55 Taylor St
SF
Fresh from a three-month residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts, saxophonist and composer Phillip Greenlief presents a concert of new music for improvising winds, featuring a series of solo and ensemble works performed by NORA STANLEY, STEVE ADAMS, JON RASKIN, KYLE BRUCKMANN, CORY WRIGHT, ELLEN BURR, and Greenlief himself, as well as movement by dancer LEYYA MONA TAWIL, and poetry by CLAUDIA LA ROCCO.
Greenlief, a lynchpin of the Bay Area’s creative improvised community for several decades, has an international reputation for his wide-ranging musicianship, generous collaborative spirit, and deep sense of artistic inquiry in his music making. He leads a staggeringly diverse array of ensembles, exploring pop music and jazz standards (the Lost Trio), abstract electro-acoustic soundscapes (shudder), noise-rock (PG13), psychedelic funk (Dirtier!), live film scores (Citta di Vitti), and gnarly structured improvisations (FPR Trio). His Best Coast concert reflects some of the diverse media that influence his music, from the writings of Thomas Pynchon, to contemporary poetry, visual art and dance.
*This is the second performance in the Best Coast Jazz Composers Series, a new monthly concert series showcasing the extraordinary and singular talents of some of the Bay Area’s most creative and prolific jazz artists. The series features local composers in evening-length profile concerts that explore several aspects of their diverse musical personalities, and celebrates the emergence of an eclectic, innovative and wildly creative New West Coast Sound in jazz. Curated by Lisa Mezzacappa.