The October Revolution in Jazz 60th Anniversary, October 1-5 (Los Angeles)

The October Revolution in Jazz 60th Anniversary Celebration

A night of rare jazz-continuum film and recordings, conversation with music luminaries, and music performance spanning generations of improvisers.  

October 1-4 @ CalArts

Click HERE for the schedule of events.

October 5, 2024 @ 2220 Arts + Archives

2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles
2220 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Click HERE for the schedule of events. 

The October Revolution in Jazz 60th Anniversary (ORJ 60) is a celebration of the life and legacy of visionary musician-composer, artist, and educator Bill Dixon (1925–2010). It is also a reflection upon the cultural impact of the original October Revolution in Jazz, which Dixon organized at NYC’s Cellar Cafe in 1964. 

The original was blessed with unforeseen successes: four days of packed performances by the second wave of a contemporary musical avant-garde emerging out of the jazz continuum; heated debates about the exploitative commodification of musicians’ labor; and implicit protest of the limiting aesthetic constraints of traditional jazz. The October Revolution in Jazz had an energizing impact on the social and political aims of artists of all kinds, and led to a whirlwind of artist-driven initiatives, including the Jazz Composer’s Guild and the NYC loft scene. 

Like the original, ORJ 60 is simultaneously a summit, a call to action, and an imagining of new futures. ORJ 60 will explore the profound impact of improvisation on culture from the 1960s onward, as well as its influence on various artistic modes beyond music, including pedagogy, collectivity, artist-driven organizing, and creative ways of being.  

Through a multivalent program of workshops, symposia, and performances, ORJ 60 aims to foster a deeper understanding of improvisation as a critical and creative practice, and to contemplate a vivid way forward. It also aims to reinvigorate awareness of Bill Dixon’s enormous contributions to improvised music, and the cultural impact of his pedagogies.

Please check out october-revolution.org for details! 

#calarts #2220arts #orj60 #calartsmusic #OctoberRevolutionInJazz #youmeandthewhales #vinnygolia #kzap.radio #stanleyjasonzappa #catherinesikora #nickskrowaczewski #t.j.borden #kylemotl #bobbybradford #triplepointrecords #hamzawalker #sarahjobeadle

Zappa Plays Los Angeles, Feb. 19

 New Texture recording artists Catherine Sikora, Nick Skrowaczewski, Andrew Wedman, and Stanley J. Zappa will appear at HelMel Studios in Los Angeles, Saturday, February 19 at 8 pm.

$10 suggested admission, cash bar. 

And, as ever, remember to keep it irie.

First Chance, Last Chance for Four New Zappa Discs

 

First Chance, Last Chance. 

We’re releasing four new CDs from Stanley J. Zappa (and friends). They are available right now from Amazon. They will only be available to purchase until June 4th, a matter of days. We had hoped to stagger these releases and keep them in print indefinitely, but our manufacturer has rather suddenly announced other plans about manufacturing them. (It’s Amazon, and they are assholes.) 

These albums will be made available as downloads; this is great music and we want to keep it available. So if you like downloads, you’re in luck. But if you like CDs? If you like physical media? Groovy packaging, designed by New Texture's Wyatt Doyle? Time is short. Very short. So short, that if you want to own copies of these extremely limited pressings, you’d better get cracking. Like, now. 

Know that since it’s Amazon manufacturing the discs to order and filling your order, and they don’t seem to like us much, you can expect fulfillment to take longer than usual. (We don’t like them either.) 

Think of it like those rare Dylan discs, released to maintain copyrights in small "get 'em while you can" quantities. 

Think of it like those recently released Stones outtakes, which seem to be the same kind of thing. 

Think of it like we’re losing our manufacturer, but we still want to release these albums on CD, because that's exactly what's happening. 

Think of it any way you like, but if you want these albums on disc, you’d better move fast. You’ve only got ’til June 4th. 

Buy links and music previews below.

