9.25.12 David Binney + John Escreet + Eric Revis + Alex Cline

Since moving to New York in 2006, John Escreet has had a powerful impact, and has emerged as one of the most creative and original pianists on the music scene there.

He is highly revered amongst his peers for his creativity, openness and for his own original music, which draws inspiration from many different sources, and encompasses them all and much more. Escreet keeps himself busy touring and performing all over the world, but when not on the road he resides in New York City, working on and performing his own original music, constantly challenging himself and searching for something new and original.

He leads his own group ‘The John Escreet Project’ which is described by the New York Times as “a superb band”, and which features some of the most exciting and forward-thinking improvising musical talents on the New York jazz scene – David Binney (alto saxophone), Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Matt Brewer (double bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums).

His most recent album ‘Don’t Fight The Inevitable’ was recorded with this group, and released in June 2010 on Mythology Records, and quickly received widespread critical acclaim. Prior to that, John’s highly anticipated debut album ‘Consequences’ was released in September 2008, and received a similar avalanche of praise and attention from musicians and critics alike.

John Escreet website

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“Eric Revis is one of today’s true masters.” – Chris Hovan, All About Jazz.com

Grammy-winning bassist/composer Eric Revis has been one of the most solid and forceful voices in the contemporary jazz scene for over 15 years despite his young age. The deep-running power of his beat, his potent and gorgeous tone, and his dynamic approach to music keeps him in high demands among notable musicians such as Branford Marsalis and Jeff “Tain” Watts.

Born in Los Angeles, CA on May 31, 1967, he grew up listening mostly to funk and rock music. It was not until when he was 14 years of age that he picked up an electric bass and taught himself how to play. After attending Southern University as biology major for a year, Eric relocated to San Antonio, TX where he got a regular gig playing 6 nights a week.

As Eric worked the gig, his fellow band members introduced him to jazz. Eric recalls Kind of Blue as one of his first influential jazz recordings. As he discovered this new element of music, Eric decided to switch to an acoustic bass.

Eric met Delfeayo Marsalis while volunteering for the Arts Council of San Antonio. Delfeayo strongly suggested that Eric study under his father’s program in University of New Orleans. Eric then moved to New Orleans where he has studied under Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, and Victor Goines from 1991 to 1992. New Orleans then offered fertile environment for growing musicians with huge appetite: Musicians whom Eric played with and learned from are Brian Blade, Nicholas Payton, Chris Thomas, Mark Turner, Troy Davis, Peter Martin, and Greg Tardy to name a few.

It was through his association with Peter Martin that Eric learned of Betty Carter’s “Jazz Ahead” program. Eric’s persistent request to be in the program resulted in him playing in Ms. Carter’s band which turned out to be a true schooling experience for Eric.

Eric made his inevitable move to the New York City in 1994, as he became a regular bassist for Ms. Betty Carter. It did not take long for the New York musicians to take a notice in Eric. He had worked regularly with Billy Harper, Louis Hays, Lionel Hampton, Tess Marsalis, Russell Gunn, etc. Around this time, Small’s Jazz Club in Greenwich Village provided a place for an array of young musicians to spend countless hours, days and nights, to practice, discuss, and experiment their musical ideas. Eric spent considerable amount of time there with his fellow musicians such as Sherman Irby, James Hurt, & JD Allen.

In 1997, Eric met Branford Marsalis at a recording session with Russell Gunn. Mr. Marsalis who was impressed with the young bassist asked Eric to join him on his recording, Bug Shot along with Kenny Kirkland and Jeff “Tain” Watts. Eric has been Branford’s most reliable allies since then. Rafi Zabor, author of The Bear Comes Home says, “Eric Revis seems to me the finest rhythm partner yet to join him in a working Marsalis group: a terrific band bassist whose work evades casual notice, the lunging, deep-running power of his beat, acuity of accent, and his instinct for the right propulsive run of notes have given this band stronger legs to stand on, and an increased capacity for friendly earthquake.”

 Eric Revis website

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Alex Cline has a musical sensibility and sensitivity that belong to another time… a time when intimate thoughts were best expressed by someone sitting down, setting pen to paper, and sending their innermost feelings by land or sea, to be read by the intended a few days or weeks later… in short, a time when “time” really counted. Peter Erskine

Alex Cline Born January 4, 1956 in Los Angeles, Alex Cline began playing the drums at age eleven, first in rock bands with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline. Alex’s interest in a larger sonic vocabulary caused him to gather a large family of percussion instruments that he has been heard playing mainly in the “jazz” and “new music” genres. After beginning a musical association with woodwind artist Jamil Shabaka in 1976 as Duo Infinity, Alex Cline’s musical activities began to flourish. In 1977 Cline became a member of Vinny Golia’s group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio (along with Baikida Carroll, a unit which toured Europe and recorded that year), formed the electric improvisational trio Spiral (with Nels Cline and synthesizer player-multi-instrumentalist Brian Horner), and began performing solo percussion concerts.

