KENNETH GREEN & DUSHUN MOSLEY | 7:30 PM EST
MARA ROSENBLOOM | 8:00 PM EST
Jason Kao HWang's HUMAN RITES TRIO | 8:30 PM EST
Friday, February 19TH
These performances are made possible with generous support from Luis Torregrosa and Alan Feller
Edgefest 24’s 5th virtual installment brings a triple bill that kicks off with the duo of Detroit-based Kenneth Green on piano and Chicago-based Dushun Mosley on Percussion. In the second set, Wisconsin-born Mara Rosenbloom, fulfills her description from All About Jazz as “a whole-hearted poet of the piano” with her own set. Rounding out the evening are the national artists that comprise the Human Rites Trio – Hwang and his longtime bandmates, Ken Filiano and Andrew Drury – who converse freely and eloquently in a musical language created together over years of collaboration.
In a time when most artists mirror others in both repertoire and style, Kenneth Green stands out as one of the most inspired and original pianist/composer on the contemporary music scene. With a career spanning more than 30 years, in his dedication to sonic improvisation and excellent karma, he has performed nationally and internationally with some of the stellar improvisational giants of the 21st century: Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, Dr. Salim Washington, Douglas Ewart, Dr. Morris Lawrence, James Carter, Rod Hicks, Malachi Favors, Donald Washington, Fred Anderson, Don Moye, Faruq Z. Bey, Allan Barnes, Rafael Garrett, Edward Wilkerson, Harrison Bankhead and many others. Nominated “Outstanding Jazz Pianist” in the Detroit Metro Music awards, Kenneth was a founding member of the Creative Arts Collective. He now serves as the principal composer for the visual and ethereal Vizitors. In addition, he continues as executive and artistic director for the Cosmic Music Community. A regional collective of Afro Futurist Jazz musicians, whose focus and directive moves past that of entertainment to a mission of nourishment. Presenting resonant frequencies and vibratory rates conducive for sustaining life, healing, well-being and respect for all species. “To musically provide an engagement in the principles of community restoration, self-worth, healthy living and unity, is the objective of The Cosmic Music Community. Utilizing this high gift of music for effective and excellent living” states Green.
Dushun Mosley, AACM Percussionist, is a performer, bandleader and father of three. Based in Chicago, he is the co-leader for the Vizitors and leads The Signature Group; he’s also a member of the Eight Bold Souls, Douglas Ewart and Inventions, Shadow Vignettes, The 5 after 7 Project, AACM Experimental Ensemble and the AACM Great Black Music Ensemble. Mr. Mosley has toured extensively as a soloist, in duets, trios and big bands. He has been called upon to do numerous engagements in social clubs, music halls and festivals in cities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Japan. He has performed with numerous musicians such as Roscoe Mitchell, Steve Colson, Douglas Ewart, Henry Threadgill, Ernest Dawkins, Kenneth Green, Anthony Davis, Don Moye, Don Cherry, Amen Mohammad, Ed Wilkerson, Mwata Bowden, Dee Alexander, Spencer Barefield, Vandy Harris, Richard Muhal Abrams, George Lewis, Willie Pickins, Jodie Christian, Saalik Zyaid and others.
Pianist, composer, & bandleader Mara Rosenbloom has been called “a whole-hearted poet of the piano,” – she is a builder & a synthesist; a fiercely lyrical composer & improviser (All About Jazz).
Originally from Wisconsin, Rosenbloom has spent the past decade in New York City, creating a distinctive body of work and establishing herself as a vibrant and respected part of the city’s diverse network of jazz & improvised music communities. Following the release of Prairie Burn (Fresh Sound/New Talent), Rosenbloom’s debut trio release with bassist Sean Conly & drummer Chad Taylor, The New York Times cast a spotlight on Rosenbloom, heralding Prairie Burn as a “…a trio recording of bristling provocation and full-bore group improvising…her strongest statement as a bandleader and her most dauntless effort as a pianist.” The album received a rare 4.5 stars from Downbeat Magazine, earning it a spot on the Magazine’s Best Albums of 2017 list. New York Music Daily praised the album as “[Rosenbloom’s] quantum leap into greatness. An absolutely feral, largely improvisational suite…unbridled ferocity and a remarkable chemistry.” The following May, the trio made their Jazz at Lincoln Center debut, performing to a sold out house at Dizzy’s Jazz Club Coca-Cola. The following January, the group made a splash at New York City’s Winter Jazzfest, performing to a packed house, and receiving critical acclaim from Nate Chinen at WBGO, and The New York City Jazz Record.
