
JT Mora - lighting , stage manager
Will Salmon – composition, direction

“Manzanito’s Cabaret”
Yuli Archontaki, Niclole Granti, Tuba Heatherton, Will Salmon
Alec Santa Maria, Chris Soohoo, and Alexander Vogel
Puppets made by: Ted Lamoureux and Mitsu Salmon

Tickets $15
($10 for seniors, students,
and anyone who has ever performed with Open Gate)

Open Gate will be launching a very ambitious season
the weekend of September 27 at the The Legion Club in Pasadena.
The Legion Club is a marvelous site on the edge of Old Town Pasadena.
The Legion Club has a great environment
including lot’s a of parking and a grand full bar.

“Rizpah” is a mixed media Opera created by Open Gate Theatre, featuring Roxanne Steinberg dancing as the character Rizpah. The opera is based on the Biblical story found at
2 Samuel 21:10 “And Rizpah took sackcloth, and spread upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.”

“Dragonfly” is a collaborative work that integrates dance, instrumental music, voice, and video. Evoking the image of the Dragonfly, the artists will weave a strange beauty, with a fierce elemental delicacy.

“Manzanito’s Cabaret” is wild ride with puppets, clowning, wonky music,
and whatnot.

Kaoru Monsour, Brad Dutz, and GE Stenson Trio and Jie Ma will perform music sets at the of the concerts on Friday and Saturday in the Legion’s Salon.

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Open Gate Ensemble
and
Scott Heustis & Friends
In a musical memorial tribute
to drummer Bert Karl
September 1, 2019
at 7:00 p.m.

At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

Open Gate Ensemble
Will Salmon- flutes and voice
Maggie Parkins - cello
Alex Cline - percussion
and
Scott Heustis & Friends
Scott Huestis - guitar
Bobby Bradford - cornet
Vinny Golia - woodwinds
Ben Rosenbloom - keyboard
Dhiren Panikker - keyboard
Tony Green - bass
Breeze Smith - drums, percussion

Refreshments will be offered by Bert’s family

August 4th, 2019Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock presents
Sax and Drumming Core 4
and
Steuart Liebig (solo)
August 4th, 2019at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

Sax and Drumming Core 4
Vinny Golia - woodwinds
Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophone
Alex Cline - drums, percussion
Garth Powell - drums, percussion

Steuart Liebig (solo)
bass guitar and electronics

Tenor and sopranino saxophonist Larry Ochs is best known for his decades of membership in the adventurous and visionary Bay Area-based ensemble the Rova Saxophone Quartet, but he has assembled and/or fronted numerous equally adventurous and visionary ensembles over the years right up to the present day, having recently released some noteworthy recordings documenting some of his wonderfully innovative and diverse current projects. One of those ensembles is the Sax and Drumming Core, placing his probing and powerful saxophone artistry into the energetic sound world of two drummers (Scott Amendola and Don Robinson). For this concert, one of Ochs’ rare Los Angeles area appearances, Ochs joins three local veteran purveyors of improvised music and, in the process, expands this concept to include another vital and virtuosic representative of creative saxophone artistry, Vinny Golia, to comprise the Sax and Drumming Core 4. The two drummer-percussionists for the occasion will be the tried-and-true combination of former No Cal compatriot of Ochs’ Garth Powell, a So Cal resident for a number of years now, and lifelong Angelino Alex Cline, two distinctive voices on their sonically vast instrument setups who work exceedingly well together. Collectively mining the myriad musical possibilities of the unique two-saxophonists/two-drummers instrumentation, this potent combination of accomplished artists is likely to be truly . . . adventurous and visionary! Not to be missed.

Opening the evening will be local virtuoso of the six-string bass guitar Steuart Liebig in recital of solo improvisations. A musician who is truly impossible to categorize (and he’s probably played every imaginable kind of music throughout his long career as both bandleader and sideman) and who plays an instrument rarely explored in the world of creative improvised music, Liebig employs traditional as well as extended/augmented techniques enhanced by a phalanx of electronics to create a enthralling and often surprising sound world, both subtle and strong, that never fails to fascinate and satisfy.
(text:Alex Cline)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Presents
EscapeQ
And
George Abe and Christopher Garcia.

August 5th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

ESCAPEQ
Stan Smith - guitar
Rebecca Lynn - violin
Tony Green - bass
Breeze Smith - drums, percussion

GEORGE ABE AND CHRISTOPHER GARCIA
George Abe - shakuhachi, yokobue, various Asian percussion instruments, and voice
Christopher Garcia - percussion instruments of North and South India and percussion and breath instruments of indigenous Mexico/Mesoamerica.

EscapeQ is a collaborative quartet co-founded by brothers Stan and Breeze Smith. Both originally hailing from Ohio, the younger of the two brothers, guitarist Stan, is currently a professor at Capital University’s music conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, has worked with artists such as Moacir Santos, and has released a number of his own recordings, the latest being the CD Moments (of a Journey), which features David Ornette Cherry, Ralph “Buzzy” Jones, and brother Breeze, among others. Older brother Breeze is one of the Los Angeles area’s most accomplished and creative multi-percussionists and a frequent collaborator with some of the area’s most important and visionary artists. Joining the Smith brothers to comprise EscapeQ are violinist Rebecca Lynn and bassist Tony Green. About the coming together of these four distinctive artists, Breeze says, “Embracing the responsibility of an improvisor is an obligation to oneself as a true listener, prepared to interact, express, even go silent. Musical growth in this process can be so enriching, inviting, and humbling. Having a sibling who is also an improvising artist, in my experience, has proven to be even more of a profound musical journey. When we find true friends as improvisors, they tend to feel like a new extended family, if you will. Given these less frequent times of being in the same place at the same time, I truly cherish the moments of being able to improvise with my brother—to weave stories of where we've been and what we've discovered, then bringing this to the performance space. Equally important for me, I want to share my new-found improvising siblings with my brother, hence, my wonderful friends: Tony Green and Rebecca Lynn. This is the current fresh family of EscapeQ. We hope to escape to newer realms together as a journeying improvising family of four.”

Opening the concert will be the firmly established multicultural duo of George Abe on shakuhachi, yokobue, various Asian percussion instruments, and voice, and another of the area’s most accomplished and creative multi-percussionists, Christopher Garcia, on percussion instruments of North and South India and percussion and breath instruments of indigenous Mexico/Mesoamerica. Bringing together both extraordinary depth and breadth of experience and musical sensitivity, Abe and Garcia will share the deep roots and wide-speading branches of their sonic collaborations, offering beautiful and affecting music that truly defies category.
(text: Alex Cline)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Presents
Purple Gums
And
Garth Powell and Alex Cline and Duo.
November 4th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Purple Gums
Bobby Bradford – cornet
Francis Wong – woodwinds
William Roper - tuba/multihyphenate

Garth Powell and Alex Cline
Garth Powell - drums/percussion
Alex Cline- drums/percussion

Purple Gums is the moniker of a wind trio comprised of three justifiably celebrated and utterly distinctive artists, cornet legend Bobby Bradford, Bay Area saxophonist Francis Wong, and tuba player/multihyphenate renaissance man William Roper. Bradford, famed for his involvements with Ornette Coleman and John Carter as well as the longtime bandleader-composer for his own Mo’tet groups, Wong, a key figure in the Bay Area’s improvising music scene as well as a teacher and dedicated community activist there, and Roper, a supremely accomplished musician who often stretches his talents into the regions of visual art, performance art, and spoken word, combine to fill the resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts with challenging, lyrical, daring, thoughtful, evocative, and simply gorgeous sounds as they interweave their collective talents into a stunningly organic whole. Each of these musicians has worked with a plethora of important musical luminaries and has presented his own vital musical projects. Hearing them together is not to be missed. Presented in conjunction with Asian Improv aRts.

Opening the evening will be the dynamic percussion duo of Garth Powell and Alex Cline. Blending their individual but uniformly refined sounds and touches on their aurally expanded drum sets, veteran improvisers Powell and Cline will explore the many timbral possibilities of their instruments while also paying attention to the subtleties of sound and dynamics as well as to the lure of fluid rhythmic invention and compelling energy. Coming from somewhat different musical backgrounds in their earlier years (Powell the “classical” music world, Cline rock and, soon after, jazz), the two percussionists met in the musical universe of creative jazz and improvised music, Powell establishing himself in the Bay Area before moving to Southern California, and Cline remaining in his hometown of L.A. throughout his long career, recognizing in one another a deep artistic commonality and connection. Hear what that commonality and connection sounds like as they manifest it through their rich, nuanced, and expressive musical dialogue.

(text:Alex Cline)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
Presents:
Open Gate Ensemble
And
Michael Vlatkovich Wind 5tet
September 2nd at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Open Gate Ensemble:
Vinny Golia - winds
Jim Mora - lighting
Vicki Ray - piano, keyboard
Will Salmon - flute, voice, movement
Miller Wren - bass
Roksana Zeinapur - voice, movement

Michael Vlatkovich Wind 5tet:
Michael Vlatkovich - trombone composition
Greg Zilboorg - trumpet
Louis Lopez - trumpet
Bill Plake - tenor saxophone
Andrew Pask - baritone saxophone

As part of an ongoing schedule of group project presentations by Open Gate Theatre founder Will Salmon involving different combinations of distinguished artists, this month the Open Gate Ensemble will feature another strikingly intriguing lineup of contributors to Salmon’s unique artistic vision. Along with Salmon providing his distinctive flute, voice, and movement will be Roksana Zeinour (voice, movement), Vinny Golia (woodwinds), Vicki Ray (piano, keyboard), Miller Wrenn (bass), and lighting and visual enhancements by Jim Mora. The largely improvisational outing will include some extemporaneous extensions of Salmon’s theater piece based on the Orestia, casting Zeinour as Electra and Salmon as Agamemnon, the mythic often serving as the inspiration and foundation for Salmon’s creative manifestations. Always absorbing and often undeniably gripping, a musically fascinating and satisfying multimedia experience is certainly in the offing.

Opening the evening will be one of the Open Gate concert series’ most treasured and virtuosic veterans, trombonist-composer Michael Vlatkovich, leading a fresh and inspired-sounding new musical ensemble, the Michael Vlatkovich Wind 5tet. Consisting of Greg Zilboorg on trumpet, Louis Lopez on trumpet, Bill Plake on tenor saxophone, Andrew Pask on baritone saxophone, and, of course, Vlatkovich himself on trombone, together interpreting and exploring Vlatkovich’s always highly accomplished, consistently surprising and delightful original compositions as contexts for sensitive, daring, and imaginative improvisational adventures in the appropriately resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts, there’s simply no way this set of music can be anything other than deeply fascinating and affecting.
(Text: Alex Cline)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Open Gate Ensemble
And
And
Alex Cline and Steuart Liebig Duo.
July 1st at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Open Gate Ensemble
Roxanne Steinberg – dance
Charles Lane – voice
Will Salmon – flute, voice
Jeff Gauthier – violin
Maggie Parkins – cello
Alex Cline- drums/percussion
Kio Griffith – live visuals

Alex Cline and Steuart Liebig Duo
Alex Cline- drums/percussion
Steuart Liebig- electric bass guitar

Open Gate Theatre has existed as a unique multidisciplinary performance entity for over 35 years, founded and maintained since its first production by instrumentalist-composer-vocalist-playwright-actor (and former dancer) Will Salmon. As the entity that also presents the concerts in this music series, musicians and other performers often associated with Open Gate Theatre also often have opportunities to explore and present Salmon’s own projects and collaborations. This concert is an example of this sort of opportunity, a collaboration between Salmon on flute and voice with a select ensemble of acclaimed artists who have worked with Open Gate in past efforts: dancer Roxanne Steinberg (best known for her work with Oguri as part of their organization Body Weather Laboratory), vocalist Charles Lane, violinist Jeff Gauthier, cellist Maggie Parkins, percussionist and longtime Open Gate collaborator Alex Cline, and Kio Griffith providing live visuals. For this performance the group will loosely base their collaboration on the Japanese Noh play Sotoba Komachi, inspiring the participants to deeply and creatively mine intense and engaging emotional and artistic terrain together, with the focus being on the phenomenal and arresting Steinberg, in a characteristically absorbing, enthralling, and memorable multimedia experience.

Opening the evening will be the duo of bass guitarist Steuart Liebig and percussionist Alex Cline, two musicians who have played together in a huge range of diverse musical contexts over a period of over forty years but here for the first time as a duo. Despite their many years of chemistry as a rhythm section under numerous notable bandleaders and in each other’s own ensembles, this set of music promises to be something far different from a luxuriating in that sort of shared musical territory. Exploring subtleties and possibilities of sound and texture, employing many extended and unorthodox techniques and, in Liebig’s case, electronics with their chosen instruments, this will be music that is unlikely to inspire anyone to be reminded of “drum & bass” but will remain thoroughly musical, fascinating, and captivating to the listener while still demonstrating the depth of their time-tested chemistry as musicians.

(text:Alex Cline)

Open Gate Theatre’s
Dionysus in Hell
A mixed media work based loosely on Aristophanes’ comedy-
“The Frogs”

Composed and written by Will Salmon,
with creative work by the performers
Directed by Josh Berkowitz
Friday, and Saturday February 23rd, and 24th at 8:00 p.m.
at the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave, Venice, CA 90291
Admission $25 ($20 in advance; $15 for students and seniors)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-gate-theatre-dionysus-in-hell-tickets-42545450588
Free parking

Performers include:
Yiouli Archontaki
Alex Cline
Jeff Gauthier
Tuba Heatherton
Richard M. Johnson
Sharon Chohi Kim
Tany Ling
Will Salmon
Dwight Trible
Micaela Tobin
Michael Vlatkovich
Alexander Vogel

Jim Mora: Stage Manager/lighting
Brenda Bynum: design
Mitsu Salmon, Ted Lamoureux, Tuba Heatherton: puppet creation

In “Dionysus in Hell”, Dionysus, god of theater, goes down to the underworld to bring back the spirit of Jerzy Grotowski, the great Polish Avant Gard theater director. Our Underworld will be inhabited by denizens influenced not just by Greek mythology but Dante, Opera, and Butoh dance.
“Dionysus in Hell” will have original music, utilizing virtuoso instrumentals, extended vocal techniques, and strange cornball tunes. “Dionysus” will use a full Open Gate ensemble, with Will Salmon as Dionysus and Tuba Heatherton as the servant Xanthias; Persephone will be an otherworldly beauty sung and danced by Sharon Chohi Kim; there will be a ghost band of accordion, trombone, piccolo, sax, and percussion; there will be giant puppets, and Frogs leaping and singing.

With this production Open Gate
begins it’s artistic residency at the Electric Lodge

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Presents
Scot Ray and Vicki Ray
And
Klang Association (with Carole Kim)

November 5th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Scot Ray and Vicki Ray
Scot Ray (lap steel slide guitar, electronics)
Vicki Ray (piano, prepared piano)

Klang Association (with Carole Kim)
Anna Homler - vocal , toys, sound makers, and electronics
Jorge Martin - electronics
Jeff Schwartz - bass
Carole Kim – live video

Distinguishing itself from other brother-sister slide guitar-piano improvisational duos . . . wait a minute! Besides being a duo of supremely gifted, creative, daring, fluid, and sensitive improvising musicians, the duo of Scot Ray (lap steel slide guitar, electronics) and Vicki Ray (piano, prepared piano) could very well be the only such duo in existence, siblings or not! With former trombone virtuoso turned slide guitar virtuoso Scot living in the siblings’ home state of Montana and acclaimed New Music piano virtuoso Vicki (admittedly famous for her renditions of contemporary composed music but a wonderfully confident and courageous improvisor, as well) living in L.A. but often traveling to perform at major concert events worldwide, the brother and sister who grew up making music together rarely get opportunities to play together now that they’re all grown up. Thankfully, they were able to spend some time recording some improvisations in the studio not long ago, the result being their magnificent new CD YAR (on Orenda Records), released earlier this year. In celebration of the album’s release, Scot and Vicki will get together for a set of their fascinating, introspective, innovative, and compellingly unified musical adventures as a duo. This would be something to be sure not to miss under any circumstances, but given the rarity of the remarkable duo’s opportunities to make music together, this is quite simply a must.

Opening the evening is the ensemble known as Klang Association, spearheaded by celebrated local voice and sound improvisor/innovator Anna Homler--who augments her vocal expressions with an astounding array of toys, sound makers, and electronics— and her colleagues Jorge Martin on electronics and the wonderfully ever-present and always solidly reliable Jeff Schwartz on bass. Creating a hugely varied, surprising, flexible, and delightful sonic landscape together, their collective creativity will be visually accompanied, augmented, and matched by the magnificent live visual projections of celebrated artist Carole Kim, whose beautiful, stirring, and outstanding work has often manifested in collaborative projects with a great many important musical artists. Come celebrate the dark, thanks to the seasonal time change, arriving an hour earlier, making this memorable audio-visual feast for the senses possible.