Since that time, Alex Cline has performed and/or recorded with numerous musical artists including Vinny Golia (both in small groups and his Large Ensemble), Arthur Blythe, Tim Berne, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Julius Hemphill’s JAH Band (with Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Steuart Liebig, and Jumma Santos), Richard Grossman, Don Preston, Henry Grimes, Charlie Haden, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Nels Cline (in his groups Destroy All Nels Cline and the Blue Mitt Ensemble), Adam Rudolph, Yusef Lateef, Gregg Bendian’s Interzone, Steuart Liebig (in his groups Seconda Prattica, Kamerstig, and Lane Ends Merge Left), John Rapson, Horace Tapscott, Philip Gelb, G.E.Stinson, Barre Phillips, Charles Lloyd, Tom McNelley, the European collective Shooting Stars and Traffic Lights, Baikida Carroll, Michael Vlatkovich, Frank Morgan, Wadada Leo Smith, Scot Ray, Takako Uemura, William Roper, Erik Friedlander, Susan Rawcliffe, Mark Dresser, Biggi Vinkeloe, Andrea Centazzo, Miya Masaoka, Dana Reason, Nathan Hubbard, Mark O’Leary, Kim Richmond, Theo Saunders, Dan Clucas, George McMullen, Motoko Honda, Walter Thompson, Buddy Collette, James Carney, Roberto Miguel Miranda, Harris Eisenstadt’s Ahimsa Orchestra, Dave Fiuczynski, Dennis Gonzalez, John Wolf Brennan, Rob Blakeslee, Kate McGarry, Henry Kaiser, Mark Weber, Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith’s “Yo Miles!” project, Karl Berger, Marty Ehrlich, Jim McAuley, Stephanie Haynes, Joel Harrison, BLOC, Jey Clark, Nicholas Kirgo, Judy Silvano, Steve Lockwood, Chris Dundas, Tina Marsh, Grey Pavilion, Lenny Carlson, Burton Green, John Fumo, Lynn Johnston, Iris Lord, Thirteen Frightened Girls, Sam Phipps, John Wood, and Wayne Peet (in duo, quartet, and in Wayne’s group Doppler Funk). He has also worked in percussion duos with Ron George, Gregg Bendian, Peter Erskine, Christopher Garcia, and Dan Morris. His musical pursuits have taken him all over the United States, Europe, and Canada, including appearances at many major jazz festivals.

In 1979, Alex, Nels Cline, Eric von Essen, and Jeff Gauthier formed Quartet Music, a group that enjoyed continued success in its performances and four recordings over an eleven-year period and was awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. Several of Alex’s compositions were performed and recorded by this ensemble. In summer 1989 Quartet Music performed its music for two consecutive evenings together with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Alex Cline has served as composer and/or performer for numerous modern dancers and dance companies in Los Angeles, including Margaret Schuette, Linda Fowler, the Momentum Company (for whom he served as music director for their “Soundspace” concerts), Dance/LA, the UCLA Dance Company, Belinda Cheng’s Auricle Ensemble, Oguri and Roxanne Steinberg (Body Weather Laboratory), and Open Gate Theatre, a dance-music-theater ensemble founded and led by dancer-musician Will Salmon, which Alex has been involved with since 1983. Visual artists with whom Alex has collaborated for live performances include Carole Kim, Yoshio Ikezaki, Kio Griffith, 2-Tu, and Norton Wisdom. He has worked on feature and cable television film soundtracks, done numerous sound workshops and percussion clinics, plus lecture-demonstrations on Asian metal percussion instruments.
Alex recorded his first album, a solo percussion double-LP called Not Alone (on the 9 Winds label), in 1982. In 1987, he recorded his first album as a bandleader-composer entitled The Lamp and The Star (on the ECM label). Thus began the twelve-year life of the Alex Cline Ensemble, a group that experienced some shifting in personnel but which retained the same core of players throughout its history, which produced three more albums. In 1992, this ensemble recorded their second album, Montsalvat, released in January 1996 on the 9 Winds label. Sparks Fly Upward, recorded in April 1998, and its companion album The Constant Flame, recorded in 2001, were released on Cryptogramophone Records. The critically acclaimed albums were produced by Peter Erskine. His new recording, Continuation (featuring Jeff Gauthier, Peggy Lee, Myra Melford, and Scott Walton), is slated to be released on Cryptogramophone in early 2009. Cline’s compositions have also been heard on recordings or in performances by Quartet Music, Dennis Gonzalez, Shooting Stars and Traffic Lights, Barre Phillips, and the Jeff Gauthier Goatette. Alex has also initiated some successful improvisational collective units, notably Cline-Gauthier-Stinson, Cloud Plate (with Kaoru, Miya Masaoka, and G.E. Stinson)–both of which are documented on recordings—and the Rain Trio (with Eric Barber and Scott Walton).

Profiles of Alex have appeared in such publications as Down Beat, Modern Drummer, Avant, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Pasadena Weekly, LA City Beat, and Glue, and he is one of the artists featured in the book Percussion Profiles by Trevor Taylor and Michael Bettine, book and CD featuring twenty-five of the “world’s most creative percussionists.” He has also been curator for Open Gate Theatre’s hosting of monthly Sunday evening concerts of creative and unusual music since 1997, most of those years at the Center for the Arts in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Alex Cline website