Sun of Goldfinger: David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith

Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 8pm, the NYC-based band Sun of Goldfinger featuring David Torn (guitar, electronics), Tim Berne (alto sax), and Ches Smith (percussion, electronics) will perform at ALL. Sun of Goldfinger is releasing a new album on the ECM label in March 2019. Tickets are $20 in advance at https://goldfinger.bpt.me and $25 at the door. Student tickets are $5 off with valid school ID. Advance tickets are available online until 1 hour before the show. Doors open at 7:30pm.

Saxophonist Tim Berne, drummer Ches Smith and guitarist David Torn push far beyond jazz’s known boundaries in Sun of Goldfinger. The mercurial trio explores the edges of the genre, infusing it with perspectives ranging from the minimalist to the cinematic to the metallic. The improvisation-based group effortlessly, seamlessly shifts from atmospheres into shattering mayhem to thrilling effect.

All three musicians are renowned bandleaders in their own right, with current solo recordings on the prestigious ECM label. Berne has forged a singular path across dozens of expansive, diverse albums featuring intricately-detailed, harmony-driven works. Torn’s influence as a guitarist, composer and music technologist is epic. With sounds ranging from the searing and soaring to liquid loops to full-on shredding, he’s reinvented conventional definitions of guitar. Smith has established himself as one of the world’s premier percussionists, combining acoustic invention with electronics to both propel and extend his myriad musical surroundings.

Together, these leaders and friends combine as a democratic unit, determined to take audiences on a singular journey through provocative sonic territory known and unknown. This is the future of jazz. This is Sun of Goldfinger.

Listen: https://soundcloud.com/jayapala/sunofgoldfinger-live-congratulationstoyou

The ALL Jazz Series is sponsored in part by Alchemy, Dobhan, and Tex Tubbs Restaurants, WORT 89.9FM, Heid Music, and HotelRED. Student ticket discount made possible by Grant Samuelsen Real Estate.

David Torn

David Torn is a composer, texturalist, guitarist, and producer, internationally renowned for his unique musical voice. His characterful and compositionally textural work has had material impact and influence upon both film scoring - through this own scores, in addition to his creative contributions to scores by Carter Burwell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cliff Martinez, Howard Shore, Mark Isham, and others - and, generally, upon contemporary electric, electro-acoustic and electronic music. David has contributed to recordings by other musical artists of note as diverse as David Bowie, Tim Berne, Jeff Beck, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, John Legend, Tori Amos, Sting, Madonna, Meshell Ndegeocello, John Popper, Jan Garbarek, Jarboe, Laurie Anderson, Kaki Kimg, kd lang, Chocolate Genius, Don Cherry, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tony Levin, Andry Rinehart, David Douglas, and Manu Katche.

Tim Berne

Tim Berne has been declared “a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction” by The New York Times. Acclaim for the first, eponymous ECM album from Berne’s quartet Snakeoil came from far and wide, with The Guardian calling it “an object lesson in balancing composition, improvisation and the tonal resources of an acoustic band.” With the release of his second ECM album, Shadow Man, All About Jazz affirmed Snakeoil as “Berne’s most impressively cohesive group yet.”). You’ve Been Watching Me, saw Berne leading a quintet version of Snakeoil, adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core group with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega and Ches Smith.

Since learning at the elbow of St. Louis master Julius Hemphill in the ’70s, the Syracuse, New York-born Berne has built an expansive discography as a leader. In his pace-setting ensembles over the past few decades, he has worked with a who’s who of improvisers, including Joey Baron, Django Bates, Jim Black, Nels Cline. Mark... Read More

Ches Smith

Born in San Diego, CA and raised in Sacramento, Ches Smith came up in a scene of punks and metal musicians who were listening to and experimenting with jazz and free improvisation. He studied philosophy at the University of Oregon before relocating to the San Francisco Bay area in 1995. After a few years of playing with obscure bands and intensive study with drummer / educator Peter Magadini, he enrolled in the graduate program at Mills College in Oakland at the suggestion of percussionist William Winant. There he studied percussion, improvisation, and composition with Winant, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran. One of Winant’s first “assignments” for Ches was to sub in his touring gig at the time, Mr. Bungle (here he met bassist / composer Trevor Dunn who would later hire him for the second incarnation of his Trio-Convulsant). During his time at Mills, Ches co-founded two bands: Theory of Ruin (with Fudgetunnel / Nailbomb frontman Alex Newport), and Good for Cows (w/... Read More

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Sun of Goldfinger: David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith

David Torn

Tim Berne

Ches Smith

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