Monday May 1 * 7pm * TICKETS
A night of sublime duo performances! Jarrett lives in Mexico these days, so this is a rare chance to catch him in town to reprise a gorgeous collaboration with Anthony that last graced our stage in 2019. And what a treat to have Susan and Janel together at Rhizome!
One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics. Though known as for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burtm Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2016, she was voted "Best Other Instrument" by the International Critics Poll. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award, and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, she was the recipient of the Instant Award in Improvised Music. The UK Guardian writes, “As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.” Her latest release Soledad is available from Relative Pitch Records.
Janel Leppin has been a pillar of Washington, D.C.’s creative music and jazz community for over 20 years, as a cellist, composer, arranger, bassist and singer. She has performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and at many international festivals worldwide including the High Zero Festival, the Swedish Women in Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival and Washington Women in Jazz Festival. She has acted as curator for works shown at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the ISSUE Project Room. She’s contributed as a string arranger and cello player to albums on Sub Pop, Dischord, Tzadik, Touch, Editions Mego, Sacred Bones. She has worked with Kyp Malone, Eyvind Kang, Oren Ambarchi, Anthony Pirog, Beauty Pill, Laughing Man, and Marissa Nadler. Leppin records art-pop under her name and under the Mellow Diamond moniker and in longtime duo Janel and Anthony. Leppin’s jazz-centric vision on the majestic 2022 Ensemble Volcanic Ash release on Cuneiform Records "affirms her place as a boundless musician who constantly leaves the listener intrigued. It’s a puzzle in which jazz, chamber music, contemporary classical, and punk seamlessly coalesce with bracing results." -JazzTimes
Anthony Pirog is making his mark on the guitar playing universe, one sonically enthralling, diversely influenced project after another. From his work on Janel and Anthony's “Where is Home," described in Guitar Player Magazine as “approachable experimentalism," to what AllMusic described as “pristinely executed rock guitar solos" with Skysaw, Anthony displays a “crystalline tone that’s immediately recognizable as his own" in his ever-evolving conception of how a guitar can sound. Anthony has played with musicians across a wide spectrum of styles and genres. He has performed with renowned avant jazzers such as Henry Kaiser, Elliot Sharp, Michael Formanek, Ches Smith, Mary Halvorson, William Hooker, William Parker, Eyvind Kang, Skuli Sverrisson, Allison Miller, Jon Irabagon, Doug Weiselman, Susan Alcorn, Dave Ballou, Andrew Bishop, Balázs Pándi, Gino Robair, Tatsuya Nakatani, James Brandon Lewis, Jessika Kenney and played in myriad jazz, electronic and improvisational groups up and down the East Coast. Seemingly able to master any convention he chooses to adopt and more than capable of developing and adapting his own, Anthony Pirog challenges our preconceived notions about genre and guitar sound.
Jarrett Gilgore is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer, and teacher. He often performs on saxophone. He performs internationally in a wide variety of contexts. He has worked with many great musicians in the experimental/indie worlds including Anna & Elizabeth, Dan Deacon, Jaimie Branch, Laraaji, Lonnie Holley, Mabe Fratti, and Susan Alcorn. Current projects include Heart of the Ghost with Luke Stewart and Ian McColm, USA/Mexico collaborative quartet, Tulpas, a duo with Anthony Pirog, and a new solo project called Phét Phét Phét. He is currently finishing records with Phét Phét Phét, Anthony Pirog, and Mabe Fratti & Hector Tosta. They will be released in the Fall of 2023 on vinyl via the UK based label, Unheard of Hope.