6.17.07

Swift Tuba in the Face!!?!

This Wednesday 4.11 at The Camel, the Patchwork Collective will be bringing the great Tony Malaby Tuba Trio to that sweet new place THE CAMEL (thecamel.org) Richmond's "The Great White Jenkins" will open. This should be a tuba-reffic feast for the ears!

below is an informative press release:

Who: Tony Malaby Tuba Trio, with The Great White Jenkins
When: Wednesday 4/11, doors at 7:30pm, show starts at 8:00pm
Where: The Camel, 1621 W Broad St. (804)353-4901
Cost: $10 at the door

Patchwork Collective is proud to present the Tony Malaby Tuba Trio in person for one night only at The Camel. Tony Malaby has been actively writing and performing in New York since the mid-90's, and leads several diverse musical projects. This group, made of sax, tuba, and drums, promises to be one of the most interesting ensembles yet. Opening the show will be Richmond favorites "The Great White Jenkins." The blend of creative writing and arranging on display this night will be enough to make a camel cry, and a tuba sing!



Praise for Tony Malaby:
" Mr. Malaby, a powerful and increasingly prominent tenor saxophonist, brings a Spanish tinge to this progressive ensemble."
-The New York Times

"Tony Malaby is a probing tenor saxophonist who is comfortable with both inside and outside playing. Some of Malaby's work has been very avant-garde and left of center, although he has had no problem playing more mainstream post-bop."
-All Music

"Si l’enfer est baigné de cette atmosphère chauffée à blanc, et peuplé de diablotins du même acabit que Tony, Marc et Daniel, il y a fort à parier pour que le paradis ne soit pas là où l’on croit... " - Citizen Jazz.


Praise for John Hollenbeck:
"Percussionist-composer John Hollenbeck is among the new skinsmen with enough raw skill to make his estimable melodic gifts serve his impeccable timing." K. Leander Williams - Time Out/NY

"...superb, technically ingenious...,passionate and serious, but also playful and funny..." Douglas Wolk - Village Voice

"...It's sensitive, thinking music, continually changing shape and texture; Mr. Hollenbeck is an estimable jazz drummer whose goals clearly lie beyond jazz." Ben Ratliff - New York Times

Praise for Marcus Rojas:
"The tuba was played here with unusual lyrical potency by Marcus Rojas."
Bernard Holland, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Marcus Rojas was mind blowing on tuba. His steady bass lines were touched by a fantastic range. ...bass lines so down to earth, the worms were diggin it."-THE PEAK, British Columbia

"...Marcus Rojas, possibly the worlds best all around tuba player."
-Harvey Pekar



For more information contact Patchwork Collective:
Matt, Chris, Bryan, and Scott
at:
patchworkcollective@gmail.com

THE RETURN OF PATCHWORK COLLECTIVE!!?!

That's right, quicker than you can say,"creative literary comparison using hip cultural references to relate to 20-somethings," Patchwork returns with an amazing show featuring NY reedist and subversive genius Tim Berne in a power packed trio that will destroy and then rebuild your soul through the power of music. Brian Jones' Boots of Leather will open!

Thursday Nov. 30 at 7:30pm
Come to the Firehouse Theatre and see some destruction!
$10 at the door, or you can buy tickets at Plan 9 too.

Standards & Practices Get All Scary

this thing will be crazy--promise.

Date/ Time: Sunday, Oct. 29 9pm-12am
Venue: Commercial Taphouse (111N. Robinson St. 23220)
Cost: FREE

Artists:
Standards & Practices
River City String Quartet

Press/ Bios:

Scott Burton (co-founder of Patchwork Collective) presents an evening of amazing music at the intimate Commercial Taphouse. His group "Standards & Practices" will also present a set of Halloween songs from movies such as Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, and more obscure fare like Zombie, and Dawn of the Dead music by German prog-rockers "Goblin." This music will be presented in their unique style of non-stop improvisational seques! And all this is FREE

Standards & Practices

Scott Burton and Shareef Taher are no strangers to hard work. For the past 3 years, the two have managed to play in many different musical settings, everything from jazz and rock, to R & B and folk. Together they have a special musical chemistry that immediately commands attention. Combining elements of free improvisation with noise, math rock, and swing, the two have quickly managed to develop a unique musical identity that goes beyond any category. Each time they take the bandstand, one can expect a different experience, as Scott and Shareef guide the audience through their originals and inspired sets of free improvisation with style and grace.

