Tuesday February 20 * 7pm * TICKETS
Transparent Productions presents Mostly Other People Do The Killing plus Sarah Marie Hughes and Derrick Michaels
Mostly Other People Do The Killing - Moppa Elliot, bass; Rob Stabinsky, keyboards; Kevin Shea, drums.
**Mostly Other People Do the Killing (MOPDtK)have been performing their exciting version of experimental music for over 20 fun-packed years! They are currently celebrating the release of "Disasters Vol. 2" on Hot Cup Records, a follow-up to their acclaimed 2021 release, "Disasters Vol. 1". Bassist and composer, Moppa Elliott has been writing compositions named after towns in his native Pennsylvania for the past two decades, and in these new recordings, explores less-fortunate places in PA that have experienced natural and man-made disasters. As the internet brings a constant stream of current bad news to compete with the historical calamities that inspired MOPDtK and Moppa Elliott, the joy and fun of hearing them live in community-let venues such as Rhizome becomes more important and sanity-supporting. The other members of MOPDtK have been busy with pianist Ron Stabinsky joining The Meat Puppets, and drummer Kevin Shea joining Lydia Lunch and God is My Copilot. See you there!
Sarah Marie Hughs and Derek Michaels, reeds.
**Sarah Hughes is an alto saxophonist, composer, improviser, educator, and art adventurer hailing from Maryland. She obtained her MM in Jazz Saxophone at the New England Conservatory in May of 2015 and currently freelances in and around Maryland, DC, Virginia, and New York.
Sarah graduated with a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Maryland in 2008. While there she studied privately with world-renowned classical saxophonist Dale Underwood. After graduating Sarah taught beginning band and strings in Prince George's county schools for five years and also maintained two private studios in Maryland and Virginia. During that time she performed in and around DC and New York City with ensembles including the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra and the Brad Linde Ensemble, a Washington D.C.-based collective dedicated to exploring and expanding the styles of jazz that emerged in the 1950s including bebop, cool jazz, third stream, and free jazz. As part of these ensembles, Sarah shared the stage with jazz greats such as Lee Konitz, Ted Brown, Freddie Redd, Matt Wilson, and Michael Formanek.
While at the New England Conservatory, Sarah studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Donny McCaslin, and Anthony Coleman, all of whom impacted Sarah's unique approach to improvisation and music-making. Sarah performed on Coleman's latest album, "You" and has performed with Coleman in concerts at the New England Conservatory as well as Roulette and The Stone in New York. Sarah studied composition in classes with Ken Schaphorst and also Ben Schwendener, with whom she has performed several duo concerts in Boston.
In September of 2015 Sarah toured Sweden as part of Amy K. Bormet's "Ephemera" and performed in Sweden's first Women in Jazz festival. She also recently taught an improvisation workshop, "Improvisation for Everyone: Games and Storytelling" for beginning, intermediate, and advanced instrumentalists in the 2016 Judith Lapple Summer Woodwind Camp in Fairfax, Virginia. Most recently, she went on tour with an improvising trio "Lead Bubbles", playing venues in New York, Montreal, and Toronto. Sarah hopes her music and teaching will continue to introduce her to new people, places, and art.
**Derrick Michaels has been described by Jazz Weekly as a “thick-toned tenorist”, and by Downbeat magazine as wielding a “large sound and free flowing style”. The Baltimore Jazz Alliance says: “Derrick Michaels' saxophone playing comes right out of his soul; the instrument sounds like a human voice.”
Michaels has been collaborating across a variety of eclectic music scenes for decades. With deep roots in both the lyrical and exploratory branches of the creative tenor saxophone tradition, his wide expressive palette unapologetically favors creative spontaneity over idiomatic purity — never losing touch with his soulful, melodic sincerity.
In October 2022, he released “Solo Saxophone Vol. 1 Live at An Die Musik”, a self-described “declaration of boundless love for the resonance and visceral beauty of the saxophone”. 2022 also saw the release of Trio Xolo’s “In Flower in Song” on 577 Records, which All About Jazz described as “falling right into the sweet spot for some deep, organic listening”. Trio Xolo includes Brookly bassist Zachary Swanson and Lithuanian drummer Dalius Naujokaitis.