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“If some music stares into the void, David Torn’s seems as if it’s just been released from it...In Mr. Torn’s playing there were elements of Hendrix’s snaky, blues-based improvisations, and elsewhere, the thickness and wide-open power of doom metal. Whether he was evading darkness or running straight into it, this music had levels of history built in, and a mind of its own.”— Giovanni Russonello, New York Times
“Tim Berne is a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction...Few musicians working in or around jazz over the last 30 years have developed an idiomatic signature more distinctive than Tim Berne.”
— New York Times
“Drummer and bandleader Tom Rainey isn’t stuck. He’s not jaded and doesn’t come across like he’s taking himself too seriously. But what’s striking about his trio is how free and enthusiastic the ensemble sounds.”
— Jordannah Elizabeth, DownBeat Magazine
For our next next concert, Elysium Furnace Works is proud to present Chourmo. A cataclysmic trio of leaders — guitarist David Torn, alto saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey — Chourmo is certain to ignite fire, intricate abstraction and passionate forward-motion.
Chourmo will perform at the VBI Theatre of Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, located at 12 Vassar St. in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Friday, May 17 (please note change of date) at 8 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance and $30 at the door — advance tickets on sale now at: https://chourmo.eventbrite.com/ .
EFW's momentous 2024 season will also include:
June 22: Jamaaladeen Tacuma / James Brandon Lewis: “On Your Shoulders”, VBI @ CHAC — this historic congregation of the legendary harmolodic bass pioneer from Ornette Coleman's innovative electric ensemble Prime Time Tacuma with the DownBeat Magazine Rising Star on tenor saxophone Lewis is a multi-generational celebration honoring past trailblazers and offering, in Mr. Tacuma's words, "a special thank you to all the mentors and elders in music sharing their knowledge and creativity with the next generation.” Advance tickets on sale now at: https://jtjbl.eventbrite.com/
JUST ANNOUNCED! July 19: Matthew Shipp Trio, St. Andrew's & St. Luke's Church, Beacon NY — the renowned, era-defining pianist and composer Shipp returns to this sacred space in Beacon, joined by the world-class rhythm section of Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums, as they celebrate their aptly-titled new recording for ESP-Disk', New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://mstrio.eventbrite.com/
September 21: Peter Evans, VBI @ CHAC — the fearsomely gifted trumpeter Evans astonishes with the sheer multiplicity of sounds and textures he is able to coax from his horn and the staggering inspiration that shapes his fathomless exploration in this rare Hudson Valley solo appearance. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://peterevans.eventbrite.com/
October 19: Yuko Otomo, VBI @ CHAC — in her first solo Hudson Valley appearance, the exceptional poet and writer Otomo brings her revelatory work steeped in humane soul and omniversal epiphany, accompanied by musicians TBA. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://otomo.eventbrite.com/
November 16: AM / FM, VBI @ CHAC — this power duo of guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul synthesize a heady brew of avant jazz, blues and noise, radically upending experimental music(s) past, present, and future. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://amfm.eventbrite.com/
December 7: Harriet Tubman (Ross / Gibbs / Lewis), VBI @ CHAC — EFW closes out our monumental season with the fiery intensity of the long-running eclectic, electric collective Harriet Tubman, comprising the insanely talented, accomplished trio of guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer JT Lewis, rounding out 2024 on a monstrously high, heavy note. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://harriettubman.eventbrite.com/
Biographies of David Torn, Tim Berne and Tom Rainey follow below.
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David Torn (also, aka “splattercell”) is a composer, texturalist, guitarist, producer & whatnot of actual international stature, renowned for his unique musical voice which seems to span & un-define a range of idioms and styles.
His characterful & compositionally textural work has had material impact & influence on both film scoring — through his own scores, in addition to his creative contributions to scores by Carter Burwell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cliff Martinez, Howard Shore, Mark Isham, and others — and, generally, upon contemporary electric, electro-acoustic & electronic music.
In addition to the medium of film scoring, David’s creative contributions have graced & assisted the works of other musical artists-of-note as diverse as David Bowie, k.d. lang, Tim Berne, John Legend, Madonna, Tori Amos, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, Chocolate Genius, Michael Shrieve, Steve Roach, Patrick O'Hearn, Matt Chamberlain, Meshell Ndegeocello and Don Cherry.
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Tim Berne is an American alto saxophonist and record label owner. He was born in Syracuse, New York, United States. He has said that he had no interest in playing an instrument until he attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. Hearing the album Dogon A.D. (1972) by Julius Hemphill turned his attention toward jazz. He was a fan of rhythm and blues, and it seemed to him that Hemphill was playing jazz with the soulfulness of R&B. In 1974, he went to New York to find Hemphill, who gave him saxophone lessons and advice on how to manage his career. Berne started the record label Empire in 1979.
For Empire, he recorded four albums with avant-garde jazz musicians such as John Carter, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Olu Dara, Vinny Golia, Paul Motian, and Ed Schuller. His next two albums appeared on Soul Note in the early 1980s. In these sessions he worked with Motian, Schuller, Ray Anderson, Herb Robertson and others. He then got a contract with Columbia and recorded with Robertson, Hank Roberts, Bill Frisell and others. During this time he also recorded a duo album with Frisell and two albums with John Zorn. After two albums with Columbia, he signed with JMT, a label known for avant-garde jazz.
In the 1990s, he recorded in the trio, Miniature, with Roberts and Joey Baron, and in the band Caos Totale with Django Bates, Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, Steve Swell, and Bobby Previte. He led a trio with Michael Formanek and Jim Black, then added Chris Speed to form the quartet Bloodcount (which was occasionally a quintet with the addition of Ducret). PolyGram bought JMT and closed it. This motivated Berne to start Screwgun Records as the outlet for his albums.
Screwgun's first release was a 3-disc set by Bloodcount called Unwound, the music of which exemplified Berne's characteristic style of "explod[ing] the walls of traditional compositional form: instead of adhering to anything remotely resembling theme and variations, he intersperses thematic material–sometimes repeated, elongated, or truncated–with the careening pleasures of free improvisation." During the late 1990s he continued to perform with Bloodcount, formed Paraphrase, a trio with Drew Gress and Tom Rainey, and Big Satan, a trio with Ducret and Rainey.
In the early 2000s, Berne formed several groups, including the trio Hard Cell with Rainey and Craig Taborn, and the quartet Science Friction (Berne, Ducret, Rainey,and Taborn). He also collaborated with members of The Bad Plus for the project Buffalo Collision, with Nels Cline of Wilco for the critically acclaimed album The Veil in 2011, and with David Torn on several projects and recordings.
Berne formed the band Snakeoil with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega, and Ches Smith, which released a self-titled album in 2012, and six more recordings, with slight personnel changes, over the next decade. During this time, he has also recorded with members of The Bad Plus as Broken Shadows, and in duos with several musicians. In 2023 he released Oceans And with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand.
Recently albums by other musicians interpreting Berne's music have begun to appear. These include Førage by Matt Mitchell, Koi by Gregg Belisle-Chi, and Palm Sweat by Marc Ducret.
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Drummer Tom Rainey has performed and or recorded with numerous artists including Mose Allison, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Joe Lovano, and countless others.
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Elysium Furnace Works is a cooperative project co-led by Mike Faloon and James Keepnews. EFW seeks to present the work of vanguard artists in settings as dedicated and uncompromising as the art itself, focusing primarily although not exclusively on live music performances in and around New York's vibrant Hudson Valley. Follow us on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/elysiumfurnaceworks — and on Instagram @elysiumfurnaceworks.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar St, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-3046, United States,Poughkeepsie, New York
Tickets