River City String Quartet

Led by Richmond composer David Chamberlain, this group plays his original compositions (usually aided by laptop) as well as older classical works. They have quickly been gaining a following playing at various Patchwork Collective shows, and they always keep the crowd guessing.

First Un-Patchwork Event AUG 22

Date/ Time: Tuesday, Aug 22 8pm-10pm
Venue: ADA Gallery (228 W. Broad St. 23220)
Cost: $5 ($10 Suggested Donation)
Artists:
A.C. Unit
Ones & Zeros

While Patchwork is busy re-organizing, it's individual members are still finding time to curate innovation, and are doing it by creating Un-Patchwork Events. This is the first in an on-going series of shows to tide over fans before Patchwork resurfaces later in the year! Luckily the first show promises to be amazing...luckily.


Press/ Bios:

ONES and ZEROS

Proof that instrumental rock music is relevant, this Richmond band combines the principles of the avant-garde with the sense of immediacy found in rock music. With full knowledge of their misspelled name, Ones and Zeros takes the stage with an arsenal of songs named for such local talents as Bruce Willis and Keith David (of the films Hudson Hawk and They Live, respectively.) Featuring members of rock band Atlas, and experimental group Standards & Practices, this band takes "post rock," and exposes the truth behind why it was the worst term ever created by confused critics ("trip hop" being a close second.)

Scott Burton (member of Patchwork Collective, Standards & Practices, Lascaux, and the Upper East Side Big Band)...Guitar

Josh Grove (singer/songwriter of Atlas)...Drums

Nick Payne (having the best ideas in Atlas and Ones & Zeros)...Bass


A.C. UNIT

"A.C. Unit unites guitarist/banjoist Ben B. Lee, tenor
saxophonist Jonathan Moritz, and drummer Mike pride in
a tangled web of intuitive improvisation. "
- Time Out, NY

Ben B. Lee first assembled A.C. Unit in 2002, during a
series of regular gigs at Art Land (a local
performance space/dive-bar in Brooklyn, NY). Lee and
drummer Mike Pride first met while playing in the
avant-rock group, Angriest Pussycat. Together they
joined forces with tenor saxophonist Jonathan Moritz,
who was in a project called Evil Eye with Pride around
the same time. Recognizing that the time they spent
together was fueled by a desire to create, the group
quickly began playing shows at various downtown venues
including Barbes, Tonic, ABC No-Rio, and the 55bar.
In November of 2003, A.C. Unit hit the studio to
record their first record, Lost Property. They have
done several tours up and down the East Coast and
continue to perform in the New York City area. Their
new record, Sensual Polyphony, is expected for release
in the summer of 2006.

BEN B. LEE
Drawing from his youthful appreciation of classical
music, which began at the age of six in Europe, Ben B.
Lee applies the same curious and playful approach to
his artistic vision today. Classically trained at UNC
Greensboro, Ben also studied privately with guitarist
Scott Sawyer, Billy Stewart, world-class vibraphonist
Jon Metzger, and the great banjoist Tony Trishka.

Aside from A.C. Unit, Ben B. Lee has been involved in
many projects including scoring and composing music
for Four Short Plays by Steve Martin (New Actor's
Workshop NYC) in collaboration with Andrew Hendryx,
composing music for modern dance, recording and
performing with legendary freak-guitarist Eugene
Chadbourne, and playing guitar and banjo in various
rock bands. In 2001, Ben released his self-titled solo
debut, which received consistent airplay on WXYC 89.3
FM.

