SCFA Expansive Sounds #10: Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Chris Corsano
Three titans of free jazz unite for the first time as part of the Singletary Center’s Expansive Sounds Series. Joe McPhee (sax/voice), Ken Vandermark (reeds), and Chris Corsano (drums/percussion) have collaborated many times throughout the years in various configurations, but this is their first foray as a trio. Though the music from this new trio by McPhee, Vandermark, and Corsano will be completely improvised and spontaneous, it will be informed by their collective histories, a background which includes decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists that has taken place during hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad.
Joe McPhee is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser, known for his pioneering work in avant-garde jazz and experimental music. Primarily recognized for his virtuosic saxophone playing, McPhee also performs on trumpet, pocket trumpet, and a variety of other instruments. His career spans over five decades, during which he has collaborated with leading figures in the free jazz and experimental music scenes, including William Hooker, Ken Vandermark, and Roscoe Mitchell. McPhee’s work blends elements of jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music, marked by emotional depth and innovative approaches to sound. Throughout his career, he has maintained a commitment to pushing the boundaries of music, both in solo performances and collaborative projects.
Ken Vandermark is an avant-garde composer, improviser, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, and writer whose unique history has given him the opportunity to perform extensively and record with key figures of the AACM (Fred Anderson), New York’s Downtown scene (Ikue Mori), FMP (Peter Brötzmann), the English improvisers scene (Paul Lytton), post-punk (Terrie Ex), Ethiopian music (Getachew Mekuria), and free jazz from Japan (Akira Sakata). He's been the director of the Catalytic Sound musician cooperative since 2012, has run Audiographic Records since 2014, in 1999 was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in music, and in 2024 he curated the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria.
Chris Corsano is a drummer who's been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and noise music since the late 1990's. He's worked with Joe McPhee, Bill Orcutt, Björk, and many others - appearing on over 200 albums and touring constantly in an ultra-wide array of collaborations. Corsano has built an inventive and highly personal musical language through extended percussion techniques and creative augmentations to his kit, with circular-breathed reeds, bowed strings, and resonant materials expanding the drums' melodic and textural possibilities in addition to their rhythmic ones.
TICKETS:
$20 Adults / $11 Students (additional fees may apply online)
UK Students can attend for FREE! Each UK Student can claim ONE (1) free ticket with their student ID, available exclusively in-person at the SCFA Ticket Office
Recital Hall | Reserved Seating
TICKET SALES ARE FINAL - NO REFUNDS. NO EXCHANGES.
The Singletary Center does not offer verified resale and cannot guarantee the validity of tickets purchased through a third party. Etix.com is the official ticketing provider for SCFA.
