Monday October 12th at Rhizome DC at 6950 Maple Street NW, DC.
Doors at 6:30, music at 7:00, admission $20-$30, sliding scale. Advance tickets.
Hans Tammen (guitar/electronics), Marcus Cummins (soprano sax) with Jamal Moore (reeds, percussion, electronics) opening.
HANS TAMMEN is just another worker in rhythms, frequencies and intensities. He likes to set sounds in motion, and then sit back to watch the movements unfold. Using textures, timbre and dynamics as primary elements, his music is continuously shifting, with different layers floating into the foreground while others disappear. This flows like clockwork, “transforming a sequence of instrumental gestures into a wide territory of semi-hostile discontinuity; percussive, droning, intricately colorful, or simply blowing your socks off” (Touching Extremes).
His works have been presented at festivals in the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, India, South Africa, Armenia, Japan, the Middle East and all over Europe. He has recorded on labels such as Clang, Innova, ESP-DISK, Nur/Nicht/Nur, Gold Bolus, Nachtstück, Creative Sources, Leo Records, Potlatch and Outnow.
Hans Tammen received grants and composer commissions from NewMusicUSA, Chamber Music America, MAPFund, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, American Music Center, Lucas Artists Residencies Montalvo, New York State Council On The Arts (NYSCA), New York Foundation For The Arts (NYFA), American Composers Forum w/ Jerome Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Funds, New York State Music Fund, Goethe Institute w/ Foreign Affairs Office, among others.
He plays electronics, synthesizers and guitars, and writes for and conducts large ensembles, notably his all-electronic Dark Circuits Orchestra, and the 18-piece chamber-jazz ensemble Third Eye Orchestra, both founded in 2005. In 2021 FLUX String Quartet commissioned him to write a large work for string quartet and live electronics.
Hans Tammen is currently teaching at School of Visual Arts, Hunter College and NYU. From 2001 to 2014 he worked at Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center in NYC, where he was responsible for the Client Services, Education and Artist In Residence program, helping countless digital media artists through completion of their works. As an arbitrator at BTQ in the 1990s, he spent a decade advising unions about electronic monitoring and surveillance at the workplace, and negotiating contracts and agreements to minimize surveillance aspects. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kassel, studying on a stipend from Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
British saxophonist MARCUS CUMMINS has been associated with the UK free and improvised music scene since the early 90’s. He has worked extensively as a solo artist, in duo’s and larger bands but is perhaps best known internationally for his involvement in Trevor Watts’ ‘Celebration Band’. Born in London he joined the afro – jazz band ‘The Hamptons’ who he played with in bars and clubs around London and the south east. Cummins then studied music formally at Leeds City College of Music and Dartington College of Arts. During this time studying primarily jazz and Indian music (with the council of many masters such as Bobby Wellins; Evan Parker; Paul Dunmall and Dharambir Singh) he developed a personal style unlike that of any of his contemporaries.
He has performed in a wide variety of arenas from traditional jazz clubs such as Ronnie Scotts, London to more ‘improvised’ music festivals such as ‘Edgefest’, Ann Arbor, Mitchigan. From 1999 to 2005 Marcus Cummins played and toured throughout Europe, Canada and America with Trevor Watts’ ‘Celebration Band’ and the London based ‘Rosie brown’ group. He has performed on radio and television, won awards, bursaries and commissions and worked for the British Arts Council and the BBC. He currently lives and works in NYC, playing consistently with 'Arki sound' and ongoing collaborator Nivedita Shivrag's, while continuing to work with long time musical associates from Canada and Europe.
JAMAL R. MOORE is a native of Baltimore Maryland who is a multi-instrumentalist, composer/performer, and educator. His background includes The California Institute of The Arts (M.F.A. 2012), Berklee College of Music (B.M 2005), Eubie Blake Jazz Orchestra (2000) under the direction of Christopher Calloway Brooks, and historically acclaimed Frederick Douglass Sr. High School where notable alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, and Ethel Ennis.
Jamal has worked and recorded with Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Nicole Mitchell, Archie Shepp, David Ornette Cherry, Tomeka Reid, Dr. Bill Cole, DJ Lou Gorbea, George Duke, Sheila E, David Murray, JD Parran, Ras Moshe, Hprizm, (Antipop Consortium) Tatsua Nakatani, Hamid Drake and the late Yahyah Abdul Majid (Sun Ra Arkestra).
He is an affiliate of The Pan African Peoples Arkestra of the late Horace Tapscott, Black Praxis of David Boykin, member of Konjur Collective, and co-creator of Ancestral Duo with Luke Stewart.
Jamal currently leads his own groups, Akebulan Arkestra, Napata Strings, Black Elements Quartet, Organix Trio, and Mojuba Duo.