Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Trio M
Featuring protean pianist Myra Melford, galvanizing bassist Mark Dresser and supremely musical drummer Matt Wilson, Trio M brings together three visionary jazz artists with extensive track records in adventurous ensembles. This volatile ensemble explores compositions contributed by every member while maintaining a commitment to spontaneous improvisation. Unbound by piano trio conventions, the leaderless project erases distinctions between frontline and accompanist, requiring each player to shape the music’s flow as it unfolds.
$20 General Admission
“With a nod to its enduring fertility, Trio M joyfully confounds expectations with the litheness afforded by the piano trio format.” –All About Jazz
“What makes this trio so different is not that they depart this strong structure...but that everything they spontaneously come upon creates new forms, and the relationships among the forms is never obvious.” –JazzTimes
TRIO M
Unbound by piano trio conventions, the leaderless project erases distinctions between frontline and accompanist, requiring each player to shape the music’s flow as it unfolds. The resulting sounds can be fierce and beatific, playful and rigorous, earthy or abstract, extravagantly joyous or quietly introspective. The only constant is the triumvirate’s wondrous capacity to listen deeply and respond to one another other in unexpected ways, creating state of the art jazz that’s unbound by notions of genre, form, or conventional technique.
The pianist, composer, bandleader and University of California, Berkeley, professor Myra Melford — whom the New Yorker called “a stalwart of the new-jazz movement” — has spent the last three decades making original music that is equally challenging and engaging. She’s explored an array of formats, among them ruminative solo-piano recitals, deeply interactive combos and ambitious multidisciplinary programs, probing the space shared between dynamic small-group jazz and contemporary chamber music. Since debuting on record as a bandleader in 1990, she’s built a discography of more than 25 albums as a leader or co-leader, and has been awarded numerous DownBeat poll placings, a 2000 Fulbright Scholarship, a 2012 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music and, between 2013 - 2016, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Award and the Doris Duke Residency to Build Demand for the Arts. The Other Side of Air, the most recent release by her quintet Snowy Egret, was named one of the best jazz recordings of 2018 by the New York Times and one of NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2018. “This is music with an endless capacity for elasticity and surprise,” NPR wrote, “along with an affirming spirit of coherence.”
Mark Dresser is a Grammy nominated, internationally renowned bass player, improviser, and composer. At the core of his music is an obsession and commitment to expanding the sonic, musical, and expressive possibilities of the contrabass. He has recorded over one hundred-forty CDs including including ten CDs as composer/bandleader, three solo recordings and a DVD and his most recent solo LP Modicana (2017). From 1985 to 1994, he was a member of Anthony Braxton’s Quartet. He has also performed and recorded music of Ray Anderson, Jane Ira Bloom, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Dave Douglas, Osvaldo Golijov, Gerry Hemingway, Lei Liang, Bob Ostertag, Joe Lovano, Roger Reynolds, Henry Threadgill, Dawn Upshaw, John Zorn. Since 2007 he has been deeply involved in telematic music performance and education. He was awarded a 2015 & 2018 Shifting Foundation Award and 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award. He is Professor of Music at University of California, San Diego. mark-dresser.com
Matt Wilson has released thirteen albums as a leader, appeared on more than 400 others as a sideman and has played with an impressive array of some of the most legendary names in jazz, including Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Joanne Brackeen and Herbie Hancock, just to name a few. Wilson was named 2018 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and his album, Honey And Salt (Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg), won the JJA’s Album of the Year Award. That recording and his previous, Beginning of a Memory, accomplished the rare feat of an artist receiving consecutive 5-star (masterpiece) reviews from DownBeat magazine. Wilson’s commitment to jazz goes far beyond his estimable skills as a drummer and bandleader. Also a renowned educator, he is on a tireless mission to foster a lively and deep connection between music and people, whether they be playing or listening to it. To that end, he is extremely passionate about bringing jazz to new audiences and inspiring students to be as individualistic and imaginative as possible.