Coming to Detroit’s Trinosophes

Source: trinosophes.

Friday, October 27
Zoh Amba-Chris Corsano
XV , Emily Robb
Doors 7:30 pm
$12 general admission | $20 reserved seat
Purchase advanced tickets now

At the age of 23, Tennessee-born Zoh Amba has become the moment’s rising star in the New York improvised music scene. The tenor saxophonist/flautist’s music blends avant-garde, noise, and devotional hymns in a style reminiscent of Albert Ayler. Before studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music, New England Conservatory and with David Murray in New York, she spent most of her time writing and practicing saxophone in the forest near her home. Today, her powerfully unique avant-garde music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, and repeated incantations. Amba released two records in 2022, her debut record O, Sun which was produced by John Zorn and released on the prestigious label Tzadik. Zoh Amba’s second record, Bhakti features Micah Thomas, Tyshawn Sorey, and Matt Hollenberg. She has collaborated with a variety of high-profile musicians, such as Jim White (Dirty Three), legendary jazz bassist William Parker, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Luke Stewart and others. Amba has also performed at the well-respected venues and festivals: Roulette (NY), Ars Nova Presents (Philadelphia), Vision Festival (NY), Angel City Jazz Festival (LA), and 2023 Big Ears Festival.

Chris Corsano is a New York-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990s. He’s been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of “jazz” (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and “rock” (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O’Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization, such as Michael Flower and Okkyung Lee.

Corsano began a long-standing, high-energy musical partnership with saxophonist Paul Flaherty in 1998. Their style, which they occasionally refer to with (semi-)tongue-in-cheek humor as “The Hated Music”, combines modern free-jazz’s ecstatic collectivism with the urgency and intensity of hardcore punk. A move from western Massachusetts to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop his solo music; a dynamic, spontaneously composed orchestra-of-one utilizing extended techniques for drum set, non-percussive instruments of his own creation (e.g. bowed violin strings stretched across drum heads), circular breathing on modified reed instruments, and stockpiles of resonant metals. He spent 2007-08 as the drummer on Björk’s Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Michael Flower, and Jandek. He moved back to the U.S. in 2009 and continued touring in an ultrawide array of ever-evolving collaborations. In 2017 he won the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award. A renowned solo performer in his own right, Corsano has a new solo record, The Key…, due out next year on the Drag City label.

Saturday, October 28
Alex Levine Quartet, Tropos
Doors 7:30 pm
$12 general admission | $20 reserved seat
Purchase advanced tickets now

Alex Levine is a guitarist and composer based in New York City. A former Michigander, he managed to turn heads on the Detroit/Ann Arbor scene with his distinct take on the role of electric guitar in jazz and improvised music. He has released four albums, Towards The Center (2016 Outside In Music), The World of Real Things (2019 Polyfold), Special Adaptations Vol. 1 (2021 Aut Records), and Anchor Points (OA2 Records). Alex is co-founder and member of Polyfold Musical Arts Collective, a grassroots, artist-led organization based in Brooklyn that helps create opportunities for improvising musicians to present creative works.

Tropos is an ever-morphing collective ensemble of improviser-composers based in New York City led by pianist/composer Phillip Golub and drummer/composer Mario Layne Fabrizio. While Tropos’ members shift from project to project, the multiple iterations of Tropos over the years share an ethos. Tropos is characterized by unusual instrumentations that allow for unique improvisational sound worlds to emerge and inspire its members to write in new ways. All members of Tropos compose for the ensemble while they’re in it. Tropos is also a true collective in that its members share the administrative work and financial costs of each project they are involved with.

COMING SOON

November 2: Trevor Watts / Jamie Harris
November 4: Joseph Allred, Tyler Hicks, Nick Schillace
November 5: Tatsuya Nakatani (solo performance, two sets)
November 7: New Origin Trio (Christophe Rocher, Joe Fonda, Harvey Sorgen)