Roulette: Michael Evans Tribute
Free (In person: $30 door, $25 advance, $20 student/seniors 65+ | Stream: Free)
- Ben Bennett, variable pitch floor tom, bass drum, wood blocks, & objects
- Andrew Drury, amplified snare drum
- Fast Forward, assorted metal culinary percussion instruments
- Michael Foster, saxophone
- Shelley Hirsch, voice
- Skip LaPlante, hanging objects, gongs, & scrap metal
- Sean Meehan, wearable metals
- Kenta Nagai, altered electric guitar
- Dafna Naphtali, voice & electronics
- Kevin Shea, drum set, wonder metal, & snare drum with springs
- David Simons, theremin
- Hans Tammen, electronics
- Danny Tunick, vibraphonette, glockenspiel, boozaphone, & washing machine drum
- Lary 7, motorized handmades
Downtown luminary Michael Evans (1957-2021) was a mischievous mix of serious percussionist, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, and childlike explorer, whose work investigated and embraced the collision of sound and theatrics. Though his primary instrument was an unconventionally altered drum set, his work with unusual sound sources included found objects, homemade instruments, the theremin, and various digital and homemade analog electronics. The Michael Evans tribute highlights many of the unusual and/or homemade instruments amassed over his lifetime, played by 14 of his cohorts in improvisation. Between live sets archival video will be shown of Michael in performance, and slides of his largely unknown visual art will be projected. His many collaborative recordings will be available, as well as prints of his art and his hand-written cookbook.
About Ben Bennett, variable pitch floor tom, bass drum, wood blocks, & objects
About Andrew Drury, amplified snare drum
About Fast Forward, assorted metal culinary percussion instruments
About Michael Foster, saxophone
Michael Foster is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist utilizing extensive preparations of his saxophone, augmenting it with amplification, objects, balloons, drum heads, vibrators, tapes, and samples as a method of subverting and queering the instrument's history and traditional roles.
https://michaelfoster.bandcamp.com/About Shelley Hirsch, voice
About Skip LaPlante, hanging objects, gongs, & scrap metal
About Sean Meehan, wearable metals
Drummer Sean Meehan (NYC) began performing during the late 1980s, presenting his increasingly refined and reductive approach to the drum set at small, informal spaces and artist-run festivals as well as more prestigious venues. For nearly twenty years he and Tamio Shiraishi presented their summer concert series, always in different interstitial locations throughout New York City. Three of these concerts have been documented on LP on the Fusetron and GD Stereo labels.
Meehan’s most recent projects include a highly abridged audiobook of Hermann von Helmholtz's seminal text from 1863, On the Sensations of Tone (2017), and Magazine (Sacred Realism, 2022), a piece for solo cowbell. He was featured in a recent issue of the music journal Sound American.
Seattle remains an important place for Meehan as many of his most treasured and enduring friendships and musical partnerships formed here.
https://www.mee-han.com/About Kenta Nagai, altered electric guitar
Kenta Nagai is a sound and visual artist based in New York City. He works with acoustic and electronic sound, visual media and live performance. After completing undergraduate studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston (BA, 1996) Nagai moved to New York City. He began his NY career as a fretless guitarist playing on the streets, in subway stations and at clubs. His most recent compositional work, entitled Long, Long, Long, is an ensemble piece for traditional Asian instruments. It was presented at Roulette, in NYC, in October 2006. Nagai's fretless guitar playing is featured on Eugene Chadborne's album "Guitar Festival Summer 1999" with Sonic Youth members Thurston Moore, Lee Renaldo and Jim O'Rourke plus Joe Morris, Lauren Mazzacane Connors, David Watson and others. Nagai is also a featured performer on two recordings by the composer Laura Andel, "Somnambulist" (Red Toucan Records, May 2003, RT9322) and "In::tension:" (Rossbin Records, October 2005, RS022). As a performer on the shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument, Nagai has appeared in numerous concerts at venues including Sculpture Center in Long Island City and Carnegie Hall. From 1999 until 2002 Nagai was a composer in residence at The Cave Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
https://myspace.com/kentanagaiAbout Dafna Naphtali, voice & electronics
About Kevin Shea, drum set, wonder metal, & snare drum with springs
About David Simons, theremin
David Simons is a composer and performer specializing in percussion, theremin, interactive sound installations, digital sampling, homemade instruments, and World Music. Recordings of his works include 2 CDs on Tzadik Fung Sha Noon (2009), and Prismatic Hearing (2004); 3 CDs with Gamelan Son of Lion, including Sonogram (Innova 2008); The Birth of George opera w/Lisa Karrer (Harvestworks 2003); and with God is My Co-Pilot, Music for Homemade Instruments, Stockhausen (Kurzwellen), Henry Brant, Shelley Hirsch, Denman Maroney, Laura Andel, and many others. David's music for theater, dance, and concert ensembles has brought him on World tours. Awards and commissions include the Rockefeller Bellagio residency, NYFA fellowships, NYSCA project funding, Aaron Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Composers Forum, and travel grants to collaborate with artists in Indonesia and Estonia from Arts International and Soros' Open Society Fund. Simons' composition Odentity for the Harry Partch instruments was premiered by Newband in 2007 and is featured on his Tzadik CD Fung Sha Noon.