9:00 PM Jesse Stewart-Joe McPhee-Nicolas Caloia

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A legend in the fields of jazz and improvised music Joe McPhee (saxophones, pocket trumpet) will perform with Nicolas Caloia (bass), and Jesse Stewart (drums and percussion).

Joe McPhee is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, conceptualist and theoretician. He began playing the trumpet at age eight, taught by his father, himself a trumpet player. He continued on that instrument through his formative school years and later in a U.S. Army band stationed in Germany, at which time he was introduced to performing traditional jazz. Clifford Thornton’s Freedom and Unity, released in 1969 on the Third World label, is the first recording on which he appears as a side man. In 1968, inspired by the music of Albert Ayler, he took up the saxophone and began an active involvement in both acoustic and electronic music. His first recordings as leader appeared on the CJ Records label, founded in 1969 by painter Craig Johnson. These include Underground Railroad by the Joe McPhee Quartet (1969), Nation Time (1970), Trinity (1971) and Pieces of Light (1974). In 1975, Swiss entrepreneur Werner X. Uehlinger release Black Magic Man by McPhee, on what was to become Hat Hut Records

In 1981, he met composer, accordionist, performer, and educator Pauline Oliveros, whose theories of “deep listening” strengthened his interests in extended instrumental and electronic techniques. he also discovered Edward de Bono’s book Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity, which presents concepts for solving problems by “disrupting an apparent sequence and arriving at the solution from another angle.” de Bono’s theories inspired McPhee to apply this “sideways thinking” to his own work in creative improvisation, resulting in the concept of “Po Music.” McPhee describes “Po Music” as a “process of provocation” (Po is a language indicator to show that provocation is being used) to “move from one fixed set of ideas in an attempt to discover new ones.” He concludes, “It is a Positive, Possible, Poetic Hypothesis.” The results of this application of Po principles to creative improvisation can be heard on several Hat Art recordings, including Topology, Linear B, and Oleo & a Future Retrospective.

In 1997, McPhee discovered two like-minded improvisers in bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The trio premiered at the Vision Jazz Festival in 1998 but the concert went unnoticed by the press. McPhee, Duval, and Rosen therefore decided that an apt title for the group would be Trio X. In 2004 he created Survival Unit III with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Zerang to expand his musical horizons and with a career spanning nearly 50 years and over 100 recordings, he continues to tour internationally, forge new connections while reaching for music’s outer limits. http://joemcphee.com/

Nicolas Caloia is a Monreal based double bassist, composer, bandleader and the artistic director of the production company Musique rayonnante. His musical activities are focused in the areas of creative and experimental music that enable him to pursue a broad range of musical interests ranging from free improvisation to compositions for small groups and large orchestras. As a recording artist, he has a dozen releases under his own name, or in shared billing with others, and has as many credits as a sideman. He hopes that the music he plays satisfies the listener's body, mind and heart. http://www.nicolascaloia.net/

Jesse Stewart is an award-winning percussionist, composer, improviser, artist, instrument builder, educator, and writer dedicated to re-imagining the spaces between artistic disciplines. A dynamic and inventive performer, Stewart has a remarkable ability to coax unexpected—even magical—sounds out of virtually any resonating object or material.

He has performed and/or recorded with many musical luminaries including George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Hamid Drake, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, David Mott, Malcolm Goldstein, Jandek, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, and many others. In 2012, he was honored with the “Instrumental Album of the Year” Juno award (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) for his work with Stretch Orchestra, a trio consisting of Kevin Breit on guitars, Matt Brubeck on cello, and Jesse on drums. He has been widely commissioned as a composer. His music has been featured at festivals throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe and is documented on over 20 recordings. He endorses Headhunters brand drumsticks and brushes.

His playing has been described as “truly exciting” (Musicworks 76), “exceptional” (Cadence Oct. 2002) and “phenomenal” (Cadence Nov. 1999). In a 2002 review, Texas-based music critic Frank Rubolino described him as “...one of the finest young drummers and percussionists on the scene today” (One Final Note Summer/Fall 2002).

He lives in Ottawa, where he is a professor of music at Carleton University and an adjunct faculty member in the visual arts department at the University of Ottawa. http://www.jessestewart.ca/home.html