This past year, Rosenbloom has been debuting a new ensemble, Flyways, featuring 2019 Van Lier Fellowship winner Anais Maviel (voice & surdo drum) & acclaimed bassist Rashaan Carter (Wallace Roney, Marc Carey, Cindy Blackman). The group’s premier work, “I know what I dreamed” sets the text of one of Adrienne Rich’s 21 Love Poems to melody, and extends it into a set length work, balancing composed narrative within a dynamic level of improvisation.
Prior to her work with both trios, Rosenbloom lead her long-running quartet with alto saxophonist Darius Jones, bassist Sean Conly, and drummer Nick Anderson – embarking on two US tours, performing monthly in New York, and releasing two albums to critical acclaim. Currently, in addition to her own projects, Rosenbloom recently recorded the music of William Parker on a new album of his compositions to be released Spring, 2019 & performed his tribute Blue Lime Light for Cecil Taylor, at Taylor’s Memorial Concert in 2018. Rosenbloom is also a member of Iconoclast American Jazz Drummer William Hooker’s Quartet MOON (feat: Jon Irabagon), Dawn Drake’s global funk ensemble ZapOte, which just returned from a 10 day International US Embassy Tour of Belize (performing workshops for children with special needs, community concerts, and outreach & exchange with local musicians), and continues to perform with a variety of musicians across genres, including Cooper-Moore, William Parker, Nioka Workman, Sam Newsome, Michael Wimberly, Vinny Golia, Ken Filiano, Ava Mendoza, Rosa Avila, Gerald Cleaver, Ras Moshe, Omar Tamez, Jeff Davis, Billy Mintz, Daniel Carter, and Anais Maviel. Her mentors at the piano include the incomparable Cooper-Moore, and the late great Connie Crothers.
Check out Mara’s music here: mararosenbloom.com/audio
The music of Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) explores the vibrations and language of his history. His compositions are often narrative landscapes through which sonic beings embark upon extemporaneous, transformational journeys. His most recent releases, Conjure, his duo with Karl Berger, and Blood, performed by Burning Bridge, his octet of Chinese and Western instruments, have received critical acclaim. In 2019, 2018, 2013 and 2012, the El Intruso International Critics Poll voted him #1 for Violin/Viola. In 2017 Downbeat Magazine named his quintet Sing House as one of the best of the year. His 2015 CD Voice, which features vocalists Deanna Relyea and Tom Buckner received critical acclaim. Zilzal, his duets with Ayman Fanous, was named one of the Top CDs of 2014 by All About Jazz/ Italy. The 2012 Downbeat Critics’ Poll voted Mr. Hwang as Rising Star for Violin. The first Burning Bridge was one of the top CDs of 2012 by Jazziz and the Jazz Times. In 2011 he released Symphony of Souls performed by his improvising string orchestra, Spontaneous River. In 2010, the New York Jazz Record selected Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983 from a collective that was Mr. Hwang’s first band, as one the 2010 Reissued Recordings of the Year. His quartet EDGE released, EDGE (2006), Stories Before Within (2008), and Crossroads Unseen (2011), all of which appeared on many top ten of the year lists. His chamber opera The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown was one of the Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005 by Opera News. As composer, Mr. Hwang has received support from Chamber Music America, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, NY Community Trust, NJSCA, NYSCA, US Artists International and others. As violinist, he has worked with William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Pauline Oliveros, Tomeka Reid, Patrick Brennan, Will Connell, Jr., Zen Matsuura, Oliver Lake, Adam Rudolph, Jerome Cooper and others.