Free/Refuse by Jacob Hall, Nick Skrowaczewski, Stanley J. Zappa 

https://amzn.to/3f52gDV 

Crossing Guards by Daniel Carter, Steven Leffue, Catherine Sikora, Stanley J. Zappa 

https://amzn.to/3tZGLbW 

The Stanley J. Zappa Quartet Plays For The Society of Women Engineers 

(Wyatt Doyle, Mark Leonard, Nick Skrowaczewski, Stanley J. Zappa)

https://amzn.to/342EUZm

Turkey Bacon Donuts Bitches by MANZAP REBORN 

(Andrew Wedman, Stanley J. Zappa) 

https://amzn.to/3f2oxlR

 

Also going out of print (as physical releases): 

Sing-Song Songs by Stanley J. Zappa

https://amzn.to/2SVYB2z

Live a Little by Manzappaczewski 

(Nick Skrowaczewski, Andrew Wedman, Stanley J. Zappa)

https://amzn.to/3wlDEwr

The Stanley Zappa Trio featuring Catherine Sikora and Nick Skrowaczewski

The Stanley Zappa Trio Featuring Catherine Sikora and Nick Skrowaczewski. Contemporary improvised music in three unique settings with three emerging masters of the craft

June 11^th, Penticton, Elite After 6 at 9pm (event link)

June 12^th, Oliver, Quinta Ferreira Winery (in the Cellar), 7pm (event link)

June 13-15^th, Prince George, The 2^nd Annual Casse-Tête Festival of Experimental and Improvised Music, 8pm (event link)

Catherine Sikora: Saxophonist Catherine Sikora is an improviser and composer originally from West Cork, Ireland and now based in the New York City area. Initially self-taught, Sikora obtained a degree in Jazz Performance in England, and then moved to New York City to study with master improvisers and unlearn most of what she learned in college. She stopped performing entirely for four years to concentrate on rebuilding her approach from the ground up. Since resuming performance has become a very busy and distinctive voice in New York’s downtown scene, performing with a wide variety of musicians including Han-earl Park, Vinnie Golia, Ziv Ravits, Ben Chase and Dr. Franziska Schroeder. In addition, she and her husband, Eric Mingus, have a long-standing ensemble called Clockwork Mercury.

Nick Skrowaczewski: Son of conductor and composer Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, drummer Nick Skrowaczewski has experienced the full spectrum of orchestral literature, from the first beginnings of tonality to the furthest reaches of Avant Garde. This remarkable immersion in orchestral literature is evident in his compositional approach to the drum set and improvisation. Skrowaczewski (along with Zappa) studied music at Bennington College with Bill Dixon and Milford Graves, gaining a deep insight into the drum traditions of other cultures. Skrowaczewski also studied Afro-Cuban percussion at the Harbor School in Spanish Harlem and currently performs in the Sumunar Gamelan ensemble in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stanley Zappa: Raised a music lover in the fertile environment of Northern New Jersey, Zappa started out playing guitar under the influence of his Uncle Frank, before moving on to the acoustic bass. While at Bennington College (where he met Nick Skrowaczewski) he took up the saxophone. At Bennington, he studied with Bill Dixon and Milford Graves; a seminal experience in Zappa's development as a musician. After that, an unofficial masters degree was earned the hard way, living in New York, performing with many of the leading voices of the day. Now in the Okanagan, Zappa hones his his craft of woodwind performance as he ponders music's logical and social underpinnings. For the last seven years he has been playing in "No Boundaries" a modern classical duo with nonagenarian pianist Agnes Sutherland.

Skrowaczewski and Zappa provideded the inaugural release for Bill Dixon's record label Archive Edition, a cd entitled Visions. Since then, they have performed in Cambridge, MA with the Citizens' Orchestra, in Manhattan at Columbia University's radio station WKCR, at the 21st Annual Zappanale in Bad Doberan, Germany and most recently released a duo recording/DVD entitled The Upside-Down Halloween Sessions.

Sikora, Skrowaczewski and Zappa have studied, performed with and draw considerable inspiration from the seminal figures of Free Jazz and contemporary Post Jazz. With this tour the trio hope to introduce jazz lovers of the BC Interior to a their unique approach to performance and sound.

Recent clips:

Skrowaczewski and Zappa

Zappa and Sikora

Sikora solo

Sikora, Skrowaczewski, Zappa BC Dates

catherine sikora (tenor saxophone), nick skrowaczewski (percussion), stanley zappa (saxophone, clarinet)

june 11 - The Elite in Penticton, 9pm

june 12 - Quinta Ferreira winery in Oliver, 7pm

june 13 - 16 - Casse Tete in Prince George, all day long