{Bonetic}  is  Swell/Taylor/Vlatkovich/Walsh

+ Nicolas Caloia @ contrabass + Pierre Tanguay @ percussion

Bonetic @ O Patro Vys

Bonetic is playing Friday, January 28 @ O Patro Vys (356, avenue Du Mont-Royal Est, Montreal, QC H2T 1P9, Canada, (514) 845-3855)

4 trombones =

- missing links – veteran independistos – guerilla leaders – unique voices – seasoned composers

4 hipster bone-men create a Po-Mo version of an ancient tradition: the Brass Frontline. From the destroying horns at the Walls of Jericho, to massive arena football fanfares, to the hot serpentine funk of Bill Chase’s trumpets, wailing horns occupy a prominent place in our collective ‘marshall’ imagination.

And since the dawn of Jazz Age marching bands, the trombone’s become the historic (histrionic?) leader of this hellion pack of searing sonic spears.

Here in Bonetic, each man’s sound covers a unique side of the brass lexicon:

Steve Swell

www.steveswell.com

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Steve has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State.

He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as Buddy Rich

& Lionel Hampton to Anthony Braxton & Jemeel Moondoc.  Swell has 20 recordings as a leader & is featured artist on more than 90 other releases.  His Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers, was # 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He won a National Endowment for the Arts grant from USArtists International in 2006, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for Interpretations at Merkin Hall in 2006.

Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including Slammin’ The Infinite with Sabir Mateen, Ullmann/Swell 4tet w/ Barry Altschul, Unified Theory Of Sound w/ Cooper-Moore, Fire Into Music w/ Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We.

He was the Jazz Journalist’s Association Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008.  Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with Special Ed kids and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for recognition of that work.

Dave Taylor

www.davetaylor.net

Receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees from The Julliard School of Music, David Taylor started his playing career as a member of Leopold Stowkowski’s American Symphony Orchestra, and by appearing with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Simultaneously, he was a member of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis jazz band, and recorded with groups ranging from Duke Ellington to The Rolling Stones. He also recorded numerous solo CDs on the labels Koch, New World, ENJA, DMP, Tzadik, CIMP, & PAU.

Dave performs recitals and concerti around the world: from Lincoln Center in NY with the LC Chamber Music Society, NY Chamber Symphony & St Luke’s Chamber Orchestra to Switzerland’s Basel Sinfonietta, Australia’s Adelaide Symphony, & Niederösterreich Tonkünstler at the Musikverein in Vienna. He has been involved in dozens of commissioning projects for the bass trombone in solo and concerto idioms; collaborating with composers including Charles Wuorinen, George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, David Liebman, and Daniel Schnyder. He has appeared and recorded chamber music with Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Wynton Marsalis and performs with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Orpheus. He’s appeared / recorded with major jazz & popular artists including Streisand, Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis & Quincy Jones. Dave has won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences MVP for five consecutive years (the maximum possible!) and won the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award, an honor accorded no other bass trombonist. He’s been in the bands of Gil Evans, George Russell, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus & Dave Matthews. In 1998 Dave performed on four GRAMMY nominated CDs: J.J. Johnson, Dave Grusin, Joe Henderson & Randy Brecker…the latter two actually winning.

On the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College, Dave plays Edwards bass trombones exclusively.

Mike Vlatkovich

www.liraproductions.com/Michael_Vlatkovich.html

Among the leading talents of the West Coast improvisers, based in Los Angeles since 1973, Mike is an emotionally charged performer, comfortable in all hybrids of jazz &/or world music. He’s performed across North America & Europe with a unique improvisational music of raw power set in beautifully minimalist formats.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Mike began music in a third grade school band. He distinguished himself in high school and was awarded a music scholarship to attend the St. Louis Institute of Music. Just before entering the Institute, Mike discovered jazz in an intensive workshop with acclaimed saxophonist Oliver Nelson and guests Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Roland Hanna, Ron Carter, and Phil Woods. Fellow students included Hamiett Bluett, Joe Bowie, Julius Hemphill, and Oliver Lake.

Since then, Vlatkovich has performed with a wide array of singers and instrumentalists including Peggy Lee, Brian Setzer, Bryan Adams, Bobby Bradford, Gerry Hemingway, Rob Blakeslee, among many. He’s performed on sound tracks for such tv & film projects as The Mask, Jingle All The Way, and Cassavette’s critically acclaimed The Tempest.

With growing success writing for & leading his own groups, Michael formed Thankyou Records in 1981 to faithfully document the forward thinking music he and his unique collaborators were discovering. Now garnering critical acclaim in music publications and periodicals throughout the United States and Europe, many of these CDs have made the “Ten Best” jazz lists. Most recently, Michael is performing with his own ensembles, co-leading Transvalue with poet Charles Britt, and is a regular member with the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble and Bobby Bradford Mo’tet.

Tom Walsh

www.tomwalsh.ca

Born & raised -classically- in Newfoundland, Tom’s now based in Montréal & Budapest.

He’s performed / recorded improvisational or popular music with such artists as: Steven Barry, Iva Bittova, Michel Cusson, Jean Derome, Lisle Ellis, Fred Frith, Vinny Golia, Gerry Hemingway, Julius Hemphill, DD Jackson, Oliver Jones, Michel Lemieux, Robert Lepage, Evan Lurie, René Lussier, Al MacDowell, Phil Minton, David Mott, Bern Nix, Mary Margaret O’Hara, poet Michael Ondaatje, Zappa’s Don Preston; trombonists Steve Swell, Michael Vlatkovich & Wolter Wierbos; Bobby Wiseman, the  Cowboy Junkies, the Barenaked Ladies, and Bran Van 3000 throughout  Canada, the US or Europe.

As composer, his commissions include Toronto’s Hemispheres Orchestra (he’s a founding member); mezzo soprano Kimberly Barber (3 things suite- words by e e cummings); Montréal choreographers Estelle Clareton, Jose Navas & Andrew Harwood; Halifax’s Upstream Ensemble; CBC‘s Morningside; the launch of the new Buddies in Bad Times theatre; film-maker Don McKellar (Blue, w/  David Cronenberg & Tracy Wright); playwright sensation  Daniel MacIvor  (Jump); interactive media pioneer Don Ritter  (Excity); marionettiste/performance artiste Marcelle Hudon, new technology symposium ISEA ‘95 (Genesis After Babel),  new technology music presenters [The User] & Contemporary Music Projects (the man with seven toes words: M Ondaatje).

Since the early nineties, working “in the cracks” of modern tradition, Tom has developed a cult following leading or co-leading seven landmark Canadian groups:

Walsh/Underhill, with Toronto’s Juno award-winning sax genie, Richard Underhill;

Midi Tapant (High Noon), digital found-sound vs Pierre Tanguay’s percussion/toys; Swifty Lazarus, sound/media manipulations & Todd Swift’s spoken word;

Pots & Pans, a six piece modern cabaret “pit orchestra of the mind”;

Royal Jelly, an exclusive hip-hop-jazz party band;

Phat Hed, a ‘special-ops’ trio designed to cover most of the above terrain; and

NOMA -paragon of them all- a ‘7-headed  hydra’, Can-Jazz’s first harmonic  “de-scaler”.

More recently, Tom completed an Eastern European solo trombone concert tour. On record, he’s featured on more than 50 national or international releases (from most of the names above), including a healthy dose of the Ambiances Magnétiques catalogue.