Text;Alex Cline

https://www.facebook.com/events/1615778668482725/

photo; Moses Hacmon

Open Gate Theatre
Dream of a Dragonfly
October 14, 8:00
Live Arts studio theater
4210 Panamint St. L.A.
(at Eagle Rock Blvd)

Tickets $15 ($10 students and seniors)

Collaborating artists include:
Alex Cline – drums, percussion
Jie Ma - Pipa
Will Salmon – flute, voice
Roxanne Steinberg – dance (special guest)

Opening set:
Eyvind Kang - viola
Jessika Kenney - voice

Open Gate:
Opening the gates between music, dance, and drama;
between cultures;
between the unconscious and the conscious;
between emotion, mind, and spirit.
We are both an ensemble and a creative collective,
combining image with sound, voice with movement,
poetics with light.
We strive for a theatre that is both passionate and numinous.

"Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney are two musicians who have established themselves as powerful voices working at a unique intersection of contemporary composition, improvisation, and Asian traditional music forms. Either individually or as a pair, they have worked in contexts ranging from performances of traditional Persian and Javanese music to collaborations with Sunn O))), but their work together as a duo, on The Face Of The Earth (2012) and Aestuarium (SOMA 002LP, 2011), most clearly represents the central concerns of their diverse practices: a music of the inner life of sound, demanding ritualistic focus and promising heightened sensations."-Black Truffle Records, 2017

https://soundcloud.com/user-282894562/arborescent-derivat-mix-1

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
The Bottesini Project:
And
Alex Cline Joshua White Duo;
September 3 at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

The Bottesini Project:
Paul Riola - alto sax
Michael Vlatkovitch – trombone
Jeff Parker - guitar
Jim Connelly - bass
Garth Powell - drums, percussion

Alex Cline Joshua White Duo;
Joshua White - electric piano
Alex Cline - drums, percussion

Admission $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Hailing from Denver, alto saxophonist Paul Riola is the mastermind behind the Bottesini Project, a free improvisation ensemble that has featured an impressive array of world-renowned artists over the years, including Nels Cline, DJ Olive, Scott Amendola, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Vinny Golia, Ron Miles, Art Lande, and Scott Walton. Designed to create intricately woven improvised compositions, the ensemble explores a full range of musical expression in a spontaneous and collaborative manner. Beautifully melodic and captivatingly rhythmic while remaining staunchly adventurous, Bottesini excels at converting the drama of a risky experimental process into accessible, powerful music. Along with Riola, this version of the group will feature a stellar lineup of local heroes: Michael Vlatkovich on trombone, Jeff Parker on guitar, Jim Connelly on bass, and Garth Powell on drums and percussion. Deeply promising, to say the least. Say no more!

Opening the evening is the duo of phenomenal young keyboardist Joshua White and veteran creative music drummer-percussionist Alex Cline. The two artists, who first played together as members of saxophonist David Binney’s group, both share an appreciation and affinity for exploring and evoking the full range of jazz and improvised music’s rich and varied history. Hailing from San Diego and heard most recently in the L.A. area on piano with bassist Mark Dresser’s potent ensemble, White will be commanding his electric keyboard in this setting while Cline, a local fixture adaptive to many different musical settings, will focus largely on his drum set. The two inventive, sensitive, and energetic musicians will commence creating spontaneous music of the most unabashedly bold and spirited kind . . . even when the dynamics come down to a whisper. A listener at a concert of theirs earlier this year observed that parts of it sounded rather like 1972-era Weather Report minus half the band! Hard to take issue with that! By the way, look for White’s debut album as a bandleader-composer due out soon!
(text Alex Cline)

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
VLP
And
Cello Pudding
August 6 at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

VLP
Michael Vlakovitch – trombone
Steuart Liebig – bass guitars
Garth Powell – drums, percussion

Cello Pudding
Vetza – cello, voice
Dave Travis – cello
Michael Intriere – cello
Jeff Schwartz - bass

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Brad Dutz Tentet
And
Ross Hammond

July 2nd at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Ross Hammond
solo guitar

Brad Dutz ; Tentet
Brad Dutz - percussion
Chris Wabich -drums and percussion
William Roper – tuba
Charles Fernandez - bassoon,
Kim Richmond - woodwinds
Jasper Dutz - woodwinds
Glen Berger – oboe
John Fumo - trumpets
Peter Jacobson – cello
Trey Henry - bass

A mainstay on the main stage of the Los Angeles area’s creative music scene, multifaceted and multigifted multi-instrumentalist/composer Brad Dutz celebrates the release of the new CD by his tentet, Ten Technicians Titled Ted, with a live set of his striking original compositions. The music, intricate and sophisticated while characterized by Dutz’s trademark whimsy and eccentricity, manages to be wonderfully clear, transparent, delicate, and buoyant despite the larger size of the ensemble. The ensemble itself is made up of some of the most accomplished musicians anywhere, making the undeniably challenging composed material sound light, grooving, and effortless while supplying constantly engaging and virtuosic solos—most of the players on the recording, many of them longtime Dutz veterans, will be on hand to render the demanding but delightful music live: Dutz himself on percussion (mainly hand drums and mallet instruments in this case), Chris Wabich on drums and percussion, William Roper on tuba and supplying his unpredictable spoken word improvisations, Charles Fernandez on bassoon, Kim Richmond on woodwinds, Jasper Dutz on woodwinds, Glen Berger on oboe, John Fumo on trumpets, Peter Jacobson on cello, and Trey Henry on bass. Their set promises to be something of an event!

Opening the concert, traveling all the way from Sacramento, is guitarist Ross Hammond, himself an increasingly important and influential figure in Northern California’s creative music scene. Having appeared in this concert series in an impressive variety of contexts over the years, for his set this time he will be offering a set of solo “originals, spirituals, and improvisations” exclusively on acoustic resonator guitars. Equally inventive, melodic, adventurous, sensitive, and compelling, drawing on many tributaries of the stream of guitar traditions and innovations, Hammond is a musician most likely to present a set that is sure to move as well as fascinate the listener.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1392344260847197/

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock presents:
June 4th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

G.E. Stinson & Alex Cline
G.E Stinson - electric guitar etc
Alex Cline- drums,percussion
and
The Scott Heustis Quartet
Scott Heustis - electric guitar
Slam - vibraphone
Tony Green - bass
Breeze Smith - drums percussion

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and past series performers half price.
Free parking is readily available but, sadly, no longer plentiful.

Although they rarely get the opportunity to perform together these days, electric guitarist G.E. Stinson and drummer-percussionist Alex Cline, veteran sonic artists both, continue to enjoy a very close musical relationship, one that has now spanned many years and has seen them make music together in a broad variety of contexts--G.E. has played in Cline’s bands, Cline has played in G.E.’s bands, the two have initiated a number of improvisational group collaborations, and when they can they improvise music together as a duo, the two share a musical vision and vocabulary that is vast, subtle, dynamic, orchestral, intense, and often ethereally beautiful. From out of the formless the two spontaneously manifest form, and that form can go in an unpredictable but always unified array of arresting directions. The Center for the Arts will be full of wondrous and possibly even majestic sound once these two commence reigniting the molten core of their deeply vibrant musical planet.
Opening the evening will be a quartet led by guitarist Scott Heustis. An instrumentalist who knowingly and adeptly nods to the modern jazz tradition on his chosen instrument, Heustis likes to keep his group strategy open and free, yet sensitive, encouraging adventurous interplay and accomplished soloing in a variety of engaging contexts. Rounded out by Slam on vibraphone, Tony Green on bass, and Breeze Smith on drums, this ensemble of like-minded musicians pushes the creative jazz genre forward in appealing, fascinating, and sophisticated ways.

While this evening’s concert looks to be something like Guitar Night, the music presented is sure to go far beyond the boundaries of any one musical instrument’s identity!
[text; Alex Cline]

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
The Barnett Band
And
Bruce Friedman Quartet

May 7th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Barnett Band
Bonnie Barnett – vocals,text
Richard Wood - alto saxophone, flute
Dan Clucas – cornet
Hal Onserud – bass
Garth Powell – drums, percussion

Bruce Friedman Quartet
Bruce Friedman – trumpet
Derek Bomback- guitar
Tony Green- bass
Breeze Smith– drums, percussion

Vocalist Bonnie Barnett, one of the Los Angeles area’s most dedicatedly and staunchly adventurous and uncompromising musical artists, has been an important and influential figure on the local and national creative music scene for decades. Combining a profoundly varied palette of expressive vocal techniques with often intriguing, provocative, literary, topical, and even occasionally incendiary textual content, Barnett’s work not only succeeds at making captivating and relevant statements, it serves as the focal point for some seriously satisfying improvisational music making. This is largely due to the unquestionable excellence of her longtime ensemble of sensitive and sympathetic colleagues, the Barnett Band, supremely accomplished musical inventors all: Richard Wood on alto saxophone and flute, Dan Clucas on cornet, Hal Onserud on bass, and Garth Powell on drums and percussion. Barnett and her group don’t get that many opportunities to demonstrate their unique brand and balancing act of multidirectional musical structure and freedom, so open-minded listeners are advised not to miss this set of brave and subtle sounds.

Opening the evening will be another ensemble led by a genuine stalwart of the current creative music scene in Los Angeles, trumpet player Bruce Friedman. Bringing in a quartet of highly accomplished and likeminded improvisors, Friedman blends his thoughtful, adroit, and wide-ranging voice as an instrumentalist with the interactive inventiveness of guitarist Derek Bomback, bassist Tony Green, and drummer-percussionist Breeze Smith, their collective energy bringing to life a diverse selection of compelling musical material.

At once absorbing, challenging, and accessible, altogether this is what canny creative music-making in Los Angeles can sound like.

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Robert & Breeze Organic Duo
And
Fish to Birds

April 2nd at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Robert & Breeze Organic Duo:
Robert S. Hilton – created instruments
Breeze Smith – created instruments

Fish to Birds:
Cathy Segal-Garcia - voice
Mon David- voice
Emile Hassan Dyer- voice
Ashley Maher- voice
Adrianne Duncan- voice
Cecily Gardner- voice

Musical instrument inventor, adapter, and player Robert S. Hilton joins with one of the Los Angeles area’s most dedicatedly creative, versatile, and accomplished drummer-percussionists, Breeze Smith, to comprise the compellingly creative and sonically adventurous improvisational unit the Robert & Breeze Organic Duo. Hilton is an instrument maker and performer who has been designing and making one-of-a-kind instruments for many years. His instruments, which have been exhibited in galleries around the country, most often utilize found or repurposed components. Hilton is also an environmentalist, which guides him as to what to use in order to create an instrument of the highest quality with the least impact on the planet: multi-stringed instruments with spring resonators, teapot trumpet, multi-chambered gourd wind instruments, seed-nut shakers, aluminum cello with mbira (auto wiper blade prongs) extensions, and cookie tin multi-stringed banjo are but a few of his creations. In their open and intimate collaborative improvisations, they combine Hilton's diverse array of recycled instruments, which he has developed over many years of experimentation and are still always evolving, with the unique and unusual setups of mostly conventional but inventively realized percussion and electronics of Smith. Sometimes employing looping of their instruments and voices, the sonic palette and musical chemistry of the duo provides an endlessly fascinating and deeply enjoyable musical experience.

Opening the evening is the improvisational vocal sextet known as Fish to Birds. Led by remarkable local veteran vocalist Cathy Segal-Garcia and described as being “six voices/no script/swim deep/fly high,” the six accomplished and daring vocalists, Segal, Mon David, Emile Hassan Dyer, Ashley Maher, Adrianne Duncan, and Cecily Gardner, each remarkable in his or her own right, combine and blend their distinctive voices and personal styles to create a striking, varied, wide-ranging, cohesive, and utterly absorbing musical adventure, one that should sound particularly magnificent in the resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts. A virtual cerebration of the human voice and all it can achieve and express, Fish to Birds, as their name suggests, can take the willing listener beyond the realm of the purely human and help connect him or her to vast realities and possibilities that surround us and are available in every moment via our natural world.

This is an evening of musical invention securely beyond category!
(Text: Alex Cline

https://www.facebook.com/events/1869604846613933/

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Presents
20th Anniversary IMPROVIGANZA
March 5th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking
It was twenty years ago that Open Gate Theatre member Alex Cline, together with and at the request of Open Gate Theatre founder-director Will Salmon, began booking monthly concerts of unusual music, first in a couple of venues in Pasadena and then, for approximately the last seventeen years or so, at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, where the concert series continues to this day. To celebrate this august occasion as well as to help generate some funds to help the series continue more securely into the foreseeable future, Alex and Will have planned an IMPROVIGANZA, a select but still ultimately massive array of volunteer musical notables who have both played and listened to much of the music that has been presented at the concert series over its two decades, all of whom will be heard in a variety of contexts and combinations in the course of the evening. Artists other than Alex (drums, percussion) and Will (flute, voice) who are either planning or hoping to contribute their singular and greatly appreciated talents to an explosion of spontaneous music-making are:

brass:  Dan Clucas, Bobby Bradford, Daniel Rosenboom, Bruce Friedman, William Roper; woodwinds:  Vinny Golia, Phillip Greenlief, Alexander Vogel, Eric Barber, Charles Sharp, Emily Hay, Peter Kuhn, Richard Wood, Gavin Templeton;
voices:  Dwight Trible, Bonnie Barnett, Kaoru Mansour;
strings (guitars, basses, pipa):  G.E. Stinson, Ross Hammond, Jie Ma, Scott Heustis, Steuart Liebig, Jeff Schwartz, Devin Hoff, Darryl Tewes;
keyboards:  Wayne Peet;
drums/percussion:  Garth Powell, Breeze Smith, Brad Dutz, Christopher Garcia, Jonathan Saxon.
And there are still some musicians who are attempting to appear but have not been able to commit yet—could be more! We hope many of those who have supported the concert series over the years will come out to experience this rather unprecedented and perhaps (dare we say it) even historic event as well as to help support the series financially so that it can continue to present unusual music in a wonderful venue for a while longer. A nonprofit organization decades ago, Open Gate Theatre has now returned to nonprofit status, which should also make it easier and more appealing for potential donors to actively engage in providing an outlet for creative music in the Los Angeles area to thrive and grow.

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Spite of Darkness
And
Izela
February 5th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Spite of Darkness
Electic Violin             Mike Khoury and Jeff Gauthier
Percussion                 Nathan Hubbard and Alex Cline

Izela
Ryan Parrish (kavals)
Yunus Iyriboz (oud, saz)
Max Kutner (guitar)
Rusty Kennedy (bass)
Dan Ogrodnik (percussion),

            Detroit-based violinist-composer Mike Khoury exemplifies how broad-based and multifaceted a contemporary creative musician can be. With interests, experience, and accomplishments in the musical worlds of European classical, classical and folk musics from different cultures and traditions, jazz, and free improvisation, as well as extra-musical interests, experience, and accomplishments in the areas of economics, mathematics, and history (to name but three), Khoury brings a great deal to the table. Having collaborated with such artists as Le Quan Ninh, Dennis Gonzalez, John Butcher, and Paul Lytton, as well as founding and operating two record labels which document creative music (Entropy Stereo Recordings and Detroit Improvisation), Khoury has conceived of a new and unusual project for his trip to the Los Angeles area, a quartet which he calls Spite of Darkness. Comprised of two electric violinists, Khoury and local string king Jeff Gauthier, and two notable So Cal multi-percussionists, Nathan Hubbard and Alex Cline, Spite of Darkness will convene to explore the genreless musical terrain that bridges structure and improvisation, tonal and atonal, lyrical and textural, and beyond. Add this unit to Khoury’s list of current involvements: the world music-flavored ensemble Inscribe, a duo with percussionist Ben Hall, and as bassist for the garage rock band the Confessions, to name but a few. Just don’t try to pin any of it down!

Speaking of world music-flavored, opening the evening will be the decidedly Middle Eastern-flavored local ensemble called Izela. Combining Middle Eastern instruments and sounds with contemporary Western instruments and sounds, Izela also represents a combination of musical and cultural influences which also blend the disciplines of composition and improvisation. Consisting of Ryan Parrish (kavals), Yunus Iyriboz (oud, saz), Max Kutner (guitar), Rusty Kennedy (bass), and Dan Ogrodnik (percussion), Izela demonstrates just how free of borders and boundaries music can be while remaining unquestionably vital, compelling, and beautiful.
(Text Alex Cline)

https://www.facebook.com/events/207565826374143/

Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
Gavin Templeton Quartet
and
Open Gate Ensemble
with Nyoman and Nanik Wenten.
January 8th at 7:00 p.m.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Gavin Templeton Quartet:
Gavin Templeton - saxophones
Joshua White -piano
Richard Giddens - bass
Aaron McLendon – drums

Open Gate Ensemble:
Will Salmon - flutes and voice
Jie Ma - pipa and ruan,
Alex Cline - percussion
Nyoman Wenten – drums and flutes
Nanik Wenten - dance

Alto saxophonist and composer Gavin Templeton is one of the finest and most accomplished of a younger generation of creative jazz musicians in the Los Angeles area. Supremely gifted as a player, composer, and arranger, Templeton has distinguished himself as both a sideman and as a bandleader, in the latter fronting a current band that can only be described as extraordinarily nimble and swinging as well as scorchingly hot. Joining him for this set of original music are his usual colleagues in music-making these days, the phenomenal pianist Joshua White and the rock solid and undeniably driving rhythm team of bassist Richard Giddens and drummer Aaron McLendon. As outstanding as Templeton’s now-numerous recordings are (on the Orenda and 9 Winds labels, for example), there’s no substitute for hearing a jazz group of this caliber live. It’s an ideal way to kick off the new year.

