| | | Birmingham Experiments | | |

Please join us for the second concert in the monthly Birmingham Experiments series, Fri. October 2nd @ 8pm at Greencup Books!!!

Jennifer Caputo will be performing an amazing solo gong piece by James Tenney, “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion” (1971) and a solo amplified triangle piece by Alvin Lucier, “Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra” (1988) that must be heard to believe!

Also on the bill, the great Davey Williams (guitar) & Johnny Coley (poetry) duo, and music & dance improvisations including Celeste LaBourde, Stella Nystrom, LaDonna Smith, Juliet Easlick and others!

Greencup Books

105 Richard Arrington Blvd. South

Birmingham, Alabama

Welcome!

On this site you will find information about upcoming experimental arts performances in the Birmingham, Alabama region, along with audio/video/photo documentation of some of the events — thanks for your interest.

Combining explorations in sound, movement, text, and the visual, these performances are a living laboratory of new arts happenings.

If you are interested in performing on the series, please send your proposal via email:

bhamexperiments[at]gmail[dot]com

These events are co-curated by LaDonna Smith, Andrew Raffo Dewar, and Hunter Bell.

Please come out and support your local arts community!

LaDonna Smith is a violinist, violist, vocalist and musical impresario, pioneering the field of free improvisation in America as an art form capable of the clarity and expression of composition.

Since 1973, the first collaborations with Davey Williams, the beginnings of TransMuseq Records, she works with many world class improvisers, and notable collaborators Misha Feigin, Susan Alcorn, Michael Evans, Thollem McDonas and others.  In 1980, she was a founding board member of the Improvisor’s Network (IN), along with Jack Wright, Lesli Dalaba, Chris Cochrane and others, headquartered in NYC with the intent of networking and documenting the circuit of improvisational activity in the USA. Thus, the journal dedicated solely to the philosophy and genre free improvisation, the improviser, was born. The international journal of free improvisation currently lives on the web at www.the-improvisor.com.

Dedicated to the movement of music in the moment, LaDonna has performed hundreds of concerts in the U.S.A. Canada, Europe, China and Japan. She performs a highly personal solo style of instant composition and extended techniques, and she enjoys musical collaborations with fellow improvisers wherever she goes.

Her discography includes numerous recordings, CD’s and  LPs’ on various music labels including Table of the Elements, Leo Records, Meniscus, Tzadik, Ishtar, Ictus, the Unheard Music Series, Parachute, Say Day-Bew and her own label, TransMuseq Records.

For more info: www.myspace.com/ladonnaviola

Andrew Raffo Dewar (b. 1975 Rosario, Argentina) is a composer, improviser, woodwind instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist.

Since 1995, he has been active in the music communities of Minneapolis, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, performing his work in North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. Recent venues in NYC include Roulette, The Stone, Issue Project Room and the Knitting Factory.

Dewar studied with saxophonist/composers Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton and Phillip Greenlief, composer Alvin Lucier, trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon, and multi-instrumentalist improviser Milo Fine. He has also had a long involvement with experimental and traditional Indonesian music.

As a performer, current and recent projects include the electroacoustic quartet “Low and Away” (with Jessica Pavone, Aaron Siegel & Phillip Schulze), the “Six Lines” ensemble, which performs his compositions, “Trio Raro” with Minneapolis-based improvisers Milo Fine and Davu Seru, an electroacoustic duo with German media artist Phillip Schulze, a trio with the Bay Area’s Gino Robair and John Shiurba, the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, and the Bill Dixon Orchestra.

Recordings are available on the Porter Records and Striking Mechanism labels. Dewar also appears on several recordings by the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet & the Bill Dixon Orchestra.

Andrew Raffo Dewar is Assistant Professor in New College at the University of Alabama.

For more info: www.freemovementarts.com

Jasper Lee is constantly getting burned with too many irons in the fire of the sweltering Alabama musical landscaping community. Currently trying to forget everything that was once learned, new instruments are widely available on a daily basis in the form of
tossed out junk, configurations of glossy wood, and well-preserved relics of the past.  He is assembling a metaphysical choir, and encourages any interested folks to please contact him to participate, no experience necessary.

As a member of Red Mountain’s own Them Natives for the past 5 years, he has performed widely as a vocalist, banjoer, percussionist and bull roarist.

Also has acted as a key mastermind behind the elusive Quilted Crystal Orchestra, a group that has recorded score music for many films, including “Pop Skull” directed by Adam Wingard, which is to be released on dvd this July by Halo 8 Films.

For more info: www.myspace.com/quiltedcrystalorchestra

SI Reasoning is a multi-instrument musician, improvisational dancer, performance artist, and digital photographer. He developed a love of the natural world while living in the rain forest on the Big Island of Hawai’i. His creations reflect the serenity and wildness of the natural world.

