Tomeka Reid Quartet feat. Mary Halvorson, Jason Roebke, Tomas Fujiwara

On Thursday, October 31, 2019, Arts + Literature Laboratory presents the Tomeka Reid Quartet featuring award-winning cellist, composer, and arranger Tomeka Reid, guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, as part of their CD release tour for Old New. Tickets are available for 6:30pm and 9:00pm shows. Tickets are available in advance for $20 online at https://tomekareidquartet.bpt.me or at the door for $25. Students with a valid school ID receive a $5 discount. Online sales end 1 hour before each show.

The jazz polls might still list cello under the miscellaneous instrument category, but in the hands of Tomeka Reid it’s an essential vehicle for unfettered jazz exploration. Old New, the second album by the Tomeka Reid Quartet, is a project that exemplifies why she’s quickly become a definitive figure on the 21st century jazz scene. As a composer, arranger, improviser, bandleader, and impresario, she embodies jazz’s progressive ethos. Crafting memorable tunes brimming with arresting textures and melodies, Reid creates music palpably connected to the tradition while recasting those sounds to meet her own expressive needs.

While Reid has recorded prolifically since making her debut on flutist Nicole Mitchell’s 2002 Black Earth Ensemble album Afrika Rising (DreamTime Records), Old New is only her second album leading her own band, following up on the eponymous Tomeka Reid Quartet (Thirsty Ear). Like that 2015 release, the band’s second album features a brilliant cast with guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who play together in at least half a dozen different ensembles, and Chicago bassist Jason Roebke. It’s essentially a string band, an electro-acoustic hybrid in which any player might take on bass, melodic or rhythmic responsibilities at any given time.

Special thanks to concert sponsor HotelRED, and series supporters WORT FM, the Madison Community Foundation, and Heid Music.

Tomeka Reid

Recently described as a “New Jazz Power Source” by the New York Times, cellist and composer Tomeka Reid emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in the Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. Now based in New York, her distinctive melodic sensibility, usually braided to a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles over the years. Reid has been a key member of ensembles led by legendary reedists like Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as a younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell, singer Dee Alexander, and drummer Mike Reed. She is also a co- leader of the adventurous string trio, Hear in Now, with violinist Mazz Swift and bassist Silvia Bolognesi. Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader in 2015, with the eponymous recording by the Tomeka Reid Quartet (Jason Roebke, Tomas Fujiwara and Mary Halvorson), a lively yet charged debut album that is... Read More

Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson has been described by JazzTimes as “a singular talent,” and by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise.” In recent DownBeat Critics Polls Halvorson has been celebrated as Guitarist, Rising Star Jazz artist, and Rising Star Composer of the year, and in 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She’s released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, starting with 2008’s Dragon’s Head, her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. The group expanded to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on 2010’s Saturn... Read More

Jason Roebke

The diversity of Jason Roebke’s musical associations make him one of the most sought after bassists in Chicago and beyond. He composes music for two ensembles, Jason Roebke Combination and the Jason Roebke Octet. Solo performance and a duo with dancer Ayako Kato are also at the forefront of his creative activities. His playing is intensely physical, audacious, and sparse. The Chicago Reader described his work as “a carefully orchestrated rummage through a hardware store.” He is a member of the Jeb Bishop Trio, Jason Adasiewicz Rolldown, Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore, Mike Reed’s People, Places, and Things, and Jorrit Dijkstra’s Flatlands Collective & Pillow Circles. Roebke studied privately with saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell as well as legendary double bass pedagogue Stuart Sankey. In 2009, he was awarded the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Illinois Arts Council. Roebke tours widely in the US and Europe.

Tomas Fujiwara

Based in Brooklyn, Fujiwara has also earned renown as a composer and bandleader who performs and records with some of the most exciting musicians of the current generation. He’s been described by Point of Departure as “a ubiquitous presence in the New York scene…an artist whose urbane writing is equal to his impressively nuanced drumming.” He leads and composes for a number of ensembles, including Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double (with Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Ralph Alessi, Brandon Seabrook, and Gerald Cleaver), and Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio (with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid), which released its eponymous debut in 2019 on the Rogue Art label. Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up (with Halvorson, Jonathan Finlayson, and Brian Settles) released three albums on the 482 label, including Actionspeak (2010, with bassist Danton Boller), The Air Is Different (2012, with bassist Trevor Dunn), and After All Is Said (2015, with Formanek). He’s also released Variable Bets (2014... Read More

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

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