Opening the evening will be a set of genre-defying improvisations with the Open Gate ensemble—Will Salmon on flutes and voice, Jie Ma on pipa and ruan, and Alex Cline on percussion—joined by the deservingly legendary Indonesian performing artists Nyoman and Nanik Wenten. While Nyoman is recognized and celebrated as a true master of Balinese music and dance and has distinguished himself as a teacher of those art forms in the area for decades, his wife Nanik is an acknowledged master of Javanese dance. For this performance Nyoman will be concentrating on hand drumming while Nanik offers her beautiful dancing, both to the trademark improvised musical inventions of Open Gate’s Salmon, Ma, and Cline. It’s a very special combining of talents for what should be a very special performance in an unquestionably eclectic evening of contemporary music that stands firmly on numerous artistic traditions while openly exploring the limitless bounds of creativity.
(text - Alex Cline)

Sunday, December 4th, at 7:00 p.m.,
Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
The Decisive Instant- with Renee Baker
Reeds: David Adler, Alicia Byer, Ken Luey, Will Salmon, Richard Savery, Charles Sharp, and Alexander Vogel
Brass: Bruce Friedman, Omar Murillo, William Roper, Kris Tiner, and Dave Williams
String and keyboard section:Scott Dibble, Jonathan Grasse, Michael Alviderez, and Angelo Metz
Percussion: David Martinelli, Jonathan Saxon, and Tom Steck
Renee Baker conductor/composer

and
the Michael Vlatkovich Quartet
Michael Vlatkovich – trombone
Bill Plake - saxophone
Anders Swanson – bass
Christopher Garcia- percussion

At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking

Important, dynamic, and internationally renowned composer, conductor, and visual artist Renee Baker, veteran of Chicago’s penetratingly influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) and director of the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, will make a rare visit to L.A. to guest-conduct the local creative music large ensemble the Decisive Instant, its directors being local notables reedman Charles Sharp and bassist Jeff Schwartz. Bringing her powerful and unique compositional sensibility and her original and expressive conducting method to direct the large group, an aggregation of willing participants ready to spontaneously respond with skill and spirit to her visionary direction, Baker will mine the Decisive Instant’s deep potential, channel its responsive and formidable talents, and present to the audience music rich in variety of texture, color, and content, and compelling in its intensity and immediacy. The ensemble itself consists of reed section David Adler, Alicia Byer, Ken Luey, Richard Savery, Charles Sharp, and Alexander Vogel; brass section Bruce Friedman, Omar Murillo, William Roper, Kris Tiner, and Dave Williams; string and keyboard section Scott Dibble, Jonathan Grasse, and Angelo Metz; and percussion section David Martinelli, Jonathan Saxon, and Tom Steck. This encounter promises to be momentous.

Opening the evening is one of this concerts series’ most venerable participants, trombonist and composer Michael Vlatkovich, bringing a group consisting of some of his most dedicatedly long-term accomplices—tenor and soprano saxophonist Bill Plake, bassist Anders Swanson, and drummer-percussionist Christopher Garcia—who will collectively, skillfully, and ardently breathe life into his undeniably distinctive, unpredictable, uncompromising, delightful, and engaging original music. Always a joy, Vlatkovich takes musical conventions and inventions, turns them on their heads and inside out, rediscovers layers of intriguing and surprising aspects they rarely reveal, and re-presents them in a fresh, vibrant, spontaneous, and timeless way. A must.
(text Alex Cline)

Open Gate 2nd annual Halloween Event
a concert, a happening, a party
Treasured Possessions
Featuring
The Decisive Instant
Open Gate Theatre"
Pip Abrigo
And “Aqua Viva”

Saturday, October 29th, at 7:30
at
The Legion, 131 Marengo Ave., Pasadena
on the edge of Old Town

$10, students and seniors $5 (Donations welcome)
Filling the amazing Pasadena American Legion Hall
with wild sweet music, giant puppets, opera, film, and drama.
There will be a grand full bar – and soup

Come to the enchanted Legion in a costume
What possesses you ?

"We are Legion for we are many"

Artists include:
Pip Abrigo - singer
Ted Lamoureux - puppets
Rebecca Lynn – violin
Mario Edgar Martinez – lighting sets acting
Sub-Niche - singer
Rika Ohara - video
Mitsu Salmon- puppets
Will Salmon - flutes, voice, etc.
Charles Sharp - reeds
Jeff Schwartz – bass
Maksim Velichkin – cello
Roksana Zeinapur - soprano

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, present :
Sunday Evening Concert September 4th at 7:00 p.m.,
BURNING GHOSTS and ARGENTA WALTHER AND ALEXANDER VOGEL

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,
Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10 (students, seniors, and series performers half price)
Free parking is plentiful.

BURNING GHOSTS
Daniel Rosenboom - Trumpet
Jake Vossler - Baritone Guitar
Richard Giddens - Bass
Aaron McLendon - Drums
with Travis Flournoy - Live Visuals

ARGENTA WALTHER AND ALEXANDER VOGEL
Argenta Walther- vocal
Alexander Vogel - saxophones

What do uncompromisingly creative jazz and heavy metal music have in common? If you ask virtuoso trumpeter Daniel Rosenboom, he might answer, “Plenty!” Rosenboom’s quartet Burning Ghosts presents his original compositions that successfully melt creative, energetic jazz music together with cranking, throbbing, wailing metal, creating a molten mass of impassioned musical expression that entices, incites, and ignites. Joined by guitarist Jake Vossler, bassist Richard Giddens, and drummer Aaron McLendon, and accompanied by live projected visuals supplied by Travis Flournoy, Rosenboom places his penetrating, phenomenally skilled trumpet playing right next to and sometimes on top of Vossler’s explosive electric guitar explorations, creating music that is undeniably intense while never neglecting the crucial musical elements of dynamics, diversity, timbre, and texture. Just back from an appearance at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria, the well-oiled group will be performing music from its highly celebrated CD release on Orenda Records. Could there be a more appropriate soundtrack to the country’s current presidential election scenario than a set from Burning Ghosts? Unlikely.

Opening the evening will be a set from the accomplished, eclectic, and adventurous duo of vocalist Argenta Walther and tenor and soprano saxophonist Alexander Vogel. Treating the resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts to a shared journey of sonic beauty, musical variety, and expansive creativity, and drawing on material and influences from a vast and fascinating range of sources, the duo promises to challenge, engage, and enthrall the listener with its special brand of artistic magic.
(text Alex Cline)

"...one of the best bands to emerge from L.A. in years."
—Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, present :
Sunday Evening Concert September 4th at 7:00 p.m.,
BURNING GHOSTS and ARGENTA WALTHER AND ALEXANDER VOGEL

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,
Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10 (students, seniors, and series performers half price)
Free parking is plentiful.

BURNING GHOSTS
Daniel Rosenboom - Trumpet
Jake Vossler - Baritone Guitar
Richard Giddens - Bass
Aaron McLendon - Drums
with Travis Flournoy - Live Visuals

ARGENTA WALTHER AND ALEXANDER VOGEL
Argenta Walther- vocal
Alexander Vogel - saxophones

What do uncompromisingly creative jazz and heavy metal music have in common? If you ask virtuoso trumpeter Daniel Rosenboom, he might answer, “Plenty!” Rosenboom’s quartet Burning Ghosts presents his original compositions that successfully melt creative, energetic jazz music together with cranking, throbbing, wailing metal, creating a molten mass of impassioned musical expression that entices, incites, and ignites. Joined by guitarist Jake Vossler, bassist Richard Giddens, and drummer Aaron McLendon, and accompanied by live projected visuals supplied by Travis Flournoy, Rosenboom places his penetrating, phenomenally skilled trumpet playing right next to and sometimes on top of Vossler’s explosive electric guitar explorations, creating music that is undeniably intense while never neglecting the crucial musical elements of dynamics, diversity, timbre, and texture. Just back from an appearance at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria, the well-oiled group will be performing music from its highly celebrated CD release on Orenda Records. Could there be a more appropriate soundtrack to the country’s current presidential election scenario than a set from Burning Ghosts? Unlikely.

Opening the evening will be a set from the accomplished, eclectic, and adventurous duo of vocalist Argenta Walther and tenor and soprano saxophonist Alexander Vogel. Treating the resonant acoustics of the Center for the Arts to a shared journey of sonic beauty, musical variety, and expansive creativity, and drawing on material and influences from a vast and fascinating range of sources, the duo promises to challenge, engage, and enthrall the listener with its special brand of artistic magic.
(text Alex Cline)

"...one of the best bands to emerge from L.A. in years."
—Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter

Sunday, August7, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.,
Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents
ACRE FOOT
and
SEAN SONDEREGGERS'S MAGICALLY INCLINED
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking is plentiful.

ACRE FOOT
Kaoru Mansour- voice and electronics
Brad Dutz - percussuion
Carey Fosse - electric guitar
Darryl Tewes - bass guitar

SEAN SONDEREGGERS'S MAGICALLY INCLINED
Sean Sonderegger - tenor saxophone
Areni Agbabian - voice
Alex Noice - electric guitar
Dale Black - bass
Peter Valsamis - percussion.

The quartet known as Acre Foot is truly a unit that defies category. Fronted by the wonderful vocalist and sound maker Kaoru Mansour, Acre Foot specializes in surreal, unpredictable, multifaceted, adventurous music that is at the same time accessible, toe-tapping, aesthetically sophisticated, and fun. The group is rounded out by an all-star lineup of local heroes: electric guitarist Carey Fosse, bass guitarist Darryl Tewes, and multipercussionist Brad Dutz (who also employs an array of electronics in this context). Having released the self-produced CD Expanding a few years ago, Acre Foot is promising to unveil a number of new compositions for this performance. At once an unerringly absorbing and challenging listening experience as well as a thoroughly evocative and crowd-pleasing one, the group occupies a truly unique niche in the universe of creative music—always a fave and, whenever possible, not to be missed!

Opening the evening is Sean Sonderegger’s Magically Inclined, led by the talented Mr. Sonderegger himself on tenor saxophone and playing some of his impressive catalogue of intriguing and outstanding original compositions. A seriously accomplished saxophonist whose playing is equal parts fluid, lyrical, commanding, and muscular, Sonderegger’s music exemplifies the sort of truly varied and genuinely eclectic palette that often characterizes that of younger players who have freed themselves of the confines of genre and style while maintaining the highest in quality and integrity. Formed partly in the area but currently establishing himself in New York, Sonderegger is presenting a version of his Magically Inclined for this occasion that reflects his bicoastal status: the wonderful Areni Agbabian on voice (a frequent sideperson with Sonderegger who is best known for her work with Tigran Hamasyan), Alex Noice on electric guitar (sometimes heard with the likes of Vinny Golia and Daniel Rosenboom), Dale Black on bass, and local veteran Peter Valsamis on drums and percussion. Deeply rewarding listening is more than likely!

(Text Alex Cline)

Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Present
EMILY HAY & STEUART LIEBEG and JAB
Sunday July 3rd, 2016 at 7:00 p.m
at
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90041

EMILY HAY & STEUART LIEBEG
Emily Hay – flute and voice
Steuart Liebig - bass guitar

JAB
Anna Homler - voice, sounds
Jeff Schwartz - bass
Breeze Smith – drums

Admission $10
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)

One of the most unique, accomplished, and enduring artists gracing the creative music scene in Los Angeles over the past decades is flutist and vocalist Emily Hay. A veteran of many significant groups and collaborations in both structured and freely improvised musical contexts, Hay is a virtuoso on the flute and a fearlessly spontaneous, inventive, and distinctive vocalist; all in which she chooses to involve herself becomes saturated with her identifiably special talent. For this concert she is paired with one of her most frequently engaged longtime collaborators, virtuoso bass guitarist Steuart Liebig, himself one of the L.A. creative music scene’s most vital, virtuosic, and dedicated veterans and a musical MVP in virtually any and every setting he finds himself. While each is more than capable of inventing and fascinating on his/her respective instruments alone, both also adeptly and musically incorporate an array of electronic processing into their musical vocabularies, allowing them to further extend and expand the sonic possibilities of their chemically harmonious improvisational adventures. Always satisfying.

Opening the evening is a group of three of the L.A. area’s other most stalwart creative music practitioners, vocalist-soundmaker Anna Homler, bassist Jeff Schwartz, and drummer-percussionist Breeze Smith, collectively known as JAB. Anyone familiar with this trio of dedicated and diligent musical explorers individually knows what to expect when they collaborate: wonders! Also purveyors of the spontaneous and sonically adventurous, and also appropriately electing to enhance their audio palette with electronic alterations, the three seasoned artists combine to create a panorama of vibrant, evocative, challenging, and delightful musical soundscapes--uncompromising, sure, but also engaging and fun!

(Text Alex Cline)

Sunday, May 1st, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.,
Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
present

Similar Fashion
and
Ross Hammond & Sameer Gupta.

At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10,
students, seniors, and past series performers half price.

SIMILAR FASHION
Logan Hone - alto saxophone
Lauren Baba - viola
Gregory Ullmann- guitar
Jesse Quebbeman-Turley- drums.

Ross Hammond & Sameer Gupta.
Ross Hammond - guitar
Sameer Gupta. - drums

Alto saxophonist Logan Hone exemplifies all that is exciting, promising, and commendable about today’s younger generation of up-and-coming creative jazz musicians—besides being well-rounded and technically adept on his instrument, he has embraced a plethora of diverse and potent influences and woven them into a dynamic, compelling, and personal musical fabric that both challenges and satisfies. Leading his ensemble Similar Fashion, Hone is joined by regular bandmates Lauren Baba on viola, Gregory Ullmann on guitar, and Jesse Quebbeman-Turley on drums. His group’s self-titled CD on the pfMENTUM label was realized last fall, and the group has toured to support it, refining their chemistry and further developing their unique sound and their interpretation of Hone’s original compositions. We invite you to encounter one expression of the present and future of high-quality creative jazz music that we in the Los Angeles area are fortunate to have being born among us and which we have the opportunity to encourage to support and grow.

Opening the evening will be longtime series guest Ross Hammond, coming down from Sacramento, where he is known as both an outstanding guitarist and as a champion of creative music in that part of the world, presenting music citywide and releasing his own music on his own CD label, Prescott Recordings. A truly eclectic artist always worth investigating, for this set of music Hammond will be presenting something markedly different from past endeavors, performing on the acoustic 12-string guitar in a duo with tabla master Sameer Gupta. The duo has recently released a beautiful CD of their spontaneous creations, Upward, on the Prescott label, offering evidence of what promises to be a deeply stirring, memorable, enjoyable offering of live musical chemistry, creativity, and resonance.

Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.,
Sunday evening concerts
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
presents

Dwight Trible /Alex Cline
and
Phillip Greenlief/Alex Cline
.
At
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10,
(students, seniors, and past series performers half price)
Free parking is plentiful.

It’s the Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concerts series
nineteenth anniversary event!.

Dwight Trible - voice
Alex Cline - percussion

and
Phillip Greenlief woodwinds
Alex Cline - percussion

Admission is $10,
students, seniors, and past series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

Surely needing no introduction at this point, vocalist extraordinaire Dwight Trible has lent his stirring and stunning voice to a countless number of some of the most important and inspiring figures in creative jazz music, from the straight-ahead to the avant-garde. Contributing his brilliance in a huge diversity of musical settings as well as leading his own groups, Trible has become the representative voice of the whole of Los Angeles’ creative music community while imbuing all he does with undeniable spiritual depth and intensity. At this concert he will combine with another local music figure who should need no introduction at this point, drummer-percussionist Alex Cline, in the two artists’ first performance as a duo. What could be more essential, more primal, and possibly more transcendent than voice and percussion?

Opening the evening will be a set featuring Bay Area woodwind artist, composer, artistic catalyst, and proactive champion of creative music Phillip Greenlief also in a duo setting with Cline (at Greenlief’s request). A frequent visitor to this concert series over the years in a wide variety of contexts, Greenlief epitomizes sonic invention and artistic integrity. Known for countless improvisational collaborations with many of the most celebrated players in the world of unusual music and for such memorable projects as the Lost Trio and Trio Putanesca, not to mention his record label Evander Music, Greenlief’s adventurous spirit and extraordinary skill animate the massive range of his creative output. This duo endeavor should be spontaneous music-making represented in all its openness, daring, intimacy, and beauty.

Please note that the presentation of Renee Baker conducting the Decisive Instant large ensemble that was originally announced for this date has had to be rescheduled for December.
(text Alex Cline)

Open Gate Theatre Event
a concert, a happening, a party, a convergence
Sun Ra Cosmic Soup
Featuring “The Decisive Instant”
Saturday, October 31, at 7:30
at
The Legion, 131 Marengo Ave., Pasadena
$10, students and seniors $5 (Donations welcome)

Filling the Pasadena American Legion Hall with tacky cosmology and great music;
a unique Otherworldly Halloween Celebration.
We will probe the Music of the Spheres.
There will be a grand full bar, and food;
including Sun Ra’s own “Moon Soup” (vegan/soul).

