image credit: Nora Wheat
Friday April 5 * 9 pm * $20 * ORDER TICKETS
MARIA GRAND is a saxophonist, composer, educator, and vocalist. She moved to New York City in 2011. She has since become an important member of the city’s creative music scene, performing extensively in projects including musicians such as Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Jen Shyu, Steve Lehman, Aaron Parks, Marcus Gilmore, Jonathan Finlayson, and Miles Okazaki. Her debut EP “TetraWind” was picked as “one of the 2017’s best debuts” by the NYC Jazz Record. The New York Times says “on TetraWind, Ms Grand unfurls a teetering logic. [..] She is both measured and frank, often venturing into gentle provocation”. María is a recipient of the 2017 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission and the 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission. She can be heard on Steve Coleman’s albums “Morphogenesis” and “Synovial Joints”. She was deemed a “revelation” by Jazz Magazine in 2016; AllAboutJazz said of her saxophone playing that it is “full of passion and sophisticated phrases and turns”, while the NYC Jazz Record says “Grand’s aching saxophone has the richness of the great breathy tenors of jazz history—Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gene Ammons.” Vijay Iyer recently picked her as one of 5 musicians to watch for in 2018.
AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in 1983, she started performing her own music, and as a sidewoman and collaborator in many different projects, as soon as she was old enough to get into 18+ venues. As a guitarist, Mendoza has received acclaim for her technique and viscerality. Her most ongoing work is as leader of experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, and as a solo performer on guitar/voice. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded or performed with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Fred Frith, Mick Barr, Nels Cline, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Mike Watt, Matana Roberts, Ikue Mori, Matt Mitchell, Adele Bertei, William Hooker, Jon Irabagon, members of Caroliner, the Violent Femmes, and more. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Weird Forest, Clean Feed, NotTwo, Resipiscent, and New Atlantis. Friendly critics have quoted: “It’s Ava Mendoza’s deconstructing of blues and punk into brutal shredfests that’s causing a ruckus in NYC’s DIY hubs” (Brad Cohan, Noisey.Vice). “A wizard on a semi-circle of effects pedals, but… equally adept with FX-less technique," (Lars Gotrich, NPR). She was featured as one of Guitar World‘s “10 Female Guitarists You Should Know.”
JOHN DIKEMAN (2.3.83, Rushville, NE, USA) is an American saxophonist currently residing in Amsterdam. Drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources, John’s playing runs the gamut of improvised music and technique. He is currently active as a member of numerous groups including Cactus Truck, a band made up guitarist/bass guitarist Jasper Stadhouders and Onno Govaert; Universal Indians with Norwegian rhythm section Tollef Østvang and Jon Rune Strøm and often featuring Joe McPhee; the trio Dikeman, Parker, Drake with William Parker and Hamid Drake, and numerous other collaborations including projects with Andrew Barker, Dirk Serries, Steve Noble, Luis Vicente, Alexander Hawkins, Roger Turner, Hugo Antunes, Peter Jacquemyn, Peter Ole Jorgensen, Aleksandar škorić. John is one of the newest members of Spinifex, a genre defying ensemble which combines intricate rhythms and advanced compositional techniques. Dikeman also collaborates regularly with producer Jameszoo. John is a tireless performer in the Amsterdam scene which has recently exploded to include a number of new bands that perform compositions with a specific link to various traditions and offer something of a danceable aesthetic, such as the brass band the Zebra Street Band and cumbia project Bacchanalia. Dikeman has performed as a soloist for groups ranging from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the Metropole Orkest to Mohamed Mounir and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. “He has the most powerful voice in the Dutch jazz music of the last decade: saxophonist John Dikeman.” (Tim Sprangers, Jazzism) “The saxophonist puts fire to the fuse with the Old Testament fury that Charles Gayle displays on his best trio records. More than improvisation or free jazz you hear übergospel: reeling with religious conviction and tortuous dynamism, with roaring pounding in the low register, split tones and a timbre that is almost torn to pieces.” (Guy Peters, Enola)
SARAH HUGHES+JENNY MOON TUCKER Two sax/noise women wielding the creative hammer to chisel an energetic set of free music.