Firehouse Looks to the Sky + Bates/Douglas Podcasts

The trio of Matt Bauder (saxophone, electronics), Aaron Siegel (percussion, electronics), and Zach Wallace (bass, electronics) came together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the late 1990s to play creative music and have done so collectively and separately ever since. Bauder and Wallace attended Wesleyan University where they studied with Professors Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier and Ron Kuivila.

The trio call themselves Memorize the Sky and they will be performing this Friday May 24 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown Street in New Haven.  The music they play blends improvisation, electronics, and drones with a sense of dynamic variation that s rarely found in "free music."  This is the saxophonist's 3rd trip to the Elm City performance space having appeared with Harris Eisenstadt's Canada Day (Dec. 2011) and Taylor Ho Bynum's Sextet (October 2005).  The percussionist played in Braxton's Echo Echo Mirror House Septet in May of 2011.

Memorize the Sky will play 2 sets - 8:30 and 10 p.m. (separate admission charges) - for ticket information, go to firehouse12.com or call 203-785-0468.

Bassist Michael Bates and trumpeter Dave Douglas (that s him with the dog on the left) are the co-hosts of a new bi-weekly music blog. In its first 4 episodes, "A Noise From the Deep" has featured Henry Threadgill, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist (and Hartford, CT native) Dezron Douglas, and guitarist Miles Okazaki.  The musicians talk about history, process, learning, interactions, and more, weaving excerpts from the featured artist's recordings and recordings by artists that have influenced the particular guest.  Other the fact that 3 of these podcasts feature phone interviews and the sound quality is fair-to-good, these are enjoyable conversations to listen to, even for the non-musician.

You can listen by going to www.greenleafmusic.com/category/podcast/ or subscribing (free of charge) at iTunes.  Next Friday evening (5/31), the Dave Douglas Quintet (featuring Matt Mitchell) come to Firehouse 12 in New Haven, all part of the trumpeter's "50 State Project" as the he celebrates his 50th birthday - find out more by going to 50.davedouglas.com.