Featured will be "The Decisive Instant" playing music by Sun Ra.
With “Maha Afra” dancers and MissT Musze on vocals and poetry.
Open Gate will be doing Other World Music with an appearance of Bowshock
on his Vehicular Astrolabe, in pursuit of the Great Singularity.
"Soundseuphoria" will make its maiden Voyage
Wild costumes and Creative Cosmology are encouraged for audience members.
We’re happy to supply robes and aluminum foil, as needed,
but the Delusion must be your own making.
Environment and Visual design; Seda Saar

“Open Gate” includes:
Brad Dutz (percussion), Kaoru Mansour (voice/keyboards), Ted Lamoureux (puppets etc.)
Rika Ohara (video), and Will Salmon (stuff)
Brad Dutz, Ted Lamoureux, Kaoru Mansour, Rika Ohara,Will Salmon, and Breeze Smith.
“The Decisive Instant” :
reeds: Steve Bowie, Alicia Byer, Ken Luey, Charles Sharp, Alexander Vogel
brass: Bruce Friedman, Omar Murillo, William Roper, Kris Tiner, Ed Weiss, Dave Williams
strings: Jonathon Grasse, Angelo Metz, Jeff Schwartz
keyboard: Scott Dibble
percussion: David Martinelli, Andrew Morgan, Jonathon Saxon, Tom Steck
"Soundseuphoria"
Rebecca Lynn (violin/voice) and Tony Green (bass)Will Salmon (flute/voice),
Breeze Smith (drums) and Cheryl Banks-Smith (dance).

Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock present:
Sunday September 6th at 7:00
Open Gate Theatre and Kuhn-Motl-Hubbard
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Blvd. Los Angeles 90041

Open Gate Theatre
Performing “Merton Poems”
based on four poems from “Cables to the Ace”
The ensemble:
Dwight Trible- voice
Alex Cline- drums
Will Salmon- flute, keyboard

Kuhn-Motl-Hubbard
Peter Kuhn- Clarinets, saxophones
Kyle Motl- bass
Nathan Hubbard - drums,percussion

Founder and director of Open Gate Theatre Will Salmon devised Merton Poems as not only an opportunity to take some stunning and evocative poems by the late famed writer, poet, peace activist, and Trappist monk Thomas Merton and create some striking musical settings for them, he devised the work as a profoundly unique showcase for the extraordinary vocal talents of local hero Dwight Trible. In its first outing earlier this year, Merton Poems emerged as a sonic and spiritual tour-de-force, with Trible’s voice at the center of musical settings created by Salmon on flute and electric keyboard and longtime Open Gate Theatre collaborator Alex Cline on percussion. The poems, which come from Merton’s Cables to the Ace, receive sensitive, probing, reverent, unflinching, and affecting interpretations in these artists’ hands. Not only fans of Merton and Trible should make an effort not to miss this; fans of truly meaningful and moving music-making should definitely not miss this performance.

Opening the evening is an all-star trio hailing from the San Diego area, Kuhn-Motl-Hubbard. A nimble and incendiary collective improvisational unit, one that has been lighting up the San Diego area with its spirited spontaneous music-making, the trio features veteran avant jazzer Peter Kuhn on clarinets and saxophones, off the scene for almost three decades but back again and stronger than ever; bassist Kyle Motl, a phenomenal talent currently studying with Mark Dresser and becoming indispensable to countless creative music-makers; and drummer-percussionist Nathan Hubbard, no stranger to this concert series, as he exemplifies truly adventurous music-making on its vastest scale in myriad contexts reaching far beyond the confines of his San Diego-area home while demonstrating dizzying command over the many diverse instruments he chooses to play. Together the group explores artistic openness, honest expressivity, deep chemistry, and joyful mutual appreciation to offer listeners a thoroughly satisfying, energizing, and uplifting musical experience.
(Alex Cline)

Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock present:

Vlatkovich Tryyo and Hay Fever

Sunday August 2nd at 7:00
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Blvd. Los Angeles 90041

Vlatkovich Tryyo
Michael Vlatkovich – trombone
Jonathan Golove – electric cello
Damon short – drums

Hay Fever
Emily Hay – flutes, voice
Wayne Peet – electric keyboards
Steuart Liebig – bass guitars
Brad Dutz - percussion

Open Gate Theatre and Guests
Dream of the Other
Sat. June 27th, 8:00

Live Arts L.A. 4210 Panamint St.
(corner of Eagle Rock Blvd.)

An evening joining songs and improvisations,
Visions and voices, dance and drum.
Featuring scenes from a new Opera
based on the poetry and images of
Lord Byron’s “The Giaour”

Cast and Creative Ensemble include:
Brad Dutz- Percussion
Breeze Smith- Percussion
Charles Lane- Voice
Daniel Corral - Accordion
Joseph Garate- Voice
Heyward Bracey- Butoh Dancer
Michelle Lai- Butoh Dancer
Rika Ohara- Author Video
Will Salmon - Flute, Keyboard

Tickets $15, ($10 for students and seniors)

All Saints Church   presents
Open Gate Theatre   Performing
“Merton Poems”

Friday May 8th 7:00
At All Saints Church   -Sweetland Hall
132 Euclid Ave. Pasadena Ave

      The ensemble:
Dwight Trible- voice
Alex Cline- drums
Will Salmon- flute, keyboard
Kio Griffith – video

Ed Bacon will speak about Thomas Merton

The featured work is-
“MERTON POEMS"
- based on four poems
by the Christian mystic Thomas Merton

Free admission. (thank offering donations appreciated)

OGT Eagle Rock Feb. 1; ACRE FOOT and GREX

Open Gate and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, present:
Sunday Evening Concert February 1 at 7:00 p.m.,

ACRE FOOT
Kaoru Mansour- vocals
Carey Fosse – electric guitar
Darryl Tewes – bass guitar
Brad Dutz – Percussion
Kio Griffith - video

GREX
Karl A.D. Evangelista – guitar/ vocals
M. Rei Scampavia Evangelista – keyboards/vocals
Robert Lopez- drums

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,
Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10 (students, seniors, and series performers half price)

Free parking is plentiful.

Fronted by enigmatic and ethereal vocalist (and highly accomplished visual artist) Kaoru Mansour, the quartet known as Acre Foot creates music that is both impossible to categorize and impossible to resist. Rhythmic, atmospheric, earthy, kaleidoscopic, economical, alchemical, bold, inventive, nuanced, and quirky, the other members of the band, namely veteran L.A. scenesters electric guitarist Carey Fosse, bass guitarist Darryl Tewes, and multi-percussionist Brad Dutz, work together in a seamless, collaborative, organic, and personal way to make their own distinct and vital contributions to the music, bringing it vividly to life. While their excellent CD Expanding aptly represents the band’s efforts, there’s still nothing like hearing them make it all happen live. In fact, they promise to unveil some new tunes for this event. On top of all this, live visuals will also be provided by the always wonderful Kio Griffith and his richly imaginative and splendidly realized projection of compelling images. It’s simply a must.
Opening the evening will be a unique and outstanding unit hailing from the San Franscisco Bay Area, Grex. Blending elements of modern jazz, indie rock, and blues rock, the group goes far beyond the notion of “eclectic” and all the way through the notion of “eccentric.” Drawing comparisons to classic psychedelic rock, creative jazz, and what, out of desperation, gets termed alternative music, Grex spins all of its diverse influences into a collection of songs that are unique, fun, and endlessly surprising. Comprised of three adept and original artists, guitarist/vocalist Karl A.D. Evangelista, keyboardist/vocalist M. Rei Scampavia Evangelista, and drummer Robert Lopez, the trio has four CDs in its discography and shows no sign of slowing down. Prepare to be delighted.

Open Gate/Eagle Rock Series For May 4th 7:00 p.m
BARNETT BAND
and
GONG FARMER

at Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

BARNETT BAND
Bonnie Barnett (vocals)
Richard Wood (woodwinds)
Hal Onserud (bass)
Garth Powell (drums, percussion)
Dan Clucas (cornet)

GONG FARMER
Jim McAuley (guitars and other strings)
Mary MacQueen (bass, recorders, and voice)
Andrew Pask (woodwinds)
Alan Cook (drums and percussion)

One of the most constant, dedicated, and daring champions of creative music in the Los Angeles area for many years, including via the radio airwaves, vocalist Bonnie Barnett contributes a very personal and distinctive but very broad and inclusive range of vocal sounds and colors as well as words and texts to her open, loose, but always very focused ensemble concept. . . and what an outstanding ensemble it always is! Deep personal chemistry along with accomplished and uninhibited execution of ideas characterizes the Barnett Band. Joining Barnett for this concert are her longtime bandmates Richard Wood (woodwinds), Hal Onserud (bass), and Bay Area transplant Garth Powell (drums, percussion), plus the always stellar Dan Clucas (cornet). Beyond a satisfying set of well-played multidirectional music, a Barnett set is a platform for ardent expressions and celebrations of creativity, artistry, outrage, magic, and freedom.

Another one of the L.A. area’s most staunch and longtime creative music presences is acoustic guitarist Jim McAuley. Opening the evening will be McAuley’s group the Gongfarmer Quartet. Drawing on a dizzying but beautifully stirring variety of musical sources and traditions, from American folk, blues, and creative jazz to European early music, folk, and modern composition, McAuley and his group defy classification and define everything that’s meaningful and compelling about the word “eclectic.” With Mary MacQueen on bass, recorders, and voice, Andrew Pask on woodwinds, Alan Cook on drums and percussion, and McAuley himself on all manner of stringed instruments, both common/conventional and uncommon/unconventional (like the electric Megalyra), the Gongfarmer Quartet brings a wonderful combination of sounds and musicians along with a truly unique and resonant musical identity to the creative music stage.

Text by Alex Cline

Open Gate creates and performs
“The Crossing” – an Experimental Opera
Saturday June 21 at 8:00 and Sunday June 22 at 7:00
At the American Legion Post, 131 Marengo Avenue, Pasadena
Tickets $15 ($10 for seniors and students)

“…multidisciplinary art that grasps for the infinite.”   John Payne, L.A. Weekly

“bypassing the audiences intellectual defenses in a sustained tour de force. made a disturbing and visceral impact, a preverbal assault achieving mythic force.” -   Chris Pasles, L.A.Times

A major new work, “The Crossing” joins sight, sound, ritual, and poetry to create a unique full experience. In the American Legion Hall.

Will Salmon: artistic director, creator of poetry and music design
Kira Vollman: sculpture and visual design
Seda Baghdasarian: environmental/set design
Kio Griffith: Video
Sculpture and Photo; Kira Vollman

Instrumental ensemble:
Vinny Golia-winds,
Bill Casale - bass,
Jie Ma-Pipa,
Breeze Smith-drums,
Dan Clucas -cornet,
Daniel Eaton - trombone,
Joe Berardi-drums and direction

Singer/Actors:
Kira Vollman
Will Salmon
Anna Li

“Made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division .”

“The Crossing” is a major new work that joins sight, sound, ritual, and poetry to create a unique and enveloping experience and an environmental opera. Metaphors and images taken from the Elysian Mysteries combined with the myth of the death and ascension of Hercules create a rich, sensual, and intense mixed media work. The word “Opera” is used to describe the work not just because of the operatic extravagance but also due to the extensive use of the voice by the lead characters (and principal creators) Will Salmon and Kira Vollman. Accompanying the vocals will be rich instrumental work; entwined with the sometimes atmospheric, sometimes rhythmically and melodically intense sound score. This score will be performed by some of Los Angeles’ leading improvisers; including Alex Cline on percussion, Vinny Golia on winds, and Jie Ma on a traditional Chinese instrument, the Pipa.
Three noted visual artists come together to create a magical and mystical environment. Surplus, scrap metal and recycled materials have been transformed by Kira Vollman into costumes, characters and props. Set designer Seda Baghdasarian will remake the remarkable American Legion Hall into a mythic realm and Kio Griffith will project dream like video into this otherworldly environment.
The ritual dramatic structure is tied to the Elysian mysteries. In these Mysteries of rebirth and transcendence, the prominent initiate was Hercules. The story of Hercules death and ascension is the center story of our metaphoric work. The poetry spins from these points, in a James Joyce like use of myth, sound, and archetype. The words will sometimes be spoken, sometimes sung, and sometimes part of the projections. The actor and singers movements will be abstract, with influences from Butoh, Noh, and Balinese dance.
                  “The Crossing” promises to be the ensembles most ambitious project to date. The project is built on long time collaborations, improvisations joined with composition, and a constant work in the realm of archetype, myth, and metaphor.
Until ten years ago, the ensemble performed primarily in Pasadena. Will Salmon and other key members live in Pasadena, and they rehearse in Pasadena. Open Gate has found venues in nearby Eagle Rock, Silver Lake, and Glendale. To perform in Pasadena in the Historic and remarkable American Legion Hall is a sort of homecoming.

Open Gate Theatre presents another split bill at Live Arts:
“Maximus” and “Lost Mysteries”
Saturday May 31 8pm
at Live Arts Los Angeles 4210 Panamint Street
Tickets $10

"MAXIMUS"
By Georgi Dimitrov
Libretto by Daniel John Kelley
An Opera in One Act Performed in English

Georgi Dimitrov, conductor
Julianne Just, stage director

Maximus Cast : Brandon Becker –baritone,
Kelsey Lynn Springsted-soprano
James Hayden-bass,
Brian Cramer- supernumerary ,
Emily Call- violin, Erkmen Karagul- viola, Betsy Rettig – cello,Brian Walsh- Clarinets,
Justin Jones-set designer,
Kate Fry-costume designer,
Genevieve Gearhart-choreographer

"LOST MYSTERIES"
Open Gate creates and performs
Sound Environments, Improvisations, and Images

Artists include :
Kira Vollman,
Daniel Walter Eaton,
Dan Clucas,
Joe Berardi,
and Will Salmon

The Church on York presents   Open Gate Theatre and guests
Family Fare at it's most lively
Friday April 11th 8:00 p.m.
"The Adventures of Prince Achmed "
Film by Lotte Reiniger (1926)
The first full Length animation,
based on "1001 Arabian Nights"
Music by Will Salmon
and

Live Vaudeville:   Magic and clowning and ???
Featuring
Tuba Heatherton
Dorian Archie
And Michael Van Citters

At a new exciting performance space
In the Heart of Highland Park
The Church on York,
4904 York Blvd. Highland Park
Tickets only $5

Sunday Evening Concerts April 6th,
at 7:00 p.m.
presented by Open Gate Theatre
and
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
at
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10,
students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

Ned Rothenburg - solo woodwinds

Emily Hay Trio
Emily Hay - flutes. voice, electronic
Wayne Peet- electric keyboards
Steuart Liebig - bass guitar, electronics

Woodwind virtuoso Ned Rothenberg, a longtime fixture in New York’s vibrant creative music scene, is an internationally acclaimed composer and performer who has been a notable contributor to the world of unusual music for over thirty-three years, bringing his strong and sensitive instrumental voice to a variety of ensembles, countless collaborations with a virtual who’s-who of vital music-makers, and to remarkable solo work. For this concert Rothenberg will present a set of solo improvisations on some of his favorite woodwind instruments—alto saxophone, clarinets, and shakuhachi—employing an expanded palette of sonic language that is at once fascinating, compelling, and personal. Well documented via many fine recordings on John Zorn’s Tzadik as well as his own Animul label, some of Rothenberg’s current involvements are the trio Sync, work with the Mivos string quartet, and duo improvisations with Evan Parker. He rarely performs in the Los Angeles area, and the meeting of his rich timbral explorations and the famously horn-friendly acoustics of the Center for the Arts should make for a truly meaningful and memorable concert experience.
Opening the event will be the meeting of three of the Southland’s most accomplished veteran creative music figures in the form of the Emily Hay Trio. Led by Hay and her uncommonly sonorous, soaring flute work and distinctive, expressive, and animated vocal adventures, both often enhanced by an integrally musical employment of electronic processing, the trio’s multidirectional music-making is adeptly aided and incomparably abetted by the solid/fluid support of Wayne Peet on electric keyboards and Steuart Liebig on bass guitars. This is genre-defying collective improvisation at its most salient and satisfying.

(text by Alex Cline)

Open Gate Theatre
Saturday February 15th, 8:00
At Live Arts Los Angeles
4210 Panamint Street
(corner of Eagle Rock Blvd.)

“Merton Poems”
based on four poems by the Christian mystic Thomas Merton
Alex Cline- drums
Will Salmon- flute, midi pipeorgan
Kio Griffith - video

“Mixing Metaphors”
multi-media improvisation
Cheryl Banks-Smith – dancer
Breeze Smith- percussion
Oz Stickman – Chapman Stick
Will Salmon- flute, voice

Tickets $15 (students and seniors $10)

Sunday Evening Concerts
Winter 2013
Presented by Open Gate and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Center for the Arts,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

March 2
Isbin-Walton Duo
Gilbert Isbin- lute
Scott Walton - bass
Open Gate Trio
Jie Ma- pipa
Will Salmon- flute, voice
Alex Cline -drums

Accomplished and acclaimed guitarist Gilbert Isbin, who hails from Brugge, Belgium, had an unusual inspiration a number of years ago: he took up the traditional European lute and began composing his own music for it and playing improvisations on it. He may, in fact, be the only person in the world currently doing this. While this is obviously a remarkable and unique thing, his playing has clearly been influenced by the deep musical tradition of the instrument, and its singular beauty is a major feature of his adept improvisations. Having worked for a number of years with veteran American bassist Scott Walton (certainly no stranger to Open Gate concert series audiences), the two teamed up to record a wonderful CD of duo music, Recall (released in 2012 on the pfMENTUM label), and are now engaged in a series of concerts together, happily making the Center for the Arts one of the stops on their tour. The resonant acoustics of the venue, the beautiful sound of the two acoustic instruments, and the stirring original music and sensitive, skilled improvisations should make for an ideal playing and listening experience. A rare opportunity not to be missed!

