An evening with Toshi Makihara:

Toshi Makihara pursues non-idiomatic free improvised music using percussion and found objects / sound sites. Makihara studied drums and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi and Butoh with the master Kazuo Ohno in Tokyo. His approach to free improvisation is founded on the process of “Becoming the Sound” without seeking any particular accomplishment.

Toshi will be performing with a variety of improvisors in three different ensembles this evening.

Jack Wright & Toshi Makihara duo:

Jack Wright is a saxophonist in the Philadelphia area, one of the originals of American free improvisation, and still actively touring. Called "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation" by guitarist Davey Williams, his playing consists of distorted pitches, precise timing, intrusive multiphonics, sudden changes of direction, obscene animalistic sounds, and occasional "real" notes. He published a book The Free Musics in 2017.

Jonah Gelbart, Henry Allen & Toshi Makihara trio:

Jonah Gelbart is an improviser and composer whose primary instruments are the trumpet and the shofar. He studied improvisation with Jonathan Ragonese and John Swana, and trumpet with George Rabbai and Robert Skoniczin at WCU. His work is guided by a trans-idiomatic, trans-spiritual position, and draws from innovations in contemporary creative music, European postwar modernism, and various global traditional musics.

Henry Allen is a Philadelphia-based multi-instrumentalist with a focus on improvisation that aligns with and transcends idiomatic concepts found in rock, jazz, and 20th-century classical music. While heavily involved with the world of experimental and often highly technical rock and jazz music on the electric guitar, he also studies Western art music and the French horn. Relentlessly seeking to push the boundaries of his own understanding of all music and its creative process, Henry Allen draws inspiration from improvisatory rock and jazz music, the visual arts, the history of Western esotericism, personal meditation practices, and, above all, his fellow improvising musicians.

intermission

Fuzai (Victor Vieira-Branco + Toshi Makihara):

Victor Vieira-Branco is a Brazilian/American vibraphonist, having spent the 2010s in the vibrant São Paulo music scene. While Bark Culture is Vieira-Branco’s primary vehicle as a leader, his performances include work with Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, the Chad Taylor Quintet, and as active as an improviser having performed with Toshi Makihara, Ken Vandermark, Dorothy Carlos, Ben Hall, Jaribu Shahid and others.

venue is wheelchair accessible.

Toshi Makihara photo by Ken Weiss