“A deeply nuanced world — Jonas crafts a richly expansive sound that stresses subtle timbral
shadings and tersely composed phrases punctuated by sudden bursts of flavorful improvisation…
Distinctive, accessible, simple and achingly beautiful.”
– Michael Kremer, Jazziz

The Chris Jonas Trio: Music from the Deserts explores the music Jonas wrote over two months of camping alone in January of 2021 and 2022 in very remote Sonora Desert places, including Arizona’s Barry Goldwater Missile Range. Music from Deserts will contain some elements of a traditional jazz trio, but will display colors and sounds outside the usual domains of jazz, mixing elements that are quirky, delicate, weirdly groovy, polyphonic, and a mixture of the disjointed and melodic.

The trio this evening will comprise Chris Jonas, on soprano and tenor saxophone, joined by two deeply innovative musicians from the Bay Area, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and Jordan Glenn on drums (n.b, Jason Levis, previously scheduled, is unable to make the date due to last minute circumstances).

The trio will be expanded on the second set to include Dan Plonsey on woodwinds and Sam Weiser of the Del Sol Quartet on violin.

Over the years, Chris has led groups and directed projects, has performed in collaboration with jazz luminaries Anthony Braxton, William Parker and Cecil Taylor, and has toured and recorded worldwide. He was the 2008 recipient of the United States Artist Award. Based now in Santa Fe, he is a composer, performer, filmmaker and conductor, and is co-director of the multi-arts non-profit, Littleglobe. https;//www.chrisjonascreative.com https://chrisjonascreative.com/Discography

In the weeks before the onslaught of the Covid pandemic, Chris worked with Lisa on key innovative projects, including an evening of ensemble music by Anthony Braxton. Chris has worked as a sideman on dozens of recordings with Braxton over a three-decades association.

$20-30 cover charge (sliding scale) at the door. BYOB.
For a reservation, call Bird & Beckett at 415-586-3733.

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Regarding Chris’s colleagues on the bandstand tonight:

Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area composer, bassist, bandleader and producer. Called “one of the most imaginative figures on the Bay Area creative jazz scene” by the San Jose Mercury News and “a Bay Area treasure” by KQED national public radio, she was voted “Rising Star Bassist” in the 2013 and 2014 Downbeat Jazz Critics Polls. Recent projects include works inspired by noir crime fiction; by Victorian lady adventurers; and by vintage Italian science fiction comic books — not to mention a suite spun out of Italian fabulist Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, which was workshopped and premiered at Bird & Beckett in 2018.

Jordan Glenn grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where his early years had involved “drawing cartoons and taking dance classes from my aunt. At the age of 12 music and movies took over. I studied classical percussion, jazz and made short movies with my friends during high school. During college I played a lot of dinner-jazz gigs and recorded/toured in various rock bands.” Since his arrival in the Bay Area in 2006, he’s been active as a drummer/percussionist/improvisor/composer/conductor/bandleader with, among others, Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Anantha Krishnan, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Cory Wright, Aram Shelton, Steini Gunnarsson, Dominique Leone, Darren Johnston, Graham Connah, and the bands Jack O’ the Clock, Host Family, Efft, 20 Minute Loop, The Monolith, Beep!, tUnE-yArDs, Science Fiction, Evon, Arts & Sciences, and the Oakland Active Orchestra, not to mention his own Wiener Kids.

Dan Plonsey, saxophonist, composer and improviser, cites Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra as major influences; his history and activity belie summary. His website describes a wide array of associations and notes that, “Inspired by music from many times and places, Plonsey’s compositions often arise from a loosely dialectical approach in which pieces are both rational and irrational, simple-minded and overly complex. Plonsey’s process of composition often involves the invention of imaginary societies in which imperfection is not only accepted but celebrated. He considers his works the natural result of being ‘at least slightly out of step with nearly everything. It draws upon all of my weaknesses as much as upon my strengths.'”

Sam Weiser studied violin at the New England Conservatory and chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has just recently found a place in Del Sol Quartet at its quarter century mark. Del Sol, which “began as a thought on the night shift at Fermilab,” imbues the string quartet with a “scientific passion for exploration,” and Sam’s addition to the quartet is cited as “bringing a fresh energy, freedom, and precision to (the quartet’s) diverse repertoire.”