Oakland Active Music Series: Free Improv Jazz Concerts | The Uptown

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Oakland Active Music Series: Free Improv Jazz Concerts | The Uptown

Oakland Active Orchestra performs a free ongoing monthly residence at The Uptown in Oakland on every second Tuesday of the month.

Oakland Active Orchestra explores various innovative and traditional techniques in composition and free improvisation. Each month, new compositions written by members of the fourteen piece ensemble will be presented and two other groups will perform.

Doors open at 9 pm. Show starts at 9:30 pm. There’s no cover, but donations are welcome.

The Uptown Nightclub is closed as of November 6, 2014.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013
August 2013 | Oakland Active Music Series: Free Improv Jazz Concerts | The Uptown

Active Music Series presents Ava Mendoza’s Order of Animals, Beauty School, and Staiano Guarino Duo on August 13, 2013.

Ava Mendoza’s Order of Animals with Ava Mendoza, guitar; Aram Shelton, saxes; Michael Coleman, synths; Ellie Erickson, bass; Marshall Trammell, drums. This group features five players as comfortable playing free as they are playing groove-based music. Springboarding off of loose written motifs, they launch into hard-hitting open improvisations that range from the completely abstract to the ass-shaking. A careful listener will hear hints of elephantine proto funk, zebraesque melodic counterpoint, mysterious but compelling starling murmurations, wolfish battle calls, and more. Including members of Beep, CavityFang, Erase Errata, Ton Trio, Black Spirituals, and Unnatural Ways.

Beauty School is a blossoming electroacoustic trio. Extreme extended technique on electric bass, trumpet, and drums combines with nasty homemade electronics and circuit bent keyboards to create an orgy of skronk and ugliness. Get up with it. With Matt Chandler, bass guitar; Tom Djll, electronics+trumpet; Jacob Felix Heule, percussion+electronics.

Moe Staiano and Michael Guarino are two Oakland-based percussionists who share the same interest in musical taste and visual drum play. They have both been in various bands and recordings throughout the years including Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mute Socialite, Surplus 1980 (Moe! Staiano), Oaxacan, Compomicro Dexall, Caroliner (Michael Guarino), and others. Both are currently active in the local music community.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.