Ken Filiano, bass player, composer, improviser, has been performing throughout the world for thirty years, collaborating with leading artists in multiple genres, fusing the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless inventiveness. Ken leads two quartets, Quantum Entanglements, and Baudalino’s Dilemma (Vinny Golia, Warren Smith, Michael TA Thompson), and is a co-leader of The Steve Adams/Ken Filiano Duo and TranceFormation (Connie Crothers, Andrea Wolper.) His extensive discography includes a solo bass CD, “subvenire” (NineWinds), and “Dreams From a Clown Car” (Clean Feed), which presents his compositions for his quartet, Quantum Entanglements (Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, Michael TA Thompson). For these and numerous other recordings and performances, critics have called Ken a “creative virtuoso,” a “master of technique” . . . “a paradigm of that type of artist. . . who can play anything in any context and make it work, simply because he puts the music first and leaves peripheral considerations behind.”* Ken has performed and/or recorded with Karl Berger, Bobby Bradford, Anthony Braxton, Connie Crothers Quartet, Bill Dixon, Ted Dunbar, Giora Feidman Quartet, Vinny Golia ensembles, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jason Kao Hwang, Joseph Jarman, Raul Juarena, Joelle Leandre, Frank London, Tina Marsh, Warne Marsh, Dom Minasi, Barre Phillips, Roswell Rudd, ROVA Saxophone Qt., Paul Smoker, Peeter Uuskyla, Fay Victor Ensemble, Pablo Zielger, and many more. Ken is on the teaching roster at the New School in New York, and has been a guest artist lecturer at School of Visual Arts and Hunter College (New York). He teaches master classes in bass and improvisation, and has a private bass studio in Brooklyn.
Andrew Drury is a drummer, composer, and organizer who has performed in 30 countries and on 70 recordings, recently recognized by All About Jazz as “one of the most adventurous drummer/percussionists in creative music today, and a dedicated humanitarian.” A long-time student of the legendary drummer Ed Blackwell, he performs as a soloist and leads ensembles of all sizes—most recently Content Provider featuring Ingrid Laubrock, Briggan Krauss, Brandon Seabrook. In addition to his work with Jason Kao Hwang and Ken Filiano he has worked in the last decade with J. D. Parran, Ku-umba Frank Lacy/1032K, Stephanie Richards, Robert Dick, Kris Davis, Alan Braufman, Cooper-Moore, Satoko Fujii, Thomas Buckner, Joseph Daley, Aruán Ortiz, Tomeka Reid, Roswell Rudd, Jack Wright, Bonita Oliver, and many more. He is a pioneer of extended percussion techniques involving friction and which turn the drum into a wind instrument. Drury is the founding director of Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit organization that has presented over 150 Soup & Sound house concerts and events involving film, dance, writing, performance art, and humanities discussions in the US, Europe, and South America. Continuum also facilitates international cultural exchange with artists in 40 countries, provides educational programming in homeless shelters and schools across the US and abroad. He has led over 1,500 workshops and masterclasses in universities, prisons, Indian reservations, schools, Central American villages, and shelters for homeless people and battered women. In 2017 Drury received a Jubilation Foundation Fellowship for “spreading joy through rhythm.”
As a bandleader he leads a quartet, CONTENT PROVIDER, featuring Briggan Krauss, Ingrid Laubrock, and Brandon Seabrook and a TENTET. His past groups have included Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, Peter Evans, Eyvind Kang, and others. Drury’s solo work employs a single floor tom or tympani and extreme extended wind and friction techniques that transform the drum into a generator of frequencies, textures, difference tones, and multiphonics akin to electronic music, and which stretch the definition of “percussion” up to and beyond its limits.
A cooperative trio Drury plays in–1032K with Ku-umba Frank Lacy and Kevin Ray–is finishing its second recording featuring special guest Roswell Rudd, and in 2014 was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Atrium to create a suite based on the music of Skip James. As a sideperson/collaborator he has worked with artists such as Jason Kao Hwang, Jack Wright, Stephanie Richards, Robert Dick, Steve Swell, JD Parran, Michel Doneda, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, Kris Davis, Jaap Blonck, Christine Abdelnour, Nate Wooley, Mazen Kerbaj, Darius Jones, Cooper-Moore, and many more.
Drury founded the Soup & Sound house concert series in Brooklyn, NY which has presented over 110 performances (and pots of excellent soup) featuring artists such as Agusti Fernandez, Tomeka Reid, Isabelle Duthoit, Jaap Blonck, Satoko Fujii, and Joe McPhee. Drury is the Director of Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit 501c3 organization that does performance presentation, education, recording, international cultural exchange, runs the Different Track Recordings label, and other activities.
