Jim Staley + Sylvie Courvoisier March 2, 2008

$15

Jim Staley , trombonist and composer, works primarily with improvisation, crossing genres freely between post-modern classical music and avant-garde jazz. He has collaborated for many years with other highly experienced improvisers, both dancers and musicians. Staley¹s recording projects include Blind Pursuits with Phoebe Legere and Borah Bergman; Mumbo Jumbo , different trio combinations with Wayne Horvitz, Elliott Sharp, Shelley Hirsch, Samm Bennett, Ikue Mori, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith and John Zorn; Jim Staley's Don Giovanni , with Mori, Davey Williams, Zeena Parkins and Tenko, plus several more. Staley also performs and records with the Tone Road Ramblers, a collaborative chamber-improv ensemble, together since 1981.

Composer/pianist, Sylvie Courvoisier was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland. She started to play piano at age of six initiated by her father, an amateur jazz pianist. She moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1998, where she currently resides. She has played and recorded with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tim Berne, Joey Baron,Mark Feldman, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef Dave Douglas, Joëlle Léandre, Herb Robertson, Butch Morris, Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred Frith, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef among others. She has been commissioned to write music for concerts, radio, dance and theater. Her works include:” Concerto for electric guitar and chamber orchestra" ; "Balbutiements" for vocal quartet and soprano ;"Ocre de Barbarie", a musical performance for metronomes, automatons, barrel organ, piano, tuba, saxophone, violin and percussion. Commissions include the Vidy Theater of Lausanne, Pro Helvetia and Germany's Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival. Her debut recording "Sauvagerie Courtoise" on Unit Records was released in 1994. Her second recording ''Ocre" on Enja Records (Music for barrel organ, piano, tuba, bass and percussion) led to appearances on concert stages all over Europe. In the following years, Courvoisier released 6 CDs as a leader, and 10 CDs as a Co-leader, and more than 20 recordings as a side person or as a guest. Her latest releases as a leader are: "ABATON” with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander on ECM Records (2004), “LONELYVILLE” with her new quintet on Intakt Records (2007) and a solo piano album, SIGNS AND EPIGRAMS, on Tzadik Records (2007). Since 1995, she has been touring widely with her own groups and as a side person in USA, Canada and Europe including Jazz and New Music Festivals such as Berlin, Willisau, Donaueschingen, Banlieue Bleue, Saalfelden, Groningen, Visions NY, Nürnberg, Taktlos, London LMC, Bath Festival, Muenster and Victoriaville Festival, among others. Sylvie is currently the leader of her own quintet "Lonelyville" and the Trio Abaton. She is a member of “Mephista”, an improvising trio with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra; "Herb Robertson Quintet” with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Mark Dresser; in Trio along with Ellery Eskelin and Vincent Courtois : John Zorn’s Cobra. She also performs regularly in Duo with violinist Mark Feldman. Awards include Switzerland's 1996 Prix des jeunes créateurs and Zonta Club's 2000 Prix de la Création.