Ayumi Ishito, Daniel Carter, and Demian Richardson have been improvising together for years under the auspices of the free-improv group Platypus Revenge, and have only recently begun playing in a trio. Their unique configuration of multiple horns combined with electronics creates a sonic language that quests about in the wilderness seeking emergent organisms and uncharted terraforms.

The night will begin with a poetry reading by Fred Moten, after which Ishito, Carter, and Richardson will perform.

This event is a fundraiser for words in process, Daniel Carter’s first book, forthcoming from Pinsapo Press. The book provides a glimpse into Carter’s 5-decade-long practice of improvisatory writing in response to the daily environments through which he moves. His massive oeuvre—lacking a publication history save for the bits and pieces which have appeared in a handful of journals and zines over the years—represents an ever-evolving interest in formal experimentation, playing with the limitations of various mediums (pen, typewriter, computer) and modes (drawing, scoring, field observation, stream-of-consciousness, incantation, exposition). The publication will combine drawings, handwritten pages in facsimile, and typed text, so as to approximate the multivalence and unremitting movement of Carter’s words in process.

This event is sponsored by the Berkshire Music Project.

—

Ayumi Ishito was born and raised in Ishikawa, Japan. At the age of 19, she began playing tenor saxophone in a college big band at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. In 2007, Ayumi received a scholarship to attend Berkee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She spent three years there studying performance and composition. After graduating from Berklee, Ayumi moved to New York in 2010. Ayumi has been playing with many different groups. One of her recent projects Open Question received 4 stars review in DownBeat magazine in 2022.  Also her another project The Spacemen was selected for the Best Jazz of 2021 in Bandcamp. As a composer, Ayumi has been leading her quintet since 2011 and performing her compositions. The band released two albums, “View From A Little Cave” in 2016 and “Midnite Cinema” in 2019.

Daniel Carter, born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1945, is a musician and writer. Since coming to New York City, in 1970, he has sought out musicians and situations that encourage free expression. In the 1950s he sang in so-called doo-wop groups, took clarinet lessons, played in school bands (into the 60s), and the 49th Army Band (ca. 1967-69). When he first came to NYC, he played in soul bands as well as so-called avant-garde jazz groups. He has always tried to transcend genre-boundaries, which is, today, as daunting a challenge as ever, but he’s found that the many musicians he’s met and played with, and the invaluable treasure of a huge, ever-growing, number of recordings and videos (so many, readily available on the internet, cable t.v., and radio), have recharged and renewed him, all along the way. He lives in Manhattan with his cat, Sophie.

Demian Eric Richardson began playing trumpet at the age of eight. After attending the New England Conservatory in the late ‘80s, he played with Full Celebrated Orchestra for a number of years in New York City, and has since been playing in and around the NY area with several different ensembles. He plays across a range of styles including free jazz, rock, hardcore, punk, funk, soul, R & B, hip-hop and classical and has collaborated with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Barry Altschul, Charles Gayle, Dennis Charles, Lester Bowie, Philip Wilson, Daniel Carter, John Blum, and many others.  His ensemble Wake Up!, formed in 2008, was a culmination of various musical concepts and styles. For the past ten years he has recorded and played with Platypus Revenge, an eclectic group which is constantly evolving and expanding, and for which he performs with a pedal board and various effects.

Fred Moten, born August 18, 1962, was raised in Las Vegas and lived briefly in Pennsylvania and Arkansas before enrolling at Harvard University. After one year at Harvard, he took a hiatus and went back to Las Vegas, where he worked as a janitor at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, read Dante, and wrote poems. One year later, he returned to Harvard and received his AB, before earning his PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Moten’s poetry collections include perennial fashion     presence falling (Wave Books, 2023); The Service Porch (Letter Machine Editions, 2016); The Little Edges (Wesleyan University Press, 2014); The Feel Trio (Letter Machine Editions, 2014); B Jenkins (Duke University Press, 2010); and Hughson’s Tavern (Leon Works, 2008). His scholarly texts include The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study (Minor Compositions, 2013), coauthored with Stefano Harney, and In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (University of Minnesota, 2003). In 2020, Moten was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow, and, in 2009, was recognized as one of ten “New American Poets” by the Poetry Society of America.

—

Tickets: $25

Seating/Bar: 6:30PM   Show:  7:00PM

This event is indoors.

—

Parking is limited at the venue so please utilize the three public parking lots in Town. One is across from the Post Office, one is behind Berkshire Bank and the other is just off Main Street. They are clearly marked. Do not park at Trúc Orient Express Restaurant or the Post Office or you might receive a ticket.