Fittingly opening the evening will be the Open Gate Trio, which features the hosts of this concert series, Will Salmon (flute, piccolo, recorder, voice) and Alex Cline (percussion), together with frequent collaborator Jie Ma (pipa) in a set of subtle and effusive improvisations in celebration of the concert series' seventeenth anniversary. Another combination of rich acoustic sounds, the threesome will engage their considerable chemistry to realize some stunning and evocative spontaneous sounds in their distinctively personal and broad-minded way.

Aside from being an anniversary celebration (albeit a decidedly quietish one), this is a unique opportunity to hear improvisations on both lute and pipa on the same evening in the same place. Come join in the beauty and splendor of this unusual experience of unusual music-making!

Sunday Evening Concerts
Winter 2013
Presented by Open Gate and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Center for the Arts,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

February 2nd
Alex Cline's Band of the Moment
John Fumo - trumpet
Jeff Gauthier - electric violin
Wayne Peet - organ, electric keyboards
David Witham - electric piano
Steuart Liebig - bass guitarts, electronics
Alex Cline - drums, percussion
Jeff Kaiser - solo trumpet electronics

Drummer-percussionist/composer Alex Cline formed his group the Band of the Moment in the wake of his previous group, the Alex Cline Ensemble’s, dissolution in 2001, thinking that initiating a new ensemble with a different focus—a more relatively mobile unit incorporating the inclusion of compositions by artists other than Cline himself—and with potentially malleable and unset personnel might be a helpful strategy at that point.  Ironically, the group has now existed for twelve years with virtually the identical lineup with which it began, something somewhat comically typical of Cline’s usual modus operandi; in fact, everyone in the band is someone with whom Cline has had a very long working relationship.  For this concert, the set list will be comprised of mostly Cline originals, and the lineup will be the band’s usual:  John Fumo on trumpet, Jeff Gauthier on electric violin, Wayne Peet on organ and other electric keyboards, David Witham on electric piano and other electric keyboards, Steuart Liebig on bass guitars, and, of course, Cline himself on drums and percussion—each member being a veteran player and bandleader in his own right.  The group doesn’t get many opportunities to perform, so taking advantage of this opportunity is highly recommended.

Opening the evening will be one of Southern California’s most essential exponents of creative music-making, Jeff Kaiser, in a set of solo trumpet and electronics.  A vital artist as well as one of the music’s most staunch enablers—he runs the pfMENTUM record label, for example—Kaiser has engaged in a dizzyingly vast and diverse range of projects over the years, all of them bearing his unique, skillful, and uncompromising personal stamp.  Essentially off the local performance circuit during the years he labored to secure his Ph.D. from the music department at UCSD, this concert is something of a very welcome return to the L.A.-area fold for Kaiser.  He will perform with live visual accompaniment provided by Bay Area improvising visual artist Mark Henrickson, an experienced videographer who has worked with the likes of Gregory Taylor, Jelloslave, Dosh, and Andrew Broder.   So forego the Super Bowl party and celebrate Groundhog Day at the Center for the Arts.  It promises to be an evening that could accurately be described as . . . electrifying!

Open Gate at Live Arts L.A.;
“Lost Landscapes”
Open Gate Ensemble and  Fear for the Dust
Sat. January 18th 8:00
Live Arts L.A.4210 Panamint Street
(corner of Eagle Rock Blvd.)

Open Gate Ensemble  including
Jie Ma - pipa
Trevor Andries- percussion
Vinny Golia- winds
Will Salmon - voice, flute, etc.

and
Fear for the Dust
David Tranchina - double bass
James Barry - cello
Lauren Baba - violin
Ulrich Krieger - bass clarinet
Max Kutner - guitar
Laura Jean Anderson - guitar and vocals
Antony DiGennaro - guitar and vocals, composition
www.doomcountry.org

Tickets $15 (students and seniors $10)

Sunday Evening Concerts
Winter 2013
Presented by Open Gate and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Center for the Arts,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

January 5th
Acre Foot
Kaoru -voice, effects
Carey Fosse- electric guitar
Darryl Tewes - bass guitar
Brad Dutz- percussion
Tone Drift Trio
G.E. Stinson - electric guitar, electronics
Steuart Liebig - bass guitarts, electronics
Kris Tiner- trumpet, flugalhorn

Kaoru Mansour, a.k.a.simply Kaoru, has a deservedly excellent reputation as both a visual artist and a vocalist . . . although the level of her activity as a vocalist has been woefully low over the past few years.  Therefore, it’s a wonderful occasion when she brings in her band Acre Foot to perform a live set of music fresh off the release of the band’s brilliant new CD (a few years in the making),Expanding.  A stunningly natural improvising musician who also has an uncanny knack for making striking and personal musical structures for herself happen, Kaoru’s flexible, inventive, atmospheric, and often quite electronically-processed voice, singing/chanting/conjuring in both English and Japanese, adds its trademark flavor to remarkably eccentric, churning, quirky, grooving, and unpredictable backing from longtime cohorts and local all-stars Carey Fosse on electric guitar, Darryl Tewes on bass guitar, and the irrepressible Brad Dutz on multipercussion.  Joining the group for this performance will be the amazingly gifted and accomplished young Jasper Dutz, son of Kaoru and Brad, on saxophones and bass clarinet.  Art rock?  Industro-organic jazz/world music?  Free jazz –rock electronica?  Who knows? . . . and who cares??  It’s genre-bending creativity at its most unself-conscious and thoroughly satisfying.

Opening the evening is a trio of local veterans, most of whom have coincidentally also collaborated often with Kaoru over the years, electric guitarist G.E. Stinson, bass guitarist Steuart Liebig, and trumpeter Kris Tiner (now actually in Bakersfield, which for this occasion we will consider “local”), collectively known as the Tone Drift Trio.  These wide-ranging, seasoned improvisers combine to explore spontaneous music on the more subtle, thoughtful, restrained, and sometimes lyrical end of the modern music spectrum, creating beauty both poignant and pensive.  This is a unique expression of what some call chamber jazz, presenting each distinct and adept musical voice in an open, vast, and pure sonic landscape.  It should resonate magnificently in the reverberant Center for the Arts.

December 1, Sunday Evening Concert
Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
present

Dependent Origination
Peter Kuhn - saxophones, clarinet
Alex Cline -drums
Dan Clucas - cornet, flute
Scott Walton - bass

Tom McNalley Trio
Tom McNalley – electric guitar
Alex Cline -drums
Scott Walton - bass

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,
Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

A Los Angeles native, clarinetist-saxophonist Peter Kuhn gained a notable foothold in New York’s avant-garde jazz scene in the late seventies and early eighties, collaborating with some of the music’s most heralded artists (Billy Bang, Denis Charles, William Parker, Wayne Horvitz, etc.) and releasing albums on labels like Hat Hut (Ghost of a Trance) and Soul Note (The Kill). Then, after grappling with intense personal challenges and creating a personal story both initially tragic and ultimately inspiring, Kuhn dropped out of the music scene . . . until earlier this year. Kuhn began a slow and gradual return to playing music, and after 28 years away from the scene he appeared at a concert last spring in San Diego (where he now lives) with an ensemble called Dependent Origination, which presented him alongside some of his old and new friends in the music. Now, at the end of the year, Kuhn returns to his hometown to play in an ensemble under the same name but with only one member in common with the San Diego version, drummer-percussionist Alex Cline (who remembers Kuhn from high school), who recommended the other two members of the group for this event, irrepressibly inventive and expressive cornetist-flutist Dan Clucas and solidly deep-dish bassist Scott Walton (in for the occasion from No Cal). Spontaneous music-making at its most concentrated, spirited, and generous is bound to occur when these individuals come together to become a unified unit. Don’t miss this rare occasion that can actually also be accurately termed historic.

Opening the evening will be currently local electric guitarist Tom McNalley and his trio, which utilizes the same rhythm section as Dependent Origination but for a decidedly different flavor of musical exploration—driving McNalley’s fluid, angular, and rhythmically convoluted streams of linear invention, swinging intensely and shading sensitively as McNalley fills the air with an indefatigable profusion of spontaneous melodic architecture. Both honoring and pushing the boundaries of the creative jazz tradition, the trio fuses itself into a unified trajectory of shared sonic soaring. Fun!

Open Gate Sunday Series: November 3, Ross Hammond/Alex Cline Duo and Terrence McManus (solo)

Sunday Evening Music Series:
Presented by Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Ross Hammond/Alex Cline Duo guitar and drums
and
Terrence McManus (solo guitar).
November 3, at 7:00 p.m.,

At
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

We’re back after once again taking October off to support the Angel City Jazz Festival’s events.

Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond, riding high from much positive response to his second quartet CD Cathedrals, is back in town to offer another angle of his musical artistry, this time in a duo setting with veteran drummer-percussionist Alex Cline (who is also the drummer in Hammond’s heralded quartet). Besides his usual melodic but edgy electric guitar stylings, Hammond will add some acoustic string sounds to the mix, including banjo, while Cline will augment the propulsive drumming he provides for Hammond’s music with more of his trademark sonic shadings from the world of ringing metals and crackling woods. Powerful yet intimate, adventurous but accessible, it should be an enjoyable set of pure shared musical expression.

To open the evening, acclaimed New York guitarist Terrence McManus will glide into town to share a solo set of his singularly accomplished artistry, his first for Open Gate. A native of Brooklyn perhaps best known for his various collaborations with drummer Gerry Hemingway and ensemble work with folks like Herb Robertson, McManus is characteristic of the current generation of guitarists whose musical vocabulary extends from the jazz tradition to lyrical melodic invention to angular effects-driven muscularity to complex sonic exploration using "prepared" techniques. Technically nimble, improvisationally alert, and texturally varied, McManus brings a lot to the table for the listener to enjoy. Known for his deeply engaging performances as a soloist, this is a rare opportunity to hear one of the East Coast’s most notable guitarists direct and unadulterated.

It’s guitar night at the Center for the Arts! j

Open Gate Sunday Series: November 3, Ross Hammond/Alex Cline Duo and Terrence McManus (solo)
Sunday Evening Music Series:
Presented by Open Gate and Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Ross Hammond/Alex Cline Duo guitar and drums
and
Terrence McManus (solo guitar).
November 3, at 7:00 p.m.,

At
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

We’re back after once again taking October off to support the Angel City Jazz Festival’s events.

Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond, riding high from much positive response to his second quartet CD Cathedrals, is back in town to offer another angle of his musical artistry, this time in a duo setting with veteran drummer-percussionist Alex Cline (who is also the drummer in Hammond’s heralded quartet). Besides his usual melodic but edgy electric guitar stylings, Hammond will add some acoustic string sounds to the mix, including banjo, while Cline will augment the propulsive drumming he provides for Hammond’s music with more of his trademark sonic shadings from the world of ringing metals and crackling woods. Powerful yet intimate, adventurous but accessible, it should be an enjoyable set of pure shared musical expression.

To open the evening, acclaimed New York guitarist Terrence McManus will glide into town to share a solo set of his singularly accomplished artistry, his first for Open Gate. A native of Brooklyn perhaps best known for his various collaborations with drummer Gerry Hemingway and ensemble work with folks like Herb Robertson, McManus is characteristic of the current generation of guitarists whose musical vocabulary extends from the jazz tradition to lyrical melodic invention to angular effects-driven muscularity to complex sonic exploration using "prepared" techniques. Technically nimble, improvisationally alert, and texturally varied, McManus brings a lot to the table for the listener to enjoy. Known for his deeply engaging performances as a soloist, this is a rare opportunity to hear one of the East Coast’s most notable guitarists direct and unadulterated.

It’s guitar night at the Center for the Arts! j

On Sunday, September 1, at 7:00 p.m., the first in the fall series of Sunday evening concerts will occur presented by Open Gate Theatre, featuring Skeleton Wire and the Ellen Burr Quartet. The concert will take place at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.). Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price. Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Skeleton Wire is the name of a trio of fully experienced, hardcore improvisers with a supremely broad musical foundation, those three noteworthy individuals being woodwind player Phillip Greenlief (down from the Bay Area), electric guitarist G.E. Stinson, and bass guitarist Steuart Liebig. A fairly recently convened aggregation, the three stalwart artists combine to create intense, dynamic, and wide-ranging music employing not only their basic chosen instruments (as mentioned) but also electronic devices, laptop computers, and industrial-strength electro-beats, doing so via a deep interpersonal understanding that manifests as musical sensitivity and acute group chemistry. All three of these musicians have appeared in various contexts in this concert series over a period of many years, including in different settings with one another, so their strengths as musicians should not require further elucidation. This sure-fire trio’s set of spontaneous, genre-defying music will undoubtedly, as some like to say, SHRED! Their set also sadly brings to a close “the season of Liebig” at our monthly concert series (!).

Opening the evening is a quartet led by multi-flute player Ellen Burr, a virtuoso musician from the so-called classical world who not only has great skill as an improviser, she also teaches improvisation to players with background experiences similar to hers. Playing with equal parts fluidity, clarity, variety, and integrity, she will lead a quartet comprised of three of the area’s most dedicated and eclectic improvising musicians, Oz on Chapman stick, Jeff Schwartz on bass, and Breeze Smith on percussion. Sensitive, adventurous, elegant, and stirring, Burr and her cohorts do not hesitate to go wherever musical inspiration may take them. Everyone is cordially invited to be present for their spirited journey.

Open Gate Presents
Dylan Ryan Sand and Berardi, Vollman, and Liebig. Aug 4
Sunday, August 4, at 7:00 p.m.,
Sunday evening concerts
presented by
Open Gate Theatre, And Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
featuring
Dylan Ryan Sand
Dylan Ryan - drums
Tim Young - guitar
Kaveh Rastegar – bass
And
Berardi, Vollman, and Liebig
Joe Berardi – drums etc.
Kira Vollman – bass clarinet and voice
Steuart Liebig – bass and electronics

at

Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.(including the Bank of America lot)
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Relocated to the L.A. area from Chicago, where he developed his unique identity as an artist working with many of that city’s most adventurous musicians, drummer Dylan Ryan is one of those young, creative, talented, and resourceful players who is able to un-self-consciously fuse his wildly diverse influences and inspirations into a fully integrated, personal, and compelling whole. Running the gamut from bebop swinging to avant-garde exploring to heavy metal shredding, Ryan not only drives it all from behind his John “Drumbo” French/1930s-era-inspired drum kit, he also composes the infectious music to drive. Involved in such projects as Herculaneum, Cursive, Icy Demons, Harmonize Most High, and Rainbow Arabia, Ryan brings one of his latest projects, a trio called Dylan Ryan SAND, to the Center for the Arts, which features broadband guitar wiz Tim Young (Wayne Horvitz, John Zorn, David Sylvian, Michael White, etc.) and solid-fluid bassist Kaveh Rastegar (best known for his work with the uncategorizeable group Kneebody), two extraordinary and extremely likeminded and likehanded players. Should be memorable, to say the least!
Opening the evening will be another trio, this one comprised of three wonderfully artistic and special local musicians who should really need no introduction: drummer-percussionist Joseph Berardi, bass clarinetist-vocalist Kira Vollman, and bass guitarist-electronicist Steuart Liebig, aptly named Berardi, Vollman, and Liebig—and not just because those are their names, but because it is a fitting name for what this is, a supergroup! Berardi and Vollman have worked together for years, notably in the duo Non Credo, and Berardi and Liebig have worked together as a rhythm team in countless ensembles, including many of Liebig’s own (notably the Mentones) as well as some of guitarist G.E. Stinson’s cosmic combos in the past. Led by Berardi (who will also be heard on “electro”), the trio is sure to cover miles of musical terrain in a truly inimitably innovative, eclectic, grooving, daring, and witty manner utterly free of such notions as “style” or “genre.” Don’t miss this!

Open Gate in Eagle Rock
“Mixed Metaphors”
Open Gate Ensemble
and
Naama Kates Band
Sat. August 24th 8:00

Our first show at
Live Arts L.A.;
4210 Panamint Street (corner of Eagle Rock Blvd.)

Open Gate Ensemble
Bill Casale, - bass
Alex Cline – drums
Brad Dutz – percussion
Vinny Golia - woodwinds
Kio Griffith – live video
Jie Ma - pipa
Rika Ohara - acting
Will Salmon – keyboard, voice, flute
Argenta Walther – voice, acting
Kira Vollman – voice, bass clarinet

Naama Kates Band
Naama Kates - piano and voice
Mike Richardson – trombone
John Carfi – bass
Rich West – drums

          Tickets $15 (students and seniors $10)


About Naama Kates

"[Naama Kates'] just-out "King for the Day" LP is an ever-deeper plunge down a rabbit hole of poetical pop, playing out in moody, brooding and bracingly curious-minded lyrics and slightly skewed musical planes. Kates delivers her disarmingly self-revelatory observations in a blessedly uncontrived vocal style, and her often structurally complex pieces benefit big-time from a new band that includes drummer Rich West, trombone ace Mike Richardson and bassist John Carfi. Whatever "alternative" may or may not denote, Kates' highly accessible brand of pop cabaret ultimately is music of insight, surprise and pure delight." --LA Weekly

Open Fate at Live Arts
Open Gate has a strong presence in the North East LA area, presenting concerts and performing its unique mixed media/music improvisation hybrid in Glendale, Pasadena, Silver Lake, and especially in Eagle Rock. For over twelve years Open Gate has been presenting and performing at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock and now they are also doing work at Live Arts L.A., a place well suited for Open Gate’s Mixed Media work. Live Arts is a dance studio with a great floor, built in lighting, a place for video, and a scale and feel that is both grand and intimate, suiting Open Gate nicely.

