Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes tenor saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree and pianist Johannes Wallmann for an evening of music on Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 7:00pm, to celebrate the release of their new album, Holding Space. Tickets $15 general admission or $10 student/ALL Member in advance online. Advance tickets available online at Brown Paper Tickets. General admission at the door $20 for everyone.
Tenor saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree (Los Angeles) and pianist Johannes Wallmann (Madison, WI) are celebrating the release of their new album, Holding Space (Shifting Paradigm Records on February 7, 2025) with a tour of duet performances. Holding Space is an intimate musical conversation between two friends and longtime musical collaborators. Drawing on a near-telepathic chemistry that Mitcheltree and Wallmann have honed over almost three decades, Holding Space was recorded in July 2023 at the Hamel Music Center in Madison, Wisconsin, following a run of duo concerts. Both musicians being accomplished composers, the album consists entirely of Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s original tunes — most of which were newly written for the occasion — interspersed with a few spontaneous improvisations. Their current tour will feature music from the album, as well as new compositions.
Mitcheltree and Wallmann are long-term veterans of the New York jazz scene, where their musical partnership originated in the late 1990’s. The saxophonist, on a recommendation by pianist Jim McNeely, recruited Wallmann to join his quartet, which was about to embark on a two-week tour of the Midwest. The two immediately hit it off, and twenty-seven years later, Mitcheltree and Wallmann’s collaborations span six quartet tours of the U.S., two duo and quartet tours of Germany, countless other performances in venues throughout North America, three albums led by Mitcheltree (including his 2022 release Golden Rule) and Wallmann’s 2015 album Love Wins, as well as many joint educational and festival workshops throughout the U.S.
