New York's Darren Johnston, Anna Webber & Michael Bates January 18, 19, 20, 21 @ 8:30 PM

Darren Johnston - Trumpet
Anna Webber - Saxophone
Michael Bates - Bass
Nick Fraser - Drums

This composer’s collective features two Brooklyn-based musicians, (Bates and Johnston), one formerly NYC-based, but still there with great regularity when not on tour or hiding out in Connecticut musician (Webber), and Toronto-based local favorite Nick Fraser.  Each of them originates from Canada if you go back far enough.

The four of them have enough shared interests to form a cohesive group sound, yet have enough divergent musical backgrounds to steer them in just about any direction.  Expect  unique compositional ideas, surprising  and thoughtful group interplay, deep grooves, hard swing, and a great time for all.

Collectively they’ve played and/or recorded with the likes of Marshall Allen, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith, Slavic Soul Party, Bela Fleck, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis, Myra Melford, Kris Davis, Donny McCaslin, Dave Douglas, JD Allen, George Garzone, Tony Malaby, Erik Friedlander, John Hollenbeck, and many others.

Darren Johnston

“a resourceful improviser who writes vivid, episodic themes.”
– Downbeat Magazine, “25  Trumpeters for the Future

“Someone to watch, on trumpet of course, but as a composer and bandleader as well.”
– John Corbett, Downbeat Magazine

Anna Webber

“Reedist Anna Webber, a Brooklynite by way of British Columbia, is one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene in the past couple years. ...her detail-rich writing recalls the work of elders as disparate as Tim Berne and Henry Threadgill, and her busy motion evokes a fizzy sort of exhilaration.

- ”Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

 Michael Bates

“Bates manages to navigate that most difficult and rarely traveled road leading to accessible experimentation….always forward–thinking but also beautiful and within the grasp of even the most casual jazz fan.”
- Chris Watson, “The View”

Nick Fraser

“Fraser not so much plays the drums as hurls himself whole body and soul against skin and metal… truly talented.”
- Bill Stunt, CBC Radio

“Fraser is a deft and sensitive percussionist with a hint of an enigmatic streak, a feeling for economical gestures, and an innate sense of form.”
- Mark Miller, The Globe & Mail