       The concert will start with a new performance piece called “The Tango Lesson”. In it a woman (Argenta Walther) comes for a tango lesson with a mysterious Tango Master (Rika Ohara). The accompanist (Will Salmon dancing at the piano) is the guide.
After that Naama Kates Band will perform a set of her music.
Then the Open Gate Ensemble will perform a set of mixed media improvisations.

On Sunday, July 7, at 7:00 p.m.,

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock

Presents Sunday evening concert ,

DECISIVE INSTANT and A.K.A. STEUBIG

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price. Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

DECISIVE INSTANT

Ken Luey - woodwinds

Alexander Vogel- woodwinds

David Adler- woodwinds

Charles Sharp – woodwinds

Chris Schell - trumpet

Dawn Webster - trumpet

Ed Weiss – trombone

Eduardo Poyart – keyboards

Derek Bombeck - guitar

Jonathon Grasse – guitar

Jeff Schwartz – bass

Tom Steck - drums and percussion.

Alan Cook - drums and percussion.

David Martinelli - drums and percussion.

A.K.A. STEUBIG

Steuart Liebig, solo basses and electronics).

The large improvising creative jazz ensemble is a true rarity in these parts for obvious reasons. But here one is! Decisive Instant is co-led by woodwind player Charles Sharp, someone who has distinguished himself both on the music stage and in academia, and bassist Jeff Schwartz, one of those adventurous journeymen who seems to do any- and everything. The sizeable lineup for the jumbo combo is a fascinating mixture of the known and lesser-known, all of them committed to a cause considerably larger than themselves: Ken Luey, Alexander Vogel, David Adler, and Sharp himself on woodwinds; Chris Schell and Dan Clucas on trumpets; Ed Weiss on trombone; Eduardo Poyart on keyboards; Derek Bombeck and Jonathon Grasse on guitars; Schwartz himself on bass; and Tom Steck, Alan Cook, and David Martinelli on drums and percussion. The repertoire of the ensemble is varied and eclectic, including original compositions by its members as well as those by an equally varied and eclectic list of notables; the group’s set will “probably” include works by Jonathon Grasse, Charles Sharp, Peter Brotzmann, Charles Ives, Bill Dixon, and “others.” Support for an ambitious and uncompromising project like this is support for creative music, period! Predictably, performances by this group hardly ever happen. Avail yourselves!

Opening the evening will be a solo set by veteran bass guitarist Steuart Liebig, operating here under the moniker A.K.A. Steubig. A virtuoso player and composer as eclectic as they come, Liebig will enthrall all by himself with his personal orchestration of six- and twelve-string bass guitars and electronic devices. Summer at the Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concerts appears to be the season of Liebig; this month the listener gets him totally unadulterated—“rare!”

OGT Eagle Rock Sunday June 2 NATHAN HUBBARD/DOUBLE TRIANGLE and JIE MA WILL SALMON duo

Open Gate Eagle Rock  Sunday Evening Concert

June 2,  at 7:00 p.m.

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,  

2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.

Free parking is plentiful.

Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

This Month

NATHAN HUBBARD/DOUBLE TRIANGLE

G.E. Stinson - electric guitar,electronics

Branson Nejame - electric piano,electronics

Stuart Liebig - bass guitar,electronics

Jerome Salazar - bass guitar, electronics

Ted Byrnes - percussion, etc.

Nathan Hubbard- percussion, etc.

and

JIE MA - pipa

WILL SALMON - flute, voice

Tickets $10 - $5 students, seniors, and and series performers

Once again gifted and dedicated multi-percussionist/composer Nathan Hubbard, veteran bandleader, soloist, and sideman in countless creative settings, will drive up the coast from San Diego to present one of his unfailingly adventurous projects at the Center for the Arts, this time a return of his accurately named electric ensemble Double Triangle. Having briefly relocated to Arizona a little while ago before returning to Southern California, Hubbard encountered some local talent in the Phoenix area, some of whom will be represented in this version of the group, which combines the desert out-of-towners with some of the L.A. area’s most potent and eclectic improvisers. Joining Hubbard on drums and percussion will be G.E. Stinson on electric guitars and electronics, Branson Nejame on electric piano and electronics, Steuart Liebig on bass guitars and electronics, Jerome Salazar on bass guitar and electronics, and Ted Byrnes on drums and percussion. The resonant Eagle Rock space will be filled with the swirl of multidirectional, texturally detailed, intense, driving, and subtle sounds. Come and be part of it.

Opening the concert will be Open Gate Theatre founder-director/choreographer-playwright (and confirmed American) Will Salmon getting maximum expressiveness, range, and timbre out his flute and his voice pairing up with virtuoso of the traditional Chinese stringed instrument the pipa Jie Ma (a native of northwestern China). Both Salmon and Ma have deep and extensive resumes pointing interested parties to their respective impressive training and accomplishments in their respective “legit” musical spheres, Salmon in composition and performance in the so-called Western musical tradition (as well as in Western and Balinese dance) and Ma in the so-called Chinese traditional musical form. Both have been moved to move away from the confines of their musical backgrounds and training in search of something more spontaneous, beyond easy categorization, and more multifaceted and stylistically broadband (in fact, Ma’s first performance as an improviser was at this concert series a number of years ago, when she was still living in San Francisco). With Ma having performed a number of times with Salmon’s ensemble Open Gate Theatre since moving to L.A., their rapport is established; alone together, it should be honed as well as beautifully and uncompromisingly revealed.

OGT Sunday Evening Concert,
May 5, at 7:00
presented by
Open Gate Theatre, and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,
Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission $10,
(students, seniors, and series performers half price).
Free parking is plentiful.

Brad Dutz Quartet
Paul Sherman - English horn and oboe,
Jim Sullivan - bass clarinet,
Chris Votek- cello
Brad Dutz- percussion

Walsh Set Trio
Brian Walsh - clarinet bassist
Colin Burgess - bass
Trevor Anderies - drums

Multi-percussionist Brad Dutz has been one of the Los Angeles creative music scene’s most active and prolific bandleader/composers as well as a frequent and essential contributor to many other artists’ music as a sideman. Extraordinarily accomplished on a huge range of percussion instruments, from mallet instruments to hand drums to bones, Dutz can seemingly do anything. However, in his own diverse projects he wisely tends to limit and focus his myriad talents to fit the project. The Brad Dutz Quartet is one of his longest running ensemble projects, something of a small chamber group that has fully digested Dutz’s sometimes decidedly challenging and quirky musical language over the years, wedding his accomplished and distinct compositional skills with fascinating contexts for improvisation. Members Paul Sherman on English horn and oboe, Jim Sullivan on bass clarinet, and Chris Votek on cello combine with Dutz’s marimba and assorted hand drums to produce an appealing and satisfying blend of instrumental sonorities and aptitudes unlike any comparable unit. Among its selections for this concert, the group will play new pieces from its upcoming CD, Peripheral Hearing, with clarinetist Brian Walsh joining them on two pieces.

Opening the evening is the Walsh Set Trio, a spare and free-range unit led by young clarinet virtuoso Brian Walsh and including fellow phenoms bassist Colin Burgess and drummer Trevor Anderies (best known for his membership in the group Slumgum and who recently made his recording debut as a bandleader/composer on his CD Shades of Truth). Walsh, one of a group of truly outstanding and noteworthy younger players actively contributing to the L.A. area’s creative music scene as both bandleader and sought-after sideman over the past years, spearheads the group’s sophisticated and spirited musical adventures, creating an ample and egalitarian showcase for each member’s considerable talents. Their two CD releases are Set 1 and Set 2 (the latter containing three guest musicians). This group and its wide-ranging work is a potent example of how the future of creative music in Los Angeles is secure.

Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock present
Sunday evening concert; March 3 at 7:00 p.m.,

featuring
Hafez Modirzadeh Quartet featuring Bobby Bradford
and the
Phillip Greenlief-Nick Tamburro Duo.

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10,
students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

Hafez Modirzadeh Quartet
Hafez Modirzadeh – saxophones
Bobby Bradford - cornet
Mark Dresser - bass
Alex Cline – drums

Philip Greenlief – woodwinds
Nick Tamburro - drums

As its “sweet sixteen” party (the Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concerts series celebrates its
sixteenth anniversary with this event), two outstanding and celebrated woodwind players from the
Bay Area present their distinct and accomplished artistry in one special evening.

Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh has been doing important things in music as well as showcasing his
virtuosity as a saxophonist for decades but has perhaps come more to the attention of the greater jazz
audience mostly in the last few years. An artist who has come under the strong influence of bebop as
well as the music of people like Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins, Modirzadeh is remarkable for having successfully developed a jazz playing vocabulary that also incorporates the microtonal scales of the music of the land of his heritage,
Iran, the great ancient tradition of Persian music. This was notably documented in his fairly recent collaboration with
New York trumpeter/composer Amir El Saffar (an artist who accomplished the same feat on his instrument upon
deeply studying the maqams of his Iraqi musical heritage) on the CD Radif Suite (Pi Recordings). Since then, Modirzadeh released last year’s glowingly reviewed album Post-Chromodal Out! (also on Pi Recordings), which, among other favorable notices, received feature attention on NPR’s All Things Considered not long ago, putting Modirzadeh deservingly in the spotlight. Weaving all the afore-mentioned influences into a seamless, fluid musical identity, Modirzadeh has emerged as a potent and original player while strongly paying tribute to the rich jazz tradition that he so passionately loves. For this special concert he will be joined for the first time by local legend and former Coleman sideman Bobby Bradford on cornet and be reunited with the former Modirzadeh/El Saffar rhythm section of Mark Dresser on bass and Alex Cline on drums, all bandleader/composers in their own right. Modirzadeh rarely performs in the L.A. area, so this is best not missed!

Opening the evening will be the always welcome guest and always satisfying improvising musician and champion of creative expression from the Bay Area, woodwind player Phillip Greenlief. A veteran of this concert series, for this event he will be joined by local drummer and first-timer at the concert series Nick Tamburro for a set of spontaneous music-making that will demonstrate each player’s remarkable range, sensitivity, musicality, and daring. It’s surefire!

February 3rd

OPEN GATE BAND with special guest DWIGHT TRIBLE
Will Salmon- flute, voice
Vinny Golia – woodwinds
George McMullen – trombone
Kira Vollman – voice, bass clarinet
Alex Cline – drums, percussion
+ Dwight Trible

DEVIN HOFF – SOLO BASS

The Open Gate Band, assembled and led (sometimes quite loosely) by Open Gate Theatre founder/director Will Salmon, takes a number of different forms, depending on the nature of a project’s or a performance’s needs and on the availability of the musicians, most of whom are busy noteworthy types. For this performance, Salmon has reassembled a remarkable combination of artists who came together last fall for a performance at the Moose Lodge in Glendale for what was Salmon’s first “Honored Guest” event there, for which the honored guest was stellar vocalist Dwight Trible, a performance which the participants felt was so satisfying that they wanted to do it again as soon as possible. So this concert is providing that opportunity. Joining Salmon on flute and voice and the phenomenal Mr. Trible on voice are, once again, Vinny Golia on woodwinds, George McMullen on trombone, Kira Vollman on voice and bass clarinet, Bill Casale on bass, and Alex Cline on drums and percussion. The music is guided improvisation—open, multidirectional, spontaneous, unpredictable, yet cohesive, focused, compelling, and—with these players—sensitive and highly accomplished. Come and experience the revisiting of the magic!

Opening the evening on solo bass is the always amazing, always wonderful, and always surprising Devin Hoff. Hoff, who has played with countless artists but is no doubt best known for his work with the Nels Cline Singers and the duo Good for Cows (with drummer Ches Smith), has recently been heard in this series with folks like Dan Clucas and Chicago saxophonist Nick Mazarella in sets where his driving swing, uncanny flexibility, prodigious technique, and wealth of creativity and intensity have been potently on display. As a soloist, the breadth of his musical ideas and sonic vocabulary are demonstrated unimpeded, which in spirit can take the listener all the way from Charles Mingus to Bob Dylan to Luciano Berio and back! Hoff doesn’t get the opportunity to play solo sets very often, so this is your chance, folks!

Sunday evening concert; January 6, at 7:00 p.m
Open Gate Theatre and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock presents

Michael Vlatkovich Quartet
Michael Vlakovich – trombone
Tom McNalley – guitar
Scott Walton – bass
Garth Powell – drums and percussion.

Apophenia
Steuart Liebig- contrabassguitar
Wayne Peet - electric keyboards and electronics
Alex Cline - drums and percussion.
at
the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).

Admission $10, (students, seniors, and series performers half price).
Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Trombonist-composer Michael Vlatkovich, a constant presence on the L.A. area’s creative music scene since the 1970s
(even during the years he was living most of the time in Portland, Oregon), has been among the most frequently seen and heard artists in this concert series
—with his trio, in the duo Chobraty with William Roper, in Call and Response with the late great poet Dottie Grossman,
and with Steuart Liebig’s group Seconda Prattica, for example.
He is also frequently heard in the ensembles of fellow local stalwart heavyweights like Vinny Golia and Bobby Bradford.
Vlatkovich returns to the Center of the Arts to start 2013 off right, leading his current So Cal meets No Cal quartet,
a group that could arguably be termed something of a supergoup: along with Vlakovich himself are electric guitarist Tom McNalley, and
—comprising the No Cal half of the combo—bassist Scott Walton and drummer-percussionist Garth Powell.
Always memorably and eccentrically engaging with complex but coherent material that freewheelingly ranges
from the piquant to the poignant and from the blistering to the bluesy,
Vlatkovich presents music that is typically, unmistakably, unavoidably, but somehow still unpredictably, HIS. T
his is something to be celebrated, treasured, and certainly not to be missed.

Opening the evening is a trio of three other So Cal die-hards, Apophenia, led by the previously mentioned Steuart Liebig,
contrabassguitarist and electronic sound-maker. Combining original thematic sketches with multidirectional, open improvisation,
Liebig brings his wealth of diverse influences to bear on music created with longtime colleagues
Wayne Peet on electric keyboards and electronics and Alex Cline on drums and percussion.
Does anything else about this really need to be said? Unlikely!

Happy New Year!

(text by Alex Cline)

The Glendale Moose Variety Arts Guild is proud to present:
Honored Guest 2:
Naked With Shoes
With
Liquid Skin Ensemble
and
Open Gate Theatre
at the Moose

Friday December 7th 2012, 8:00
At the Glendale Moose Lodge
357 West Arden, Glendale

Naked With Shoes
Anne and Jeff Grimaldi
With Steve Moshier's
Liquid Skin Ensemble.
Performing
"20 Miniatures"
Music: Voyage of Odysseus
And
"Black Friday"
Music: Say Goodbye Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor

Open Gate Theatre
Work includes
“Kassandra” and
“Herakles shirt”

Alex Cline - percussion
Will Salmon- flute and Voice
Bill Casale – bass
with
Kira Vollman- voice, bass cl
Heyward Bracey - dance
Kalean Ung – voice, dance

Moose Events are open to members and their honored guests.
If you have not yet joined, please have a member sign you in as a guest when you arrive

Sunday evening concerts
December 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
presenting
Ross Hammond Trio
and
Perpetual Motian
at
Center for the Arts,
Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock (one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.

Ross Hammond Trio
Ross Hammond - guitar
Devin Hoff - bass
Alex Cline – drums

Perpetual Motion
Alan Cook – drums
Alexander Vogel - saxophone
Derek Bomback. - guitar

Distinctive and accomplished guitarist Ross Hammond hails from our state capital, where he also serves as that city’s most dedicated presenters and champions of adventurous jazz- type music. His musical profile, already well established, got somewhat heightened over the past year since the release of his CD Adore, featuring L.A. locals Vinny Golia, Steuart Liebig, and Alex Cline, which seems to have really gotten the ear of a number of jazz critics, who have reacted very favorably to Hammond, his music, and his singular voice on his chosen instrument. Very far from the sound of a jazz guitar traditionalist, Hammond brings equal amounts grit, twang, strength, and lyricism to his musical offerings. The offering at this concert will take the form of a trio with staunch and stentorian bassist Devin Hoff (the Nels Cline Singers, Good for Cows, Plays Monk, etc.) and the afore-mentioned Cline on drums. It promises to rock most jazzily, or jazz most rockily, or something—for sure it will be engaging, wide-ranging, driving, stinging, and singing.

