Sunday, July 30, 2023 - 8:00pm

Joe Baiza Trio:

Joe Baiza is truly one of the great guitarists to come out of the so-called punk rock scene of southern California, "so-called" because most of Baiza's music fits more into the category of free jazz or jazz-rock. He has often been ahead of the curve with his musical thinking, playing intense instrumental jams a few years before his audience would be eager for them, and bringing together the creative anarchy of improvised music with the independent attitude of the punk scene at a time when the two philosophies seemed mutually exclusive, at least to people whose brains were fuzzy from falling into the mosh pit.

Guitar nuts first picked up on Baiza in the context of his band Saccharine Trust, one of the mid-'80s groups that made the SST label so interesting, at least for a short time. Fellow band member Jack Brewer and Baiza revived this band in 2001 and recorded a new album in Germany. The amusing name Universal Congress Of was at first just the title of a Baiza solo album in 1987, but evolved into a group whose three original releases became favorites of the electric jazz audience. Universal Congress Of toured frequently in both Europe and the United States. - bio excerpts by Eugene Chadbourne.

Rounding out the trio are Damon Smith - bass and Matt Crane - drums.

Damon Smith studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and has had lessons with Bertram Turezky, Joëlle Leandré, John Lindberg, Mark Dresser and others. Damon’s explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced by his CAMH performance of Ben Patterson’s Variations for Double Bass, collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Matt Crane has been playing percussion since before he was in school. From playing in a fourth grade band on a drum set fabricated out of ice cream bins, to playing punk rock in the early eighties, to discovering jazz and playing with Ornette Coleman, his musical development has been continual and exponential. Focusing on pure improvisation since the early nineties, he currently lives and works in Rhode Island and continues to collaborate, perform, and record widely.

SWRM:

SWRM are a Providence, RI psych/synthrock duo featuring Alec K. Redfearn on synths/voice and Matt McLaren on drums. AKR and MM are also members of Alec K. Redfearn & The Eyesores, Barnacled and a slew of other bands.

Jeffrey Alexander & the Heavy Lidders:

Jeffrey Alexander has spent his music career directing his creative energy towards the outer fringes, first with the experimental folk sounds of both the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea and then with the psychedelic meanderings of Dire Wolves. In between there have also been solo sonic forays, as well as a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker. His latest endeavor, Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders, continues down the same path of experimentation, improvisation, and heady soundmaking, with clear references to the hazy, glazey Crazy Horse days of Neil Young, as well as nods to the stylings of bands like the Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. Rounding out the group are Elkhorn-ers Drew Gardner on guitar and Jesse Shepherd on bass, Scott Verrastro of Kohoutek on drums.