SI has written, directed and acted within an integrated multiple artistic performance entitled Ghost Warrior involving Jill Johnson Ritchey’s paintings and SI’s digital photography, along with musicians, Butoh dancers, and narration influenced by the events of September 11. Ghost Warrior was one of the City Stages 2002 “Don’t Miss“ Top Ten (out of 150 acts) and was performed at the Birmingham Museum of Art. SI was also the organizer of Art for the Environment, a month long “City Stages” type event with musicians, dancers, poets, and other performers banding together with environmental organizations to produce a fun, informative and entertaining celebration of the wonders of Alabama, mixed with a few scary tales of the perils of neglect.

SI also has written, directed and acted in the Anniston House of Horrors, a somewhat campy and humorous look at the horrors of environmental degradation in Anniston, AL. With characters such as the “Cancer Fairy”, modevil dramas such as the “Burning of the Witch of Sarin”, and the entrancing “Three-Eyed Fish Dance of the Chocolocco”, the Anniston House of Horrors was able to generate national headlines highlighting Anniston’s issues as well as receive a “Don’t Miss” from the Birmingham News during City Stages 2003.

SI Reasoning’s ‘U’u is a performance reflecting on the birth of his first born son of the same name and explores the divide of incarnation and spirit. It is skillfully brought to life by Deborah Mauldin utilizing a post World War II form of Japanese dance known as Butoh. Deborah Mauldin is considered one of the leading Butoh performers in the nation and has been the President of the New York City based American Dance Guild for the past few years.

Portal Dementia is an ongoing electronic experiment using analog synthesizers, primitive live effect(s), sound generators, tape machines, samplers, spoken word(s), live percussion, found sounds, and other devices to create constantly evolving layers of sonic experience. Recorded live, without overdubs. Portal Dementia features Hunter Bell, Andy Douglas and Zack Walker.

For more info: www.myspace.com/portal222

Hunter Bell graduated with a degree in Philosophy from UAB as part of the Honors Program. He has worked with numerous nonprofit organizations such as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Space One Eleven, Woodlawn Family Resource Center, Birmingham Art Association, and the Alabama Center for Law and Civic Education.

Bell is currently the Executive Director for Paragon Fundraising & Development.

Hunter spends his off time writing and painting, collecting rare Sun Ra LPs, designing soundscapes and video soundtracks with film producers Hard Pill, as well as creating music with his bands “Awake & Dreaming,” “Portal Dementia,” “Dias” and “khasma.”

Hunter’s best friends are his infant son Tristan (already playing drums and keyboards) and the Great (est) Dane, Midas, as well as a wealth of long-time comrades dating back from childhood. 

Hunter has been very active in Birmingham’s performing arts community over the past fourteen years. He created City Stages Spoken Word Festival and co-created Birmingham’s Great Poetry Slam. Hunter has worked with many other events including the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, the Birmingham International Improv Festival, and Birmingham ArtWalk. His poetry and drawings have been published in a variety of journals throughout the South. He has enjoyed meeting, interviewing and performing with locally and nationally known artists.

Hunter is also the former music producer and reporter for WBHM’s local arts and culture radio magazine, Tapestry, and currently consults for Tapestry.

For more info: www.myspace.com/hunterbell

Liquid Brick is six guys, total improv. You can’t get more modern caveman than that.

For more info: www.myspace.com/liquidbrick

Stella Nystrom, an improvising dancer, choreographed and performed a multimedia piece consisting of dance, visual art, live music, costume design and poetry called “Anatomy” with Alabama Contemporary Dance Dramarama Festival in New Orleans in 2005. She has performed throughout the SE, including the Magic City festival in 2008 and 2009 with Corpus Euphonium, Day of the Dead 2008 with Pyro-salto, Arts Walk 2008 with Pyro Salto, and also with the New World Ballet Company in Arcata, California. She has also recently accompanied the band Port Wine Stain, based out of Mobile, Alabama.

Stephen McClurg, bassist, is an improvisor who recently moved to Birmingham from Mobile. Along with Stella Nystrom, he was central to the activities taking place at Satori Sound Cafe in Mobile. Stephen is currently a member of the thrash/surf band The Necronomikids, the free improv ensemble Corpus Euphonium, and the swamp-country Dirt Scab Band.

Sister Love, percussion, might be best described as an outsider artist, well-suited as one of Birmingham’s mythological divas of fringe arts. She is an improviser, a practitioner and documentarian of outsider artists, including Birmingham’s history of music improvisation, and also a  found object artist & proponent and cultivar of wheelchair dance.

Ali Shaheed Ibrahim Tawheed al Fodiwa was born on June 10 1982. Like many youth raised in america, Shaheed fell in love with basketball and hip hop. However after becoming Muslim in high school he really found out what life is really about and found his purpose in life. Shaheed has written ryhmes since he was in kindergarden because his mother would make him write in his daily journal and he found ways to make his day seem intresting in writing. Over time, Shaheed developed a skill with the help of his brother Bilal that has made him a diverse MC with many talents.

