Calendar

Karen Borca – bassoon, Lisa Mezzacappa – double bass,
Donald Robinson- drums

Karen Borca is the only Bassoonist who has made a mark in Avant-Garde Jazz and Free Jazz. Her bands have played The Berlin Jazz Festival, Taklos Festival in Switzerland, Jazz Happening in Finland, The Vision Festivals in USA and many other concerts, clubs and venues. Her Quartet and 10 peice ensemble “Tentet” played in the Newport Jazz Salute to Women in Jazz Festivals in ’78 & ’79. She was a representative of the US as a member of Canaille, an international group of women composers, which played at the Gulhbenkian Art Center in Lisbon, Potugal in 1990.
She has played and recorded with some of the most important pioneers of Avant-Garde Jazz and Free Jazz including Cecil Taylor, both as a member of his large ensembles and Unit from ’70-’89, Jimmy Lyons, for 12 years , Bill Dixon, Andrew Cyrille, William Parker and more.

Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based bassist, bandleader, composer, curator and producer. An active collaborator in the Bay Area music community for more than a dozen years, she leads her own groups Bait & Switch, the Interlopers, Nightshade, Eartheaters and the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio, and co-leads the ensembles BODABODA, duo B., Cylinder, the Mezzacappa-Phillips Duo, and the Caribbean folk band Les Gwan Jupons. Lisa has released her music on the Clean Feed, NoBusiness, Leo, NotTwo, Evander, Odd Shaped Case and Edgetone record labels, and has recorded as a sideperson for the Tzadik, Kadima and Porto Franco labels. She collaborates frequently on cross-disciplinary projects in sound installation, film/video, sculpture and public music/art.
Described as a ‘percussive dervish’ (Coda) Donald Robinson is a technical master of the drums. He is a stalwart of the of San Francisco bay area avant-garde jazz scene, playing and recording with many of the area’s improvisational players, from saxophonists John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi and Larry Ochs to koto player Miya Masaoka and pianist Matthew Goodheart, and with prominent visitors like Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, trumpeter Raphe Malik and Canadian pianist Paul Plimley. Much of this work has featured the combination of Robinson and bassist Lisle Ellis as rhythm section: ‘the best bass-drums tag team on the scene’ (Jazz Times). His longest musical association, dating from the 1970’s, was with the late tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman. Born is Boston, Massachusetts in 1953, Robinson first studied classical percussion at the New England Conservatory. During the early 1970’s he served his musical apprenticeship in the jazz world of Paris, studying with Kenny Clarke and playing with Alan Silva, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake and Bobby Few among many others. He first played with Spearman as a duet partner during this period in Paris, an association which continued through various configurations and many recordings until the saxophonist’s death in 1998. Robinson is currently playing in many configurations with a broad range of musicians throughout Europe and the US.

Oluyemi Thomas – bass clarinet; Ijeoma Thomas – voice;
Hamir Atwal- drums

Oluyemi & Ijeoma Thomas of Positive Knowledge have recorded and performed together for the past two decades, composing and sharing their joyful Creative World Music Systems with lovers of music and poetry around the world. Ijeoma Thomas – Wordsmith, spoken word artist, poet vocalist and teacher believes “all art is a gift of the Holy Spirit.” Once quoted in the British magazine ‘The Wire’ as being “one of North America’s preeminent bass clarinetists”, composer, teacher & multi-reed musician (bass clarinet, saxophones) Oluyemi Thomas brings elements of life and work to the flow & he believes: “The musician’s art is among those arts worthy of the highest praise…” As a great enhancement to their compositional approaches, Positive Knowledge continues to perform throughout the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Israel, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands which has resulted in a rich multifaceted vocabulary to date. They have recorded or performed with such artists as Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Alan Silva, Peter Kowald, Henry Kaiser,William Parker, Miya Masaoka & Gino Robair, “Kidd” Edward Jordan. They will be joined by drummer Hamir Atwal.