Brandon López/Steve Baczkowski duo & Special What

Brandon Lopez & Steve Baczkowski:

Brandon López is a New York-based composer and bassist working at the fringes of jazz, free improvisation, noise and new music. His music has been praised as “brutal” (Chicago Reader) and “relentless” (The New York Times). From the New York Philharmonic's David Geffen Hall to the DIY basements of Brooklyn, Lopez has worked beside many luminaries of jazz, classical, poetry, and experimental music. Lopez was awarded the 2018 Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room and 2018 Van Lier Fellow at Roulette Intermedium and 2020 Jerome Residency Roulette. He was a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic in Ashley Fure’s “Filament” and a number of works with John Zorn, including Zorn's 35th anniversary of “Cobra.” He’s had the pleasure of working regularly with Nate Wooley, William Parker, Paul Lytton, Jooklo Duo, Leila Bordreuil, Mette Rasmussen, Justice Yeldham, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Gerald Cleaver, Man Forever, Joe Morris and many others. He currently leads his own ensemble, The Mess with Chris Corsano and Sam Yulsman, and works extensively as a soloist.

Buffalo-based baritone saxophonist/improviser Steve Baczkowski performs solo, in trio with drummer Ravi Padmanabha & bassist Brian DeJesus (BPD Trio), and in frequent collaborations with guitarist Bill Nace, drummer Chris Corsano & bassist Brandon Lopez. A widely-acclaimed trio LP Mystic Beings (with Corsano & Nace) was released by Open Mouth Records in December 2018 and Old Smoke, a live recording with Corsano and Lopez was released on CD by Relative Pitch Records in April 2019. An LP Open Door highlighting Baczkowski's 20-year duo collaboration with Ravi Padmanabha was recently released on Padmanabha’s Good Karma/Bad Karma Records and the Lopez Trio, with drummer Gerald Cleaver, had it’s 2nd release on Relative Pitch in 2023. In Sept 2024 Relative Pitch will release Cheap Fabric, his 1st solo recording.

Baczkowski has organized multiple ensembles over the years including the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra, Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit, Organ Donor and many others and has produced hundreds of concerts as Music Director at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. He regularly performs with the BPD Trio, 12/8 Path Band, Buffalo Jazz Octet, Genkin Philharmonic and more. His 2021 performance with Lopez Trio at the 25th annual Vision Festival in NYC was selected as a “concert of the year” by NYC Jazz Record and in Spring 2022 and Summer 2023 he toured Europe with the renowned Brooklyn Afrobeat group Antibalas. Baczkowski frequently collaborates with improvisers from all over the globe and has performed in basements, clubs, DIY venues and festivals in the US, Canada, Mexico & Europe.

Steve Baczkowski is an improviser, saxophonist, and multi-wind instrumentalist. Baczkowski began playing alto saxophone at age eight and switched to baritone by the time he was twelve. He studied music in high school at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and went on to studies in music, saxophone performance, literature, and ethnomusicology at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1994 to 1999. In 1999, Baczkowski became the music director of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y, where he has since produced and presented hundreds of concerts of contemporary music as well as numerous community-based artist residencies. In addition to organizing multiple ensembles, such as the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra, and the Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit, Baczkowski also performs with the 12/8 Path Band, Genkin Philharmonic, Ubudis Quartet, Rey Scott’s Unusually Different, in duos with percussionists Ravi Padmanabha and John Bacon and guitarists Bill Nace, Omar Tamez, and Bill Sack and in numerous other ensembles as well as solo. He has collaborated with many renowned musicians and has appeared at festivals in North America, Mexico, and Europe.

Special What:

Special What is an instrumental music duo consisting of tenor saxophone (played by Bryan Rogers) and percussion (played by Pete Angevine). It was formed as a trio in 2006, went dormant for approximately 14 years, and re-emerged in 2023 with a reinforced clarity of vision and intent. Borrowing traits from such musical traditions as American minimalism, global folk, and Free Jazz, Special What uses a little to make a lot. They play partially composed, partially improvised music that might stick around in a Listening Ear longer than expected.

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