MSP/Piano w Aaron Bennett’s Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra (Fri 22 Nov @ Mynah Music, Oakland, 8pm) + Set 2: Medium Size Band (Brett Carson, Josh Marshall, Jon Myers, Jacob Peck)

Aaron Bennett’s phenomenal post-jazz ensemble Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra returns to the East Bay at 8pm, Fri 22 Nov @ Mynah Music (543 Athol Ave. (between Cleveland St. & Brooklyn Ave., near Lake Merritt), Oakland, CA 94606 – map)

It’s aways a tremendous energy boost to play with Aaron’s EMTPO, and I look forward with special pleasure to bringing his fantastic charts to Mynah Music’s dynamic news series.

If you’ve already heard the first album of Aaron Bennett’s unique compositions released by Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra (cover below), you’re already coming to this great show. If not, run, don’t walk, to get a copy at http://emtpo.bandcamp.com/ and hear what the fuss is about.

Among Aaron’s many stellar contributions to the Bay Area improv and new music scenes (like sax trio arrangements of Bollywood standards) are fantastic “breathing chart” compositions for large improvising groups that deliver heightened coherence and adventure at the same time. They stand as Himalayas of group improv music. And Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra is the Mt. Everest.

To quote Aaron: “The members of this ensemble utilize the electro-magnetic field of their collective mind to attain a unitive transcendent state of sonic consciousness and in turn, create sublime and/or unusually expanded sonic experiences for their listeners.”

The electro-magnetic field is tuned and amplified by means of unique “breathing chart” compositions using a special graphic notation Aaron has designed for large improvising ensembles to focus and unleash aural energies. The resulting sound is like nothing else and has amazed audiences in a string of orgone-accelerating Bay Area performances over the last year.

(For a more detailed interview with Aaron about this music, please check out Craig Matsumoto’s post: Aaron Bennett’s Electro-Magnetic Improv).

Bio note: Saxist/composer Aaron Bennett has been bending space in the Bay Area jazz and improvised music communities for more than 15 years. Beyond his studies in composition and performance of western music at California Institute of the Arts, Aaron has also studied and played the music of West Africa, Indonesia, India, and Traditional Japanese 雅楽 (Gagaku) music. He has performed throughout the United States and abroad including performances with Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, John Butcher, Donald Robinson, Marco Eneidi, Gianni Gebbia, Weasel Walter, Adam Lane, Larry Ochs, Steve Adams, John Raskin, Victoria Williams, Aphrodesia, Lagos-Roots, The Rova Saxophone Quartet and many others.

He leads his own groups Go-Go-Fightmaster, Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra and performs in the Oakland Active Orchestra , Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait & Switch, Vijay Anderson Quartet, and Guerilla Hi-Fi. Aaron has composed for large ensembles, chamber groups, plays, films, dance performances, wind quintet, saxophone quartets and trios as well as pieces for solo instruments.

In addition to Aaron Bennett (sax & compositions), the line-up for this show will also include:

Bishu Chatterjee (বিশু চ্যাটার্জি) – bass

Ron Heglin – trombone

Jeff Hobbs – violin, or cornet, or…?

Darren Johnston – trumpet

Joe Lasqo – piano & laptop

Bob Marsh – accordion (and spiritual guidance counselor)

Christina Stanley – violin

Set 2 will be Medium-Size Band, the collective of Brett Carson, Josh Marshall, Jon Myers, and Jacob Peck

Formed in 2012, the Oakland-based Medium-Size Band has dedicated itself to the exploration of novel formal structures and directed improvisations. Acting as a composer’s collective in which each member contributes pieces to the pool, the MSB draws on a diverse set of techniques aiming toward group communication and the channeling of creative energy. Each individual member’s unique background contributes to the eclecticism and freedom of movement between different genres and musical perspectives.

Brett Carson (piano) – Brett’s work draws from a wide variety of musical traditions, reflecting the influence of Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Olivier Messiaen, Philip Glass, Claude Vivier, Sun Ra, and others. The composition-improvisation continuum is explored through traditionally notated structures, graphic scores, and improv game concepts. He is originally from Georgia and spent time working in the Atlanta experimental music scene before moving to California to pursue graduate studies in Composition. He is currently based in Oakland, and studies at Mills College with Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith, Chris Brown, and Les Stuck.

Josh Marshall (tenor sax) is an Oakland-based saxophonist and composer/improviser. His work involves architectural innovation, narrativity, systematic improvisatory practice, and live digital media. He has studied with Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Evan Parker, Zeena Parkins, Butch Rovan, I.M. Harjito, and Steve Adams of the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. Joshua has played and/or recorded with Opera Wolf, Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland, Architect/Enchantress, Bill Noertker’s Moxie, Medium Sized Band, ELL3, Cheer Accident, Josh Allen’s Deconstruction Orchestra, Key West, Mister Sister, Ikue Mori (もりいくえ), Robocop, the Andrew Weathers Ensemble, Modest Machine, and MDK. His music has been featured in festivals and conferences nationwide, including Providence Pixilerations events, the 2010 International Computer Music Conference and 2013’s Outsound Summit. Joshua graduated from Brown University, earning a B.A. through the MEME program, and holds an M.F.A. in music from Mills College.

Joshua has devised several long-form works under the “Mythopoetics” heading, the ambition of which is to unfold abstract narratives in real-time by working within improvisatory systems determined by conceptual constraints particular to the subjects involved. Highlights include Volume II, a series of “Free Jazz Ballets” inspired by Charles Mingus, and Volume IV (Pharaoh Lunaire), which syncretizes a host of trinities (Sanders/Ayler/Coltrane, Webern/Berg/Schoenberg) while repurposing the form of Schoenberg’s famed melodrama.

Jon Myers is a composer and percussionist from Boston, MA interested in fractal and cyclic forms.  He plays in various traditional and contemporary contexts from jazz and Javanese gamelan to new music chamber and percussion ensembles in addition to performing with radio-feedback instruments and computer programs of his own devising.  He is currently studying composition at Mills College in Oakland, CA. His composition Mobile was premiered in Oct 2013 at the Berkeley CNMAT.

Jacob Peck is a guitarist from Las Vegas, NV. He’s currently based in Oakland, CA where he studies with Fred Frith & William Winant at Mills College. His music follows in the lineage of Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen — a “Cosmic Spirit Music” inspired and informed by jazz, jamming, bird song, Bach, Jimi Hendrix, and the reality of interwoven realms.

Join us for an evening of post-jazz improv like you’ve never heard before, at one of Oakland’s most intriguing new venues: Mynah Music…

Look forward to see you there!

Joe