 David Boykin
The David Boykin Expanse & Yuganaut will perform at Heaven Gallery at 1550 North Milwaukee in Chicago on Saturday, April 5 at 9 pm following a duo performance by Steve Cohn (shakuhachi and keyboards) & Tom Abbs (upright bass).
The David Boykin Expanse includes David Boykin on tenor saxophone, Jim Baker on keyboard, Alex Wing on upright bass, and Marcus Evans on drums. Thom Jurek of All Music Guide says, "The sheer musical sophistication of Boykin's vision, combined with his soulfully enthusiastic approach and a crack band, makes this a necessary addition to the new jazz catalog".
Yuganaut is a collective of improvising virtuosos. Playing pre-written and structured compositions, they explore sonic spaces by listening deeply to each others’ articulation and interpretation of the score. The surprising dialogue that results from this process is like watching an extremely well-honed basketball team pass the ball. Well-oiled, communicating, intuitive, and almost ESP-like in it's performance. The group is comfortable in many styles/genres, so the music flows from funk to swing, open jazz, to avant-classical aesthetics. With training in diverse musics such as strict classical Western Music, jazz, rock, South Indian and electronica, Yuganaut pushes the notion of eclecticism swiftly out the window and proclaims loudly that the world is a place where all musics can find a happy home, together.
Saxophonist David Boykin leads ensembles in traditional and free jazz sounds. He has played extensively in Chicago, and has also toured with his own group. He's recorded two albums, the most recent, The Nextspiritmental Musics of Saxophonist David Boykin on his own label, Dreamtime Records. The Chicago Reader wrote: "sounds like he could have come out of the New York free-jazz renaissance of the 90s, but he's in fact he's one of Chicago's best kept secrets." "... in the spirit of such previous pathfinders as Sun Ra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Miles Davis in his ’60s and ’70s electric period. Stephen Rush, Tom Abbs, and Geoff Mann create genuinely unpredictable soundscapes throughout this highly diverse disc, but always with attention to organic development and flow... Yuganaut proves that their chosen style of musical expression can be the sound of something genuinely startling". - (Dave Lynch / All Music Guide)
 Stephen Rus
 Geoff Mann
 Tom Abbs
Jim Baker has been playing in and around Chicago as a pianist, keyboardist, and synthesist for more than two decades, mostly in improvisational contexts. He initially studied piano with Thomas Scott, of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and studied composition with Morgan Powell and Herbert Brun at the University of Illinois at Urbana.
The music of pianist and shakuhachi player Steve Cohn has continually and dramatically evolved. A native of San Francisco, he performed as a blues pianist in Los Angeles, where he began studying the shakuhachi flute at UCLA. He then spent two years in Japan returning to study at San Francisco State University where he worked with Pulitzer Prize Winner, Wayne Peterson, and also appeared as a jazz pianist performing with musicians such as Eddie Henderson, and Sonny Simmons. Ultimately he moved to New York where he has devoted himself to totally improvised music, combining unconventional use of non-western winds and percussion with a unique piano style. Marcus Evans is active in the Chicago jazz, free jazz, and hip-hop scenes. He performs with Chicago musicians such as Nicole Mitchell and the Black Earth Ensemble, Greg Ward, Star People and others. He is also the drummer for the electronica dynamo Prefuse 73, and at least 50% of the production team BUTTERGA. http://www.myspace.com/marcusevans
Alex Wing is a guitarist, bassist, oudist, composer and creative musician who lives and works in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. He teaches at the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute and hosts the Sunday Jam Sessions at Pilsen's Cafe Mestizo with his group 8th Day Adventists. Groups with whom he plays in Chicago include: David Boykin Expanse, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, Microcosmic Sound Orchestra, Chicago Guitar Ensemble, The University of Chicago's Middle East Music Ensemble (Issa Boulos, director) and his quartet, 8th Day Adventists, with Ben Boye, Jayve Montgomery and Joel Wanek. New York: Grumpy Trio, with Darius Jones and Chris Forbes, a trio with Dave Ross and Eli Wing, and the band HongKongathon. www.chicagocalling.org
Heaven Gallery
1550 North Milwaukee, 2nd floor
Chicago, Illinois 60622
http://www.heavengallery.com/
For more info please call 312.543.7027. www.DavidBoykin.com
http://yuganaut.com
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Friday, 04 July 2008
