Nicole Mitchell's Sonic Projections at the Stone, NYC, Jan 2, 3 2009

Creative flutist Nicole Mitchell will celebrate the New Year with new musical projects at the Stone, on Jan 2 and 3, including saxophonist David Boykin, pianist Vijay Ayer, guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Chad Taylor

With Sonic Projections, Mitchell is interested in reinterpreting the power and meaning of sound, musical language and vibration. Inspired by functional ritual music of traditional earth-centered cultures, creative music, free improvisation, and her imagination, Sonic Projections I and II will represent a vehicle for blasting away negativity and projecting positive energy for humanity into the New Year. What are the things we wish to remove from our lives? What are the things we wish to attain? The audience will be invited to contribute their own written projections into the music. Sonic Projections will feature new works by Nicole Mitchell and further explorations into Mitchell’s compositions from Ritual and Rebellion suite, which debuted at George Lewis’ AACM Celebration at the Kitchen in October 2008.

On January 2, 2009, at 10pm, Nicole Mitchell will present her Sonic Projections I, with tenor saxophonist David Boykin, pianist Vijay Ayer and drummer Chad Taylor.

On January 3rd, at 8pm, Mitchell’s Sonic Projections II will include guitarist Mary Halvorson, tenor saxophonist David Boykin and drummer Chad Taylor.

“The most important jazz flutist of her generation” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz), Nicole Mitchell intends to provoke audiences with visionary work that forms a synthesis between the real and the imagined, the familiar and the unknown. A creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator, Mitchell is the founder of critically acclaimed Black Earth Ensemble and Black Earth Strings, and her work has been a highlight at art venues and festivals throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Currently Co-President of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Mitchell was awarded “Jazz Flutist of the Year” (2008) by the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat magazine’s #1 Rising Star Flutist from 2005-2008.

Critics have called saxophonist David Boykin one of Chicago's “best kept secrets." A master of improvisation, his free jazz knows no musical boundaries. Rooted in the hard swinging tradition of musicians like Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, composer and saxophonist David Boykin is one of the most innovative and exciting musicians on Chicago's remarkably diverse music scene. Like Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman, his music challenges and expands the common aesthetics used to define beauty in music. He has performed with many world reknown creative musicians, including Malachi Favors, Kahil El' Zabar, Leroy Jenkins, Ari Brown, Nicole Mitchell, Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake.

Vijay Ayer Voted the #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star Composer in the Downbeat Magazine International Critics' Poll for both 2006 and 2007, Vijay Ayer was described in The Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years.” The son of Indian immigrants, he is a largely self-taught creative musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon and drawing from a range of Western and non- Western traditions. His widely acclaimed recordings include Panoptic Modes (2001), Blood Sutra (2003), Reimagining (2005), and Tragicomic (2008) with his trio/quartet (”a formidable force... startlingly effective and unflinchingly forward-looking... one of the great rhythm units of the day” - Chicago Tribune); Your Life Flashes (2002), Simulated Progress (2005), and Door (2008) with the experimental three-piece unit Fieldwork (”a jazz power trio for the new century” - NPR's Fresh Air); Raw Materials (2006) in his longstanding duo with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa (”a total triumph from beginning to end” - All About Jazz); and In What Language? (2004) and Still Life with Commentator (2007), his large-scale works in collaboration with poet-performer Mike Ladd (”unfailingly imaginative and significant” - JazzTimes).

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, composer and improviser living in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New York with numerous groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with Anthony Braxton and Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant. She has also performed alongside Joe Morris, Nels Cline, John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Oscar Noriega and Jason Moran. Current projects which Mary composes for and performs with include The Mary Halvorson Trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith (Dragon’s Head, Firehouse 12 Records, 2008); a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone (On and Off, Skirl Records, 2007); and the avant-rock band People (Misbegotten Man, I & Ear Records, 2007). She also performs in ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Ted Reichman, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Tony Malaby, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring.

Chad Taylor (drums, vibraphone) was born in Tempe, Arizona in 1973, moved to Chicago with his family when he was 1O years old, and has been playing professionally since he was 14. In 1991, he moved to New York to play with Lou Donaldson, Julian “Junior" Mance, Leon Parker, and Mark Turner, helped form the free-improvisation group the Life Ensemble in 1993, and returned home in 1996 to help develop the Chicago Underground Orchestra. Since then he has also worked with Fred Anderson, Derek Bailey, David Boykin, Bobby Bradford, Peter Brotzmann, Roy Campbell, Eugene Chadbourne, Ernest Dawkins, Malachi Favors, Henry Grimes, Leroy Jenkins, Rob Mazurek, Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Jemeel Moondoc, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, and many other extraordinary improvisers. He is also part of Chicago's post-rock scene, where he has recorded and/or collaborated with Brokeback, Isotope 217, Mouse on Mars, SteroLab, Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, and Sam Prekop. He is currently a member of the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Quartet and Orchestra. Chad leads his own group, called Active Ingredients, whose CD “Titration" was released on Delmark Records in 'O3.
http://www.nicolemitchell.com/