Opening the concert will be another trio, this one dedicated to paying tribute to the late great jazz drummer and composer Paul Motian, who passed away a year ago at age eighty. One of the most important and unique drummers in modern jazz, Motian played with countless jazz luminaries, led numerous outstanding bands, composed a multitude of potent themes, and embodied personal and creative musical expression at its most honest, sincere, and playful. One of the L.A. area’s most creative and dedicated drummer-percussionists, Alan Cook, certainly one of the most appropriate artists to honor Motian’s memory with integrity and fidelity, leads this trio through the sounds and spirit of Motian, very capably joined by saxophonist Alexander Vogel and guitarist Derek Bomback. The beauty, joy, and timelessness of Motian’s music lives on in the hands and hearts of its disciples, Perpetual Motian. (Text: Alex Cline)

Open Gate presents
Eagle Rock  Sunday Evening Concert
November 4th , 2012
at 7:00 p.m.
Dan Clucas Quintet
Dan Clucas - trumpet , cornet
Bill Plake- saxophones
Brian Walsh- clarinets
Devin Hoff - bass
Brian Christopherson - drums

and
Alexander Vogel   - solo soprano and tenor Saxophone

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.)
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989

The Glendale Moose Variety Arts Guild is proud to present the Moose Event;
Suffering Fools; Living Lodge
Sunday October 28th, 2012, 7:00
At the Glendale Moose Lodge - All over the Lodge
357 West Arden, Glendale - Lots of free parking

Curated by Julianne Just and Will Salmon

HOSTED by William Shakespeare (Moira MacDonald)
and Helen of Troy (Kyle Stockburger)

You might call it a giant haunted house or a Moosely performance fun house;
You might even show up in a Halloween costume – I wouldn’t stop you..
No sirrie Bob! It’s up to you. But I will say, this Variety Arts Guild show has a very wide Variety.
And this Moose Lodge event will use more of the Lodge than any show I know of.
More than one act will be going on at a time,
Not just the Ball Room, Social Quarters, and the Upstairs,
but halls, bathrooms, stairs, and who-knows-what will be sites for performances.

Performances will Include
The Weird Sisters
Directed by Julianne Just and Genevieve Gearhart
Featuring: Chrisse Harms, Jessica Reed, Megan Rippey, Matthew Bamberg Johnson,
Richard Pluim, Jenny Greer, Jacob Loeb, Kestrel Burley, Sandy Simona, Gilbert Molina, Sallie Merkel, Emma Green and Zachary Schwartz
Underworld Environment by: Moira MacDonald

A Special Appearance by The Moose Goddess and her Nymph
-Alexis Macnab and Vivian Kane

The Storytelling Band presents: “Music for Witches.”
Our Band of Insatiables will be evoking Norwegian Water Spirits , Soothsayers, Vampires, Somnambulance and other musical spells
through the mystery of song and story. The Gang: Lauren Baba, Tim Carr, Caitlyn Conlin, Kassandra Kocoshis, Mike Lockwood, Andrew Rowan, Jake Rosenzweig, Steven Van Betted

Come
Director/Choreographer: Natalie Metzger
Music: Robert Allaire
Performers: Erica Carpenter, Lexi Gibbons, Tiffany Stacey, and Chelsea Yarnell
Five women invite you into their lair where pleasure and terror await.

Totentantz Cycles by Jesse Kingsley
In this 14th century allegorical tradition, puppets from all stations of life meet their fates,
and dance to the last song they will ever hear in this world.

Insuu Bunkai - a Japanese "Noise" band

Christina Linhardt – a toy piece

Antony and Cleopatra (a verbal burlesque) by Doc and Stumpy

Video Installation by Dallas Wexler

Breeze, Oz, and Cheryl and others in music dance improv

Woeful Tale of trying to practice a Bagpipe on circus train – Tuba Heatherton

Bjorn Reddington monologue

Kevin Blackley "When you're lying awake" From Iolanthe

Kio Griffith live video

Heyward Bracey - Butoh Dance

Video Installation by Dallas Wexler

New work by Sam Shay, Alex Demers, Femme 6 , and many more.....

Come join us for one night only! Please contact julianne.just@gmail.com or genevieve.gearhart@gmail.com

Moose Events are open to members and their honored guests.
If you have not yet joined, please have a member sign you in as a guest when you arrive

The Glendale Moose Variety Arts Guild is proud to present:

Honored Guest 1:
Dwight Trible with Open Gate
Hear this wonderful singer with Open Gate.
Sunday September 23, 2012, 7:00
At the Glendale Moose Lodge
357 West Arden, Glendale Lots of free parking

Performers include: Dwight Trible- voice

Bill Casale - bass

Alex Cline- drums

Vinny Golia- winds

George McMullen - trombone

Kira Vollman - voice and bass clarinet

Will Salmon - flute and voice

Dwight Trible website: http://www.dwighttrible.com

Call (626) 795-4989

Moose Events are open to members and their honored guests.

If you have not yet joined,

please have a member sign in as a guest when you arrive.

Sunday Evening Concerts September 2, at 7:00 p.m.,
presented by Open Gate Theatre,
The Other Three
and
Slumgum.
at
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission i$10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
THE OTHER THREE
Brad Dutz – Percussion
John Fumo – trumpet
Kim Richmond – sax clarinet

SLUMGUM
Jon Armstrong - tenor saxophone
Rory Cowal – piano
Dave Tranchina - bass
Trevor Anderies - drums

Led by percussionist-composer Brad Dutz and inspired by the 1950s recording “The Three” by Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, and Jimmy Giuffre,
The Other Three is a trio of L.A.-area modern jazz virtuosi that honors and extends the work heard on the innovative and classic recording.
Somehow Dutz has been able to accurately recall the spirit and flavor of “The Three” while at the same time having it sound unmistakably
identifiable as his own unique work. Succeeding in snagging two of the area’s most versatile and accomplished horn players to join him
clearly helps—trumpet-cornet-flugelhorn player John Fumo and saxophonist-clarinetist Kim Richmond are the perfect candidates to
understand, reinvent, and expand on the original inventions of Rogers and Giuffre, while Dutz himself embraces Manne’s swinging musicality
and takes it to new levels of distinctive color and eccentricity. The music artfully exemplifies the seamless flow between composition and improvisation while being witty, sophisticated, quirky, beautiful, and swinging. If it sounds like The Other Three are a favorite at Open Gate, you’re totally correct—they are a largely uncelebrated treasure in our midst. They rarely are able to get together to perform, so taking in this set of music is highly recommended!

Who better to share the bill with that sort of musical aggregation than one of the L.A. area’s most remarkable and enjoyable young ensembles, Slumgum? A quartet of former CalArtisans who not only clearly learned their lessons well but also clearly had loads of talent to begin with, Slumgum has emerged as one of the most exemplary modern jazz groups of the last few years, playing original music that finds resonance with a host of diverse artistic expressions while remaining solidly rooted in the vast, panoramic legacy of the jazz tradition. Tenor saxophonist Jon Armstrong, pianist Rory Cowal, bassist Dave Tranchina, and drummer Trevor Anderies, each one a brilliant player who makes distinctive and compelling compositional contributions to the band, have developed magical chemistry as individuals and a luminous sound as an ensemble as they explore the full dynamic range of their collective sonic inventions. Their third and newest CD is The Sky His Own on the Nine Winds label. Not to be missed!

The Glendale Moose Variety Arts Guild is proud to present:
Moose Lounge 1
In the Social Quarters at the Moose Lodge.
Moose Activity- come be our guest.
at the
Glendale Moose
357 West Arden Avenue, Glendale, California 91203

A free event

Duet of
Scott Fraser (electronics/guitar)
and
Bruce Friedman (trumpet)

Trio of
Breeze Smith (percussion)
Oz Stickman (Chapman stick)
Will Salmon (flute and voice)

This event is free and in the Moose Social Quarters.
We're creating a sort of Moose salon in this funky space.
The plan is for this to be the beginning of much much music.

Moose Events are open to members and their honored guests. If you have not yet joined, please have a member sign you in as a guest when you arrive.

Open Gate’s new Multimedia Opera
“Philoctetes”
by Will Salmon (with creative collaboration by performers)
based on the play by Sophocles

Saturday, August 18th at 8:00
Sunday, August 19th at 7:00

Presented by and at the Glendale Moose Lodge 641
357 West Arden Avenue, Glendale, California
Cast
Kio Griffith – video projections,
Will Salmon – Philoctetes (bass),
Alex Vassos – Odysseus (bass/baritone),
Joseph Garate – Neoptolemus (tenor)
Ian Hamilton - Heracles (soprano)
Vinny Golia – winds,
Bill Casale – bass
Jie Ma – Pipa,
Antony DiGennaro – prepared guitar,
Trevor Andries – percussion
Breeze Smith- percussion
Daniel Eaton – Trombone
Seda Bagdasarian- set design
Chad Parker - Set construction
Tuba Heatherton – set construction etc.
Bjorn Reddington – set construction etc.

This Premier will be featured in the
Open Gate 30th Year Anniversary Celebration
At the Moose Lodge August 18th starting at 6:00, continuing after the opera

This will be a Variety Arts Guild Activity for Moose Lodge members and guests - Please be our guest

Sunday evening concerts August 5
at 7:00 p.m.Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
George McMullen Trio
George McMullen - trombone
Devin Hoff - bass
Alex Cline - drums, percussion

Andrew Pask - solo woodwinds
analog modular synthesizer, electronics

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price. Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Trombonist George McMullen, a supremely accomplished veteran of the local music scene—and in this case that includes straight-ahead jazz, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, pop music, and . . . well, pretty much everything—fronts another of his crafty units, playing original compositions and both celebrated and obscure gems from the vast songbook of high-integrity jazz music. The seasoned sideman, adventurous bandleader-composer, and music professor will guide strongman bassist Devin Hoff, multidirectional drummer Alex Cline, and special guest woodwind whiz Brian Walsh through a typically diverse, engaging, and unpredictable set of inventive, swinging, lyrical, and spirited sounds. Very few things in life are as sure-fire as this group’s presentation of modern jazz manifestation.

Opening the concert is another local veteran of the broadest definition of music imaginable, uniquely gifted a and multifaceted woodwind player Andrew Pask playing an exceedingly rare solo set. While it’s an inviting notion to imagine Pask playing unaccompanied inventions in the resonant, horn-friendly acoustics of the Center for the Arts on just his array of saxophones and clarinets, this concert takes things considerably farther by featuring those instruments along with sonic soundscapes and musical contexts created by Pask’s analog modular synthesizer. If this concept sounds rather reminiscent of that pioneered by the great British artist John Surman, it’s because this approach to solo performance is in fact Pask’s tribute to Surman, whose work has been tremendously influential and inspirational to Pask. Should be stellar . . . not to mention cosmic!

Sunday evening concerts August 5
at 7:00 p.m.Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
George McMullen Trio
George McMullen - trombone
Devin Hoff - bass
Alex Cline - drums, percussion

Andrew Pask - solo woodwinds
analog modular synthesizer, electronics

Please come celebrate the life, words and music
Dottie Grossman
at a pot luck open mike performance
memorial and book release* event
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
at the
Glendale Moose Lodge
357 Arden Ave., Glendale, CA, 91203

7 pm – sign up for open mike to participate (10-minute sets)
7:30 pm – Start time for performances
Also, feel free to email Bonnie Barnett (fmz1@aol.com) to get on the performance list ahead of the event date.
Please include names of others who may be included in your segment.
Please contribute to the potluck with food. Easy & affordable drinks available at the Moose. Dottie’s zucchini cake will be in the house.

“The Fun of Speaking English”. http://coffeetownpress.com/
Books shoulc be available at the memorial.
For more info. as it develops email: ellen@ellenburr.com or sign up here to be on the list.

This is a Moose Lodge activity for members and guests.
Please come and be our guest.

Eagle Rock  Sunday Evening Concert
July 1st, 2012
at 7:00 p.m.
Nathan Hubbard/Double Triangle 
and
Thinking of Robert Leng
at
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,  
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock

Nathan Hubbard/Double Triangle 
G.E. Stinson - electric guitars, electronics, etc. 
Nate Atwood- electronics, etc.
 Steuart Liebig - contrabassguitars, electronics, etc. 
Harley Magsino- bass guitar , electronics, etc. 
Brad Dutz - percussion, etc. 
Nathan Hubbard- drumset, etc. 

Thinking of Robert Leng
Tom Steck         drumset/percussion
Breeze Smith     drumset/percussion
Jeff Schwartz     bass
Oz                 Chapman Stick
Charles Sharp sax
Ellen Burr         flute
Jonathon Grasse guitar
Kio Griffith         projections
Cheryl Banks-Smith - dancer/ movement

(NATHAN HUBBARD/DOUBLE TRIANGLE will perform the first set)
$10 TICKETS; half price students, seniors, and series performers

One of the sets has been changed. Robert Leng, scheduled to perform,
is succombing to lymphoma, and is in a hospice in Fremont California.
Many of us wanted to make this a memorial set,
so we are joined by just a few of those who loved to create music with him.
THINKING OF ROBERT LENG  It should be an amazing set.

also - as planned:

NATHAN HUBBARD/DOUBLE TRIANGLE
Multipercussionist-composer Nathan Hubbard, a wearer of many styles of musical hats,
leader of many an ensemble and initiator of countless uncategorizable sonic projects,
has appeared in this concert series in what is for him a typically wide variety of contexts
—as a soloist, as a bandleader (sometimes on drumset, sometimes on vibraphone),
as a sideman (notably with the great Cosmologic), you name it.
Having developed his musical voice as part of the creative music scene connected with UC San Diego,
a scene which has included many a strong musical voice in that hard-to-classify genre,
Hubbard has since relocated to Arizona.
This will be his first appearance at Open Gate since leaving California,
and he’s returning with a particularly formidable ensemble,
Double Triangle, another new project put together by Hubbard.
As the name suggests, it’s something of a double trio, one which features a couple of musicians from the San Diego scene
and a number of new music veterans from right here in the L.A. area:
electric guitarist G.E. Stinson, electronics player Nate Atwood, bass guitarists Steuart Liebig and Harley Magsino, percussionist Brad Dutz, and Hubbard himself on drumset and who knows what else.
It would seem to be safe to expect some very full, dynamic, complex, and eclectic sounds f
rom this imposing all-star ensemble.
Welcome back, Mr. Hubbard!

Open Gate Theatre,Sunday evening concerts  June 3,
at 7:00 p.m.,

Thollem McDonas/Alex Cline Duo
and Chobraty (Michael Vlatkovich & William Roper).

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Thollem McDonas/Alex Cline Duo
Thollem McDonas- piano
Alex Cline - percussion

CHOBRATY
Michael Vlatkovich - trombone
William Roper - Bass Brasswinds

Pianist Thollem McDonas (who sometimes goes by just his first name) technically resides in the Bay Area, but he’s constantly on the move, truly a nomadic ambassador of what early in his career he referred to as “post-classical circus punk jazz free music” who tirelessly travels all over the globe to play in almost every conceivable type of venue and situation. A seasoned improviser whose imagination, range, and technique seem to know no bounds, his performances include solo recitals, collaborations with like-minded musicians the world over (including the recent project the Hand to Mand Band, which includes legendary bassist Mike Watt), and gigs with his politically-inclined Italian punk band Tsigoti. He very recently released a new CD with bassist William Parker and guitarist Nels Cline called The Gowanus Session (Porter Records)—extremely intense and uncompromising. On this evening Thollem will reunite with one of his local comrades in sonic exploration, percussionist Alex Cline, with whom he has been engaging in duo performances of spontaneous music-making for a couple of years or so now. It’s worth it just to come and hear what Thollem can actually get the poor Center for the Arts piano to deliver—truly beyond!

Chobraty is the name of a long-lived duo comprised of two of the Los Angeles area’s most gifted, distinctive, and adventurous brass players, trombonist Michael Vlatkovich and bass brasswinds player William Roper, both important veterans of the international creative music scene. Both musicians compose music for the duo, their compositional ideas serving as jumping-off points for their spirited, sensitive, sophisticated, unpredictable, and often delightful improvisational adventures. Having recorded an album a few years back for the Nine Winds label and being at present on a tour together*, and having also shared sideperson status together in countless ensembles over many years, Vlatkovich and Roper’s personal and musical chemistry is utterly fluid and thoroughly intuitive while their command of their respective brass instruments is always impeccable. They rarely get to perform as a duo, so missing this is not recommended. *Funded in part through NewMusicUSA’s MetLife Creative Connections program. (Wow!)

Heard Moose Herd: Insuu Bunkai and Open Gate
Friday, May 25, 2012;  
8:00pm
Glendale Moose Lodge
357 West Arden Avenue, Glendale,

INSUU BUNKAI
Ken Kawamura : Sax
Banetoriko : Banetech 2000
Daniel Brown : Drums
Goda Xtine: Bass , Suzu, Cymbal
Moe Yamashita : Electric Guitar
http://soundcloud.com/insuubunkai2
Insuu Bunkai, translated from Japanese as “factorization”, is the conception of Kobe, Japan based guitarist Moe Yamashita.
Now residing in Los Angeles, Insuu Bunkai combines many genres such as ambient sound, industrial noise, free-jazz, and rock with the traditional Japanese musical of concept “Ma.”
“Ma” is temporal and spatial emptiness, and when combined with rhythm, tone, and dynamics, Ma is also sound.
With the instrumentation of guitar, prepared bass, found objected amplified noise generator, percussion, shinto bells, saxophone, and drum kit, Insuu Bunkai is able to create a panopoly of sounds and music ranging from a deserted village to a fully rollicking arkestra.