MIKE PRIDE
Percussionist/Composer Mike Pride, grew up in Portland
Maine and studied with Matt Wilson and Les Harris, Jr.
Mike moved to NYC in 2000, studying with legendary
percussionist Milford Graves and drum and bass wizard
Amir Ziv. Mike Pride is one of the most sought after
young drummers in NYC. He has had the opportunity to
perform and record throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia
and Australia with many wonderful musicians including
Anthony Braxton, Trevor Dunn, Chris Speed, William
Parker, Jack Wright, Tony Malaby, and legendary
punk-rock icons MDC.

JONATHAN MORITZ
Born in Tehran, Iran, Jonathan Moritz grew up in
Southern California where studied at CalArts in Los
Angeles, and later at the Brussels Conservatory of
Music in Belgium. He has toured in Europe and the
U.S., and has been performing with his own group, Trio
Caveat, and a variety of great musicians such as
Daniel Carter, Butch Morris, Andrew D'Angelo, Chris
Defort, Ken Filliano, Vinnie Golia and Lindsay Horner.


For more information, please write to us at patchworkcollective@gmail.com.

New Album, S & P Debut

So big news is happening. My first solo album is out in a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered copies. "Gerund Vol. 1:Acoustic Save One" is a collection of solo songs I've been playing over the past year, and is pretty much all performed on an old Gibson acoustic guitar. The CD is the first album on the new gerund records. I will be releasing more in the future (including the new "ones & zeros" album "my name is." Anyone interested in purchasing an album can contact me at:

gerundgerund@gmail.com

Albums are $10.

Also, Standards & Practices will be making it's official duo debut this Sunday (June 25) at Commercial Taphouse (111 N. Robinson St.) at 9:30pm.
this is a FREE show. We are happy to be performing with the River City String Quartet!

Hope to see everyone there.

Patchwork and Creativity

So Patchwork now seems to be getting some online coverage which is cool. We have a new interview up on Save Richmond , and an article written by our friend and web-guru Ross on Haduken . With all this talk about how Richmond is getting better, and about how it's always getting better, one thing becomes apparent: Doing stuff makes it that way. Not only stuff, but positive stuff. That's not as easy as it sounds, because in a city as small as Richmond, it's easy to step on other people's toes, and it's also very easy to either piss off, or get pissed at others trying to help the city.

One thing we try to do in Patchwork is to stay positive, and not burn bridges or make people mad. It's always been easy, because we truly love what we're doing, and who we work with. But sometimes we have had to deal with situations by taking the high road, and that's something we will stick to. We really want to do good things in Richmond, and help make everyone stronger in the process.

For me, it's not about improving culture or loving the city to death, it's just about doing sweet things that will help inspire others to do sweet things--it's that simple. I've been in the city for awhile, and ever since I first got here (1997), people have been saying that this city is slowly improving, and that it's gonna get awesome...And it hasn't. My favorite part was when Punchline stopped (sarcasm). That publication ending was clear evidence that the city was not getting better, but people continued to say that it was. But one thing that did happen, is that others (RVA, WADI, etc) were inspired to create their own answer to Punchline's absence.

I just think that our focus should not be on trying to improve the city in an idealistic sense, but rather we should focus on what to do that is different that will affect people in a positive way...And then do it. That's what Patchwork is doing and will continue to do. That's what I will do as well.

It's almost like consciously trying to make the city better is doing it a disservice, because it implies that the city needs to be made better, and that you have the solution...Which is probably too egocentric to do anything other than make you feel better about yourself. (Trust me, all you have to do to feel better about yourself is play Nintendo DS and use Google Calendar---both are an endless source of joy).

My solution is to work with what you have, and the better you are at it, the better it will get, and the better you will get. It's like a wave on the beach, or the wave in a football crowd, or a tsunami or avalanche.