Like other MCs, Shaheed battled rappers at his high school and locally and developed a reputation as someone who is serious at what he does. At the start of the year 2000, Shaheed met Rasul at jumuah (congregational prayer for muslims) and they formed the legendary group “The Unseen Ummah”. This formation led to shaheed being introduced to DJ Heron, sparks of precise elements and supreme of eargasm productions. The Unseen Ummah performed reguarly at the eargasm and the lomo magazine shows.

The Unseen Ummah dropped a 4 song EP with production from Heron Sparks and Supreme, which led them to get the Dirty 30 award for best lyrics, and the Dirty 30 award for being one of Birmingham’s favorite hip hop groups of all time.

Along with March the 5th, Heron Sparks, Supreme, and Bilal, Shaheed has released the much anticipated “Scholar Warrior” album. After the success of the album, Shaheed teamed up with Supreme of Hot 107.7 radio to release the classic album, “Health Wealth and Knowledge of Self.” This album has special guest appearances by Akil the MC from Jurassic 5, and Muhammad Abdul Haqq, Rasul and Bilal with prodcution by Supreme, March the 5th and Heron Sparks. Not only is Shaheed a small time MC , he is a husband, father, teacher, brother, and a wanna-be scholar warrior.

Davey Williams: “I can’t properly describe myself as a true vaudevillian for three main reasons: I don’t dance, I can’t sing and play guitar at the same time and I can never remember any good jokes. On the other hand, a musician playing on a stage is an inherently boring sight much of the time…This is why I began to get increasingly interested in this ‘vaudevillian’ idea of using improvised performance as a vehicle for trying to be open to extra-musical ideas and activities. For the most part this consists mostly of what you might call messing around on stage, interrupting or delaying the musical seriousness (if there is any) with the idea that I’m actually doing - or trying to do - something else, except that I happen to be standing in front of an audience with a guitar around my neck.

Guitarist, Curlew member and LaDonna Smith-collaborator Davey Williams began playing the guitar when he was 12 years old. He played in various rock bands during his last years of high school and upon graduating, studied with, and played in the band of, Delta blues musician Johnny Shines. He played with Shines throughout 1971, and continued to appear at occasional performances through the late ’80s.

Also during the first half of the ’70s, Williams performed in the Salt & Pepper Soul Band and Show, the University of Alabama ‘B’ Jazz Ensemble, had his first concert with LaDonna Smith, and founded the Transmuseq duo and an improvisational music studio of the same name.

The first releases on Transmuseq came out in 1978. Williams first toured the U.S. in 1978, and toured Europe the next year. From the early to mid-80s, Williams played in the avant-blues band Trains In Trouble.

In 1986, he joined the experimental rock/new music group Curlew, led by saxophonist George Cartwright, with organist Wayne Horvitz, cellist Tom Cora, and more. Williams remained in Curlew through the ’80s and ’90s. He also played with Col. Bruce Hampton during the mid-80s, led and composed for the band OK, Nurse during the late ’80s, and played in the experimental punk band Fuzzy Suns for a year in the early ’90s.

Around the same time as Fuzzy Suns, Williams got involved with the Say What! improvisational trio. He has played in various ensembles — including some with trombonist Jim Staley and drum machine artist Ikue Mori — at improvised and new composed music festivals and venues worldwide, totalling over 1500 concerts!

Williams appears on over 40 recordings; some, his own. He is co-founder and editor of The Improviser, a journal of free improvisation that’s been going since 1981.

~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide

For several decades, cellist Craig Hultgren has been a fixture on the scenes for new music, the newly creative arts, and the avant-garde. In recent years, he has performed solo concerts and chamber music in Rome, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, Denver, Memphis and San Antonio. A recipient of two Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, he was a member for many years of Thámyris, a contemporary chamber music ensemble in Atlanta. A cellist in the Alabama Symphony, he also plays in Luna Nova, a new music ensemble with a large repertoire of performances available as podcast downloads on iTunes. Hultgren is featured in three solo CD recordings including The Electro-Acoustic Cello Book on Living Artist Recordings. In 2004, the Birmingham Sidewalk Film Festival 48-Hour Scramble cited him for the best soundtrack creation for the film The Silent Treatment. For ten years, he produced the Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial, an international competition that highlighted the best new compositions for the instrument. He teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Alabama School of Fine Arts and Birmingham-Southern College where he directs the BSC New Music Ensemble. He is a founding member and former President of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance and is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Birmingham.

Glenn Engstrand is the founder and President of Dynamical Software. He is a software architect with more than twenty years of experience in the field. He has taught in this area at the University of San Francisco. Glenn is also experienced improvising on the bassoon and alto clarinet. He was integrally involved in performing and organizing the initial Birmingham Improv festivals of the early 1990s while he served as the Administrative Assistant for the Birmingham Art Association.

PLUS OTHER MYSTERY GUESTS TO BE DETERMINED…!