OPEN GATE THEATRE
OGT performers for this gig include:
Trevor Andries- percussion
Antony DiGennaro - prepared guitars
Will Salmon- Flute, voice, piano

We will do part of "Kurutta Ippēji" - ("a Page of Madeness")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iysN06ZCmoc
A remarkable Japanese movie that was made in 1926.
It takes place in an Asylum. There is some terrific expressionistic dance.

This event is a Moose Lodge Lodge Activity for members and guests:
Please friend - come and be our "honored guest".

May 6, at 7:00 p.m.,
Open Gate Sunday evening concert
featuring
Zen Widow
and
Garth Powell/Alex Cline percussion duo.

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Free parking is plentiful.
Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

Zen Widow
Gianni Gebbia - saxophone flute
Matthew Goodheart - piano
Garth Powell - percussion
Garth Powell/Alex Cline percussion duo
Garth Powell/Alex Cline percussion duo.

Formed in 2003, Zen Widow is an international trio of outstanding musicians collectively interested in seamless interaction and intuitive music-making at its most attuned. Building on a very broad musical foundation informed by the extensive musical experience and open-eared inclusiveness of its three members, alto saxophonist/flutist Gianni Gebbia (from Sicily), pianist Matthew Goodheart, and percussionist Garth Powell (both from the Bay Area), Zen Widow demonstrates just how subtle and sophisticated spontaneous music can be without getting stuck in the region from the neck up—it’s some truly compelling sonic invention. Having recorded two CDs and toured extensively internationally, the trio reunites and brings its special brand of creativity to the Southland at this concert, part of its revisiting and extending upon its solid history and thoroughly dependable chemistry during a West Coast tour. They don’t come to the L.A. area often, so this set is not to be missed.

To open the evening, Garth Powell will join forces with local percussionist Alex Cline for their first ever set of improvisations as a duo. Both have extensive experience playing with other artists who play their own instrument—Powell, in fact, has a new CD due to be released with Ganelin Trio percussionist/composer Vladimir Tarasov (Etudes), and Cline has engaged in duos live and/or on record with the likes of Peter Erskine, Andrea Centazzo, Christopher Garcia, Ron George, and Dan Morris, to name a few. Sharing many elements in common in their musical backgrounds and experiences as well as musical influences, not to mention many of the multitude of wonderful sounds they both choose to employ, their musical meeting is sure to generate some serious and satisfying results as well as a whole lot of unabashed enjoyment. Not for drummers only!

Moose Herd Heard
At the Moose:
Two related bands; some great music
May 4th 8:00

at
The Glendale Moose Lodge
357 West Arden Ave. Glendale, Ca. 91023

BRAD DUTZ QUARTET
brad dutz-marimba
paul sherman-oboe
jim sullivan- bass clarinet
chris votek-cello

JASPER DUTZ GROUP
jasper dutz- saxophones
kalia vendever -trombone
luca ferrara- guitar
sara kuo- bass
phillip golub-keyboards
Adrian Cota - Drums

Presented by the Glendale Moose Variety Arts Guild
(This is a Moose Lodge event- for Moose Members and guests)

The Glendale Moose Lodge presents;
Moose Heard Herd:
Vinny Golia Sextet, and Ross Hammond Quartet
Friday, April 13; 8:00
Glendale Moose Lodge
357 West Arden Ave., Glendale

VINNY GOLIA SEXTET:
Vinny Golia - woodwinds
Daniel Rosenbloom - trumpet
Gavin Templeton - alto sax
Alex Noice - electric guitar
Jon Armstrong - bass guitar
Andrew Lessman - drums

ROSS HAMMOND QUARTET
Ross Hammond - guitar
Vinny Golia - woodwinds
Alex Cline - percussion
Steuart Liebig - contrabass guitar

A Moose Lodge Event, for members and honored guest.
Sponsored by "Glendale Moose Lodge Variety Arts Guild"
and Open Gate Theatre

Celebrating 15 years
of the
Open Gate Music Series
Sunday, March 4, at 7:00 p.m.,
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
(one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd.).
$10 (students, seniors, and series performers (not actually playing this night) half price.)
Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.
(Thank you to the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock for their part it presenting us)

Come March it will be fifteen years since Open Gate Theatre began hosting monthly concerts of unusual and uncompromising creative music, most of it in some way improvisational in nature. While it began on Saturday nights at the American Legion Hall in Pasadena, it very quickly was forced to move to the Pasadena Shakespeare Company Theatre and consequently be held on the first Sunday of every month, an arrangement that lasted around two years. After that theater was forced to close and the company to relocate to South Pasadena when that part of the Pasadena Mall, in which it was located, was slated to be torn down and rebuilt, the concert series found a new home at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock (then called the Eagle Rock Community Cultural Center), where the series has continued to hold concerts on the first Sunday of the month in all the years since.
Countless creative musicians from all over the Southland and from all over the world have performed there as part of this series, which now has to be one of the longest-running such endeavors in Los Angeles area history, much to the surprise of the partners who run it, musicians Alex Cline and Will Salmon. In order to celebrate this unusual milestone, a big musical party is being thrown in which a myriad of mostly local talent will engage in collective adventures in improvisation, beginning with Cline and Salmon themselves and gradually expanding to include every musician who shows up in some jumbo-sized spontaneous music-making.
At the time of this writing, among those scheduled to participate along with Cline and Salmon are Vinny Golia, William Roper, Brad Dutz, Emily Hay, Tom McNalley, Steuart Liebig, Jie Ma, Charles Sharp, Tim Perkis, Andrew Pask, Jeff Schwartz, Joseph Berardi, G.E. Stinson, Kaoru, Wayne Peet, Bruce Friedman, Dave Tranchina, Robert Leng, Scott Heustis, Anthony Shadduck, Alan Cook, Carey Fosse, Jim McAuley, Rich West, and, in what is likely to be a gargantuan “Call and Response” section, poet Dorothea Grossman. More are sure to join the serious fun.
As if this weren’t enough, free food and beverages will be available for everyone’s consumption. We invite all listeners and players to join in the honoring of this special occasion by being part of this special event, one in which we can all express our gratitude for one another’s presence now and over the past fifteen years. Creative music is indeed alive in Southern California!

(If have performed in our series- and want to play as a part of this celebration- and somehow you weren't contacted
- our apologies. Just E-mail me and we'll include you.)

Saturday February 25th 8:00 What? The Moose Heard
"Blood of the Pomegranate"
Open Gate explores Persephone and Hades mythos
with voice and movement,
image and instruments,
poetics and improvisation
Carmina Escobar and Will Salmon -voice and movement
Antony DiGennaro - prepared guitars

Trevor Andries - percussion
Chad Parker - tech

Friday February 24th 8:00 What? The Moose Herd
The Decisive Instant also Duodenum

The Decisive Instant Led by Jeff Schwartz, Charles Sharp & Robert Leng.
Free Jazz done with a big band
brass: Bruce Friedman, Carvell Holloway, and Douglas Wadle
reeds: David Adler, Robert Leng, Ken Luey, Tracy McMullen, Charles Sharp, and Alexander Vogel
strings: Derek Bomback, Jonathon Grasse, and Jeff Schwartz
keyboards: Eduardo Poyart
percussion: Alan Cook, David Martinelli, and Tom Steck
Will be playing:

"Six Circles (for Alfred Schnittke)" by Jonathon Grasse
"Nasca Lines Pt. 1" and "Octavia" by Barry Guy
"Red Blue No. 3" by Robert Leng and
"Rubber Bullets and the Sound Cannon" by Charles Sharp
http://www.facebook.com/TheDecisiveInstant

DUODENUM
Carmina Escobar, Vocals, Electronics.
Scott Collins, Guitar, Electronics.

Glendale Moose Lodge, 357 West Arden Ave., Glendale, CA
Lot's of free parking. Easy Freeway access -134

Saturday February 18th 8:00 What the Moose Heard
CC': "filamento"
CAROLE KIM | CARMINA ESCOBAR
criss-cross live audio-visual sampling
projections onto a sculptural mesh screen

http://www.carolekim.com/
http://www.carminaescobar.com/
________________________________________________________

CAROLE KIM is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on live video performance and performance-based video installation. She explores video for its most tactile, expressive and responsive potential as a live medium. Kim is interested in the experiential impact of emergent technologies and their metaphorical potential. She seeks an integration of media where moving image, sound, dance and space are on equal planes engaging in a dynamic reciprocating and mutually supportive dialogue. Kim's installations are hybrid spaces in which the illusory and actual (i.e. mediated and live) merge together in an "other worldly" environment. Her work has been supported by the Irvine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Durfee Foundation, REDCAT, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts, the Getty Center, The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound ( SASSAS), Newtown, Turbulence.org, California Institute of the Arts, and the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology. (Please see www.carolekim.com)

CARMINA ESCOBAR is a singer and multimedia artist from Mexico City exploring a diversity of sonorous languages such as contemporary music, opera, medieval music, folk music, electronic music and experimental trends involving interdisciplinary collaborations and multimedia. As a soloist she has performed concerts of contemporary repertoire for solo voice, the premieres of works by young composers and performances of her own compositions. She has appeared in diverse forums and festivals all around the Mexican Republic, USA and Europe collaborating with artists of diverse disciplines and backgrounds as Thollem McDonas, ROVA saxophone quartet, Vinny Golia, Carole Kim, Theresa Wong, Mia Makela, Don McLeod, Denis Kolokol, Partch Ensemble, Estamos Ensemble, Ricardo Castillo, Fernando Vigueras, Esteban Montes, David Attie, Rebecca Levy, Apeiron Teatro, among many others. As an active improviser, in a solo context as in a group context, she utilizes real-time vocal processing and the use of concrète elements through electronic media. (Please seewww.carminaescobar.com).

Friday February 10 , 8:00 The Moose Herd
SOUND, MOVEMENT and LIGHT
Drama,/dance/ music improvisations
L.A. Collective - lead by Ellen Burr
and
Open Gate Theatre
Featuring Anet Ris-Kelman
and Carmina Escobar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h00mXHcS1o0

In the LA Collective
Ellen Burr, Laura Osborn, flutes
Ken Luey, clarinets
Robert Lang, Alexander Vogel, sax
Steve Lockwood, keys
Oz, Chapman stick
Jeff Schwartz, double bass
Owen Green, electric bass
Charlie Lowrey, Tom Steck, percussion
Nicole Strafaci, poetry
with special guests:
Cheryl Banks-Smith, Roxanne Steinberg, movement
Kio Griffith, video images

Open Gate Theatre
Will Salmon- Flute, voice, performance
Vinny Golia- Winds
Brad Dutz - Percussion
Jie Ma - Pipa
guests
Antony DiGennaro - prepared guitars
Carmina Escobar- voice and performance
Anet Ris-Kelman and Kio Griffith will perform with Open Gate as well as L.A. Collective

Glendale Moose Lodge, 357 West Arden Ave., Glendale, CA
Lot's of free parking. Easy Freeway access -134

February 5th 7:00 Open Gate Sunday Evening Concert, GONGFARMER and COREY FOGEL
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
GONGFARMER
Jim McAuley - acoustic guitars, Marxophone
Andrew Pask - woowinds
Mary MacQueen - bass, voice, recorders
Alan Cook - drums, percussion
COREY FOGEL - SOLO DRUMSET

Saturday February 4th 8:00 The Moose Heard
"Vondell Vu": "Improvisations with Electronics"
Curated by Stephanie Cheng Smith
Daniel Eaton - trombone + electronics
Carmina Escobar - voice + electronics + a little bit of salsa dancing
Kristin Thora Haraldsdottir - viola + electronics
Stephanie Cheng Smith - violin + electronics
http://music.stephiescastle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/scsmith_profile.jpg
Glendale Moose Lodge, 357 West Arden Ave., Glendale, CA
Lot's of free parking. Easy Freeway access -134

Saturday January 28th 8:00 Moose flicks
Nosferatu
The great vampire 1922 classic directed by F.W. Murnau
with live music by Tom Peters
http://soundcloud.com/tom-peters-2/nosferatu-sample-8-26-11
also Talea Carpe Noctem
a goth operatic cabaret adventure
http://www.myspace.com/taleatalea
Topper Anthony and Jacque Mahoney

Glendale Moose Lodge, 357 West Arden Ave., Glendale, CA
Lot's of free parking. Easy Freeway access -134

Sunday January 22, 7:00 Open Gate presents
Voices Unwound
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.
Featuring
Odeya Nin            -voice                                    http://odeyanini.com/home.html
Robert Een            -voice, cello                        http://www.RobertEen.com/
Will Salmon            -voice, flute
Antony DiGennaro- prepared guitar http://laartstream.com/ear-meal/antony-digennaro/

Saturday January 14th,   Slumgum and Open Gate Ensemble at the Moose
Slumgum             http://slumgum.com/ Open Gate Ensemble   http://www.opengatetheatre.com/
Jon Armstrong : Tenor Sax Jie Ma - Pipa
Rory Cowal: Piano   Will Salmon: Flute and voice
Dave Trachina : Bass George McMullen: Trombone
Trevor Anderies: Drums Will include "Philoctetes Aria"
Glendale Moose Lodge, 357 West Arden Ave., Glendale, CA
Lot's of free parking. Easy Freeway access -134 -

January 8th - 7:00 Sunday Evening Music Series: Vinny Golia Sextet and The Curiosities
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price.  Free parking is plentiful.
Vinny Golia Sextet   The Curiosities
Vinny Golia - woodwinds Amy Denio - (Seattle based )
Daniel Rosenbloom - trumpet multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/performance artist
Gavin Templeton - alto saxophone Emily Hay - Flutist/vocalists
Alex Noice - electric guitar   Lucio Menegnon - (NYC based) guitarist
Jon Armstrong - bass guitar Kio Griffith - Video Art
Andrew Lessman - drums Brad Dutz - drums

Sunday Evening Music Series, December 4 7:00 p.m.
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
ROSS HAMMOND QUARTET
Ross Hammond - electric guitar
Vinny Golia -saxophones
Steuart Liebig- contrabass guitar
Alex Cline - drums, percussion

DEVIN HOFF - bass
NICK MAZARELL -saxophones
ALEX CLINE - drums, percussion

OGT Moose Jam
December 2, Friday Glendale Moose Lodge, 8:00
An evening of improvisation  at the Loyal Order of the Moose's Upstairs Ball room

Therese Wong - Cello and Voice
Jie Ma- Pipa
Trevor Anderies - drums percussion
Kio Griffith - Video (? sound)
Vinny Golia - winds galore
Bill Casale - Bass
Will Salmon- flute, voice, (?keyboard)

Presented by Open Gate Theatre and The Loyal Order of the Moose

October 21- 8:00 - Friday Open Gate presents at the Moose
"Tears of the Moosechaser"   David Zink,and Dana Cooper  Glendale Moose Lodge
357 Arden Ave
Glendale
Tickets $15 - ($10 for Moose members and students)

October 22 -8:00 - Saturday
Pieter Studio - 420 West Avenue 33, Unit 10 Lincoln Heights
Jie Ma - Pipa
Alex Cline - Percussion
Kio Griffith - Video
Will Salmon - Flute,voice, movement
Mitsu Salmon - movement voice

November 6 - 7:00Sunday Evening Music Series
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
Bruce Friedman - Edge Study
Bruce Friedman -trumpet
Motoko Honda - electric keyboard
+
Eric K.M. Cark- violin
Alicia Byer - clarinet
Jeff Swartz - bass
Breeze Smith - drums, percussion

Small Fry
Steuart Liebig - contrabass guitars
Bill Barrett - chromatic harmonicaSunday, September 4th 7:00
Sunday Evening Music Series
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, /prime-ogt-video.html
Rent Romus' Lords of Outland
Rent Romus - saxophones, voice, electronics
Vinny Golia- - saxophones, piccolo, voice
CJ Borosque - no imput pedals, trumpet
Ray Schaeffer- 6-string bass guitar
Philip Everett- drums, percussion

Charles Sharp Ensemble
Charles sharp- woodwinds
Douglas Wadle - trombone
John Graves - bass
Jeff Schwartz - bass
Trevor Andries - percussion
Alan Cook - drums, percussion

Saturday, September 17 at 8:00pm
Antlers in the Opera: A Moose-ical Event
Glendale Moose Lodge  357 Arden Ave. Glendale
Presented by the Glendale Moose Lodge and Open Gate Theatre

Open Gate and the Moose Lodge Flick the Opera
Excerpts from old movies with new live music and send up bits of opera.
Performers include:
Tuba Heatherton
Christina Linhardt
Rachel Appelbaum
Will Salmon
$10 Moose Members, $15 Guests (a fundraiser for the Glendale Moose Lodge)

Sunday evening concerts August 5at 7:00 p.m.Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock George McMullen TrioGeorge McMullen - tromboneDevin Hoff - bassAlex Cline - drums, percussionAndrew Pask - solo woodwinds analog modular synthesizer, electronics

Sunday evening concerts August 5
at 7:00 p.m.Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock,
2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
George McMullen Trio
George McMullen - trombone
Devin Hoff - bass
Alex Cline - drums, percussion

Andrew Pask - solo woodwinds
analog